Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996) was known as the First Lady of Song. Her parents separated a month after she was born. As a child living with her mother (and her mothers boyfriend), she helped the family by serving as a messenger running numbers as well as being a lookout for a brothel in Yonkers, New York. Her mother died when Ella was 15, so she moved in with an aunt. Two years later she was living on the streets. She entered an amateur contest at Harlems Apollo Theater and won first place. Chick Webb noticed her and invited her to join his band, then adopted her. With Webbs band, she performed at the Savoy Ballroom. Her early recordings included A-Tisket A-Tasket in 1938, which she co-wrote. Fitzgerald also performed with the Benny Goodman Orchestra. After Chick Webb died in 1939, Ella took over the leadership of his band. She made her film debut in 1942, in Ride Em Cowboy with Abbott and Costello. In 1946, she started working with Norman Granz of Jazz at the Philharmonic. He became her manager. Fitzgerald toured with Dizzy Gillespie and his band, and her style began to include scat singing. She achieved mainstream popularity in the next 2 decades--her renditions of Cole Porter songs were enormously popular. She won 2 Grammys in 1958, the first African American woman to win. She went on to record the songs of Duke Ellington and Irving Berlin. She later worked with Louie Armstrong, Count Basie and Frank Sinatra. Her last performance was at Carnegie Hall in 1991 despite failing health. She ultimately won 13 Grammy Awards, the NAACP Image Award for Lifetime Achievement and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. (from Biography) You can listen to her music at this link: https://youtube/watch?v=PbL9vr4Q2LU&list=RDHCIzW8FkUfErM
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 14:31:11 +0000
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