Ella Fitzgerald From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This articles lead section may not adequately summarize key points of its contents. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article. (February 2014) Ella Fitzgerald Fitzgerald in November 1946 Background information Birth name Ella Jane Fitzgerald Born April 25, 1917 Newport News, Virginia, United States Died June 15, 1996 (aged 79) Beverly Hills, California, United States Genres Swing, bebop, traditional pop, vocal jazz Occupations Singer, actress Instruments Vocals Years active 1934–1993 Labels Capitol, Decca, Pablo, Reprise, Verve Website ellafitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996) was an American jazz vocalist with a vocal range spanning three octaves (D♭3 to D♭6).[1] Often referred to as the First Lady of Song and the Queen of Jazz, she was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing and intonation, and a horn-like improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing. Fitzgerald was a notable interpreter of the Great American Songbook.[2] Over the course of her 60-year recording career, she sold 40 million copies of her 70-plus albums, won 14 Grammy Awards and was awarded the National Medal of Arts by Ronald Reagan and the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George H. W. Bush. Contents [hide] 1 Early life 2 Early career 3 Decca years 4 Verve years 5 Film and television 6 Collaborations 7 Later life and death 8 Personal life 9 Discography and collections 10 Awards, citations and honors 11 Tributes and legacy 12 References 13 Further reading 14 External links Early life[edit] Fitzgerald was born in Newport News, Virginia, the daughter of William Fitzgerald and Temperance Tempie Fitzgerald.[3] Her parents were unmarried, and they had separated within a year of her birth.[3] With her mothers new partner, a Portuguese immigrant named Joseph Da Silva, Ella and her mother moved to the city of Yonkers, in Westchester County, New York, as part of the first Great Migration of African Americans.[3] Initially living in a single room, her mother and Da Silva soon found jobs and Ellas half-sister, Frances Da Silva, was born in 1923.[4] By 1925, Fitzgerald and her family had moved to nearby School Street, then a predominantly poor Italian area.[4] At the age of six, Fitzgerald began her formal education, and moved through a variety of schools before attending Benjamin Franklin Junior High School from 1929.[5] Fitzgerald had been passionate about dancing from third grade, being a fan of Earl Snakehips Tucker in particular, and would perform for her peers on the way to school and at lunchtime.[6] Fitzgerald and her family were Methodists and were active in the Bethany African Methodist Episcopal Church, and she regularly attended worship services, Bible study, and Sunday school.[6] The church would have provided Fitzgerald with her earliest experiences in formal music making, and she may have also had piano lessons during this period if her mother could afford it.[5] In her youth, Fitzgerald wanted to be a dancer, although she loved listening to jazz recordings by Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby and The Boswell Sisters. She idolized the lead singer Connee Boswell, later saying, My mother brought home one of her records, and I fell in love with it....I tried so hard to sound just like her.[1] In 1932, her mother died from a heart attack.[7] Following this trauma, Fitzgeralds grades dropped dramatically, and she frequently skipped school. Abused by her stepfather, she ran away to her aunt and,[8] at one point, worked as a lookout at a bordello and also with a Mafia-affiliated numbers runner.[9] When the authorities caught up with her, she was first placed in the Colored Orphan Asylum in Riverdale, Bronx.[8] However, when the orphanage proved too crowded, she was moved to the New York Training School for Girls in Hudson, New York, a state reformatory. Eventually she escaped and for a time she was homeless.[8] Early career[edit] A young Fitzgerald, photographed by Carl Van Vechten in 1940 She made her singing debut at 17 on November 21, 1934,[10] at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York.[11] She pulled in a weekly audience at the Apollo and won the opportunity to compete in one of the earliest of its famous Amateur Nights. She had originally intended to go on stage and dance, but, intimidated by the Edwards Sisters, a local dance duo, she opted to sing instead in the style of Connee Boswell.[11][12] She sang Boswells Judy and The Object of My Affection, a song recorded by the Boswell Sisters, and won the first prize of US $25.00.[13] In January 1935, Fitzgerald won the chance to perform for a week with the Tiny Bradshaw band at the Harlem Opera House.[10] She met drummer and bandleader Chick Webb there. Webb had already hired singer Charlie Linton to work with the band and was, The New York Times later wrote, reluctant to sign her....because she was gawky and unkempt, a diamond in the rough.[1] Webb offered her the opportunity to test with his band when they played a dance at Yale University.[10] She began singing regularly with Webbs Orchestra through 1935 at Harlems Savoy Ballroom.[10] Fitzgerald recorded several hit songs with them, including Love and Kisses and (If You Cant Sing It) Youll Have to Swing It (Mr. Paganini).[10] But it was her 1938 version of the nursery rhyme, A-Tisket, A-Tasket, a song she co-wrote, that brought her wide public acclaim. Chick Webb died on June 16, 1939,[14] and his band was renamed Ella and her Famous Orchestra with Ella taking on the role of nominal bandleader.[15] Fitzgerald recorded nearly 150 songs with the orchestra before it broke up in 1942, the majority of them novelties and disposable pop fluff.[1] Decca years[edit] Fitzgerald performing with Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Brown, Milt Jackson and Timme Rosenkrantz in September 1947, New York In 1942, Fitzgerald left the band to begin a solo career. Now signed to the Decca label, she had several popular hits while recording with such artists as Bill Kenny & The Ink Spots, Louis Jordan, and The Delta Rhythm Boys. With Deccas Milt Gabler as her manager, she began working regularly for the jazz impresario Norman Granz and appeared regularly in his Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP) concerts. Fitzgeralds relationship with Granz was further cemented when he became her manager, although it would be nearly a decade before he could record her on one of his many record labels. With the demise of the Swing era and the decline of the great touring big bands, a major change in jazz music occurred. The advent of bebop led to new developments in Fitzgeralds vocal style, influenced by her work with Dizzy Gillespies big band. It was in this period that Fitzgerald started including scat singing as a major part of her performance repertoire. While singing with Gillespie, Fitzgerald recalled, I just tried to do [with my voice] what I heard the horns in the band doing.[13] Her 1945 scat recording of Flying Home arranged by Vic Schoen would later be described by The New York Times as one of the most influential vocal jazz records of the decade....Where other singers, most notably Louis Armstrong, had tried similar improvisation, no one before Miss Fitzgerald employed the technique with such dazzling inventiveness.[1] Her bebop recording of Oh, Lady Be Good! (1947) was similarly popular and increased her reputation as one of the leading jazz vocalists. Verve years[edit] Fitzgerald was still performing at Granzs JATP concerts by 1955. She left Decca and Granz, now her manager, created Verve Records around her. Fitzgerald later described the period as strategically crucial, saying, I had gotten to the point where I was only singing be-bop. I thought be-bop was it, and that all I had to do was go some place and sing bop. But it finally got to the point where I had no place to sing. I realized then that there was more to music than bop. Norman ... felt that I should do other things, so he produced The Cole Porter Songbook with me. It was a turning point in my life.[1] Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook, released in 1956, was the first of eight Songbook sets Fitzgerald would record for Verve at irregular intervals from 1956 to 1964. The composers and lyricists spotlighted on each set, taken together, represent the greatest part of the cultural canon known as the Great American Songbook. Her song selections ranged from standards to rarities and represented an attempt by Fitzgerald to cross over into a non-jazz audience. The sets are the most well-known items in her discography. Fitzgerald in 1968. Photo courtesy of the Fraser MacPherson estate. Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book was the only Songbook on which the composer she interpreted played with her. Duke Ellington and his longtime collaborator Billy Strayhorn both appeared on exactly half the sets 38 tracks and wrote two new pieces of music for the album: The E and D Blues and a four-movement musical portrait of Fitzgerald (the only Songbook track on which Fitzgerald does not sing). The Songbook series ended up becoming the singers most critically acclaimed and commercially successful work, and probably her most significant offering to American culture. The New York Times wrote in 1996, These albums were among the first pop records to devote such serious attention to individual songwriters, and they were instrumental in establishing the pop album as a vehicle for serious musical exploration.[1] A few days after Fitzgeralds death, The New York Times columnist Frank Rich wrote that in the Songbook series Fitzgerald performed a cultural transaction as extraordinary as Elvis contemporaneous integration of white and African American soul. Here was a black woman popularizing urban songs often written by immigrant Jews to a national audience of predominantly white Christians.[9] Frank Sinatra was moved out of respect for Fitzgerald to block Capitol Records from re-releasing his own recordings in a similar, single composer vein. Fitzgerald also recorded albums exclusively devoted to the songs of Porter and Gershwin in 1972 and 1983; the albums being, respectively, Ella Loves Cole and Nice Work If You Can Get It. A later collection devoted to a single composer was released during her time with Pablo Records, Ella Abraça Jobim, featuring the songs of Antônio Carlos Jobim. While recording the Songbooks and the occasional studio album, Fitzgerald toured 40 to 45 weeks per year in the United States and internationally, under the tutelage of Norman Granz. Granz helped solidify her position as one of the leading live jazz performers.[1] On March 15, 1955[16] Ella Fitzgerald opened her initial engagement at the Mocambo nightclub in Hollywood,[17] after Marilyn Monroe lobbied the owner for the booking.[18] The booking was instrumental in Fitzgeralds career. The incident was turned into a play by Bonnie Greer in 2005. It has been widely reported that Fitzgerald was the first Black performer to play the Mocambo, following Monroes intervention, but this is not true. African-American singers Herb Jefferies,[19] Eartha Kitt,[20] and Joyce Bryan[21] all played the Mocambo in 1952 and 1953, according to stories published at the time in Jet magazine and Billboard. There are several live albums on Verve that are highly regarded by critics. Ella at the Opera House shows a typical JATP set from Fitzgerald. Ella in Rome and Twelve Nights in Hollywood display her vocal jazz canon. Ella in Berlin is still one of her best selling albums; it includes a Grammy-winning performance of Mack the Knife in which she forgets the lyrics, but improvises magnificently to compensate. Verve Records was sold to MGM in 1963 for $3 million and in 1967 MGM failed to renew Fitzgeralds contract. Over the next five years she flitted between Atlantic, Capitol and Reprise. Her material at this time represented a departure from her typical jazz repertoire. For Capitol she recorded Brighten the Corner, an album of hymns, Ella Fitzgeralds Christmas, an album of traditional Christmas carols, Misty Blue, a country and western-influenced album, and 30 by Ella, a series of six medleys that fulfilled her obligations for the label. During this period, she had her last US chart single with a cover of Smokey Robinsons Get Ready, previously a hit for The Temptations, and some months later a top-five hit for Rare Earth. The surprise success of the 1972 album Jazz at Santa Monica Civic 72 led Granz to found Pablo Records, his first record label since the sale of Verve. Fitzgerald recorded some 20 albums for the label. Ella in London recorded live in 1974 with pianist Tommy Flanagan, guitarist Joe Pass, bassist Keter Betts and drummer Bobby Durham, was considered by many to be some of her best work. The following year she again performed with Joe Pass on German television station NDR in Hamburg. Her years with Pablo Records also documented the decline in her voice. She frequently used shorter, stabbing phrases, and her voice was harder, with a wider vibrato, one biographer wrote.[22] Plagued by health problems, Fitzgerald made her last recording in 1991 and her last public performances in 1993.[23] Film and television[edit] Fitzgerald shakes hands with President Ronald Reagan after performing in the White House, 1981 In her most notable screen role, Fitzgerald played the part of singer Maggie Jackson in Jack Webbs 1955 jazz film Pete Kellys Blues.[24] The film costarred Janet Leigh and singer Peggy Lee.[25] Even though she had already worked in the movies (she had sung briefly in the 1942 Abbott and Costello film Ride Em Cowboy),[26] she was delighted when Norman Granz negotiated the role for her, and, at the time....considered her role in the Warner Brothers movie the biggest thing ever to have happened to her.[22] Amid The New York Times pan of the film when it opened in August 1955, the reviewer wrote, About five minutes (out of ninety-five) suggest the picture this might have been. Take the ingenious prologue ... [or] take the fleeting scenes when the wonderful Ella Fitzgerald, allotted a few spoken lines, fills the screen and sound track with her strong mobile features and voice.[27] Fitzgeralds race precluded major big-screen success. After Pete Kellys Blues, she appeared in sporadic movie cameos, in St. Louis Blues (1958),[28] and Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960).[29] Much later, she appeared in the 1980s television drama The White Shadow. She made numerous guest appearances on television shows, singing on The Frank Sinatra Show, The Andy Williams Show, The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, and alongside other greats Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, Mel Tormé, and many others. She was also frequently featured on The Ed Sullivan Show. Perhaps her most unusual and intriguing performance was of the Three Little Maids song from Gilbert and Sullivans comic operetta The Mikado alongside Joan Sutherland and Dinah Shore on Shores weekly variety series in 1963. A performance at Ronnie Scotts Jazz Club in London was filmed and shown on the BBC. Fitzgerald also made a one-off appearance alongside Sarah Vaughan and Pearl Bailey on a 1979 television special honoring Bailey. In 1980, she performed a medley of standards in a duet with Karen Carpenter on the Carpenters television program Music, Music, Music.[30] Fitzgerald also appeared in TV commercials, her most memorable being an ad for Memorex.[31] In the commercials, she sang a note that shattered a glass while being recorded on a Memorex cassette tape.[32] The tape was played back and the recording also broke the glass, asking: Is it live, or is it Memorex?[32] She also starred in a number of commercials for Kentucky Fried Chicken, singing and scatting to the fast-food chains longtime slogan, We do chicken right![33] Her final commercial campaign was for American Express, in which she was photographed by Annie Leibovitz.[34] Collaborations[edit] Fitzgeralds most famous collaborations were with the vocal quartet Bill Kenny & The Ink Spots, trumpeter Louis Armstrong, the guitarist Joe Pass, and the bandleaders Count Basie and Duke Ellington. From 1943 to 1950, Fitzgerald recorded seven songs with The Ink Spots featuring Bill Kenny. Out of all seven recordings, four reached the top of the pop charts including Im Making Believe and Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall which both reached #1. Fitzgerald recorded three Verve studio albums with Armstrong, two albums of standards (1956s Ella and Louis and 1957s Ella and Louis Again), and a third album featured music from the Gershwin musical Porgy and Bess. Fitzgerald also recorded a number of sides with Armstrong for Decca in the early 1950s. Fitzgerald is sometimes referred to as the quintessential swing singer, and her meetings with Count Basie are highly regarded by critics. Fitzgerald features on one track on Basies 1957 album One OClock Jump, while her 1963 album Ella and Basie! is remembered as one of her greatest recordings. With the New Testament Basie band in full swing, and arrangements written by a young Quincy Jones, this album proved a respite from the Songbook recordings and constant touring that Fitzgerald was engaged in during this period. Fitzgerald and Basie also collaborated on the 1972 album Jazz at Santa Monica Civic 72, and on the 1979 albums Digital III at Montreux, A Classy Pair and A Perfect Match. Fitzgerald and Joe Pass recorded four albums together toward the end of Fitzgeralds career. She recorded several albums with piano accompaniment, but a guitar proved the perfect melodic foil for her. Fitzgerald and Pass appeared together on the albums Take Love Easy (1973), Easy Living (1986), Speak Love (1983) and Fitzgerald and Pass... Again (1976). Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington recorded two live albums, and two studio albums. Her Duke Ellington Songbook placed Ellington firmly in the canon known as the Great American Songbook, and the 1960s saw Fitzgerald and the Duke meet on the Côte dAzur for the 1966 album Ella and Duke at the Cote DAzur, and in Sweden for The Stockholm Concert, 1966. Their 1965 album Ella at Dukes Place is also extremely well received. Fitzgerald had a number of famous jazz musicians and soloists as sidemen over her long career. The trumpeters Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie, the guitarist Herb Ellis, and the pianists Tommy Flanagan, Oscar Peterson, Lou Levy, Paul Smith, Jimmy Rowles, and Ellis Larkins all worked with Ella mostly in live, small group settings. Possibly Fitzgeralds greatest unrealized collaboration (in terms of popular music) was a studio or live album with Frank Sinatra. The two appeared on the same stage only periodically over the years, in television specials in 1958 and 1959, and again on 1967s A Man and His Music + Ella + Jobim, a show that also featured Antônio Carlos Jobim. Pianist Paul Smith has said, Ella loved working with [Frank]. Sinatra gave her his dressing-room on A Man and His Music and couldnt do enough for her. When asked, Norman Granz would cite complex contractual reasons for the fact that the two artists never recorded together.[22] Fitzgeralds appearance with Sinatra and Count Basie in June 1974 for a series of concerts at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, was seen as an important incentive for Sinatra to return from his self-imposed retirement of the early 1970s. The shows were a great success, and September 1975 saw them gross $1,000,000 in two weeks on Broadway, in a triumvirate with the Count Basie Orchestra. Later life and death[edit] In 1985, Fitzgerald was hospitalized briefly for respiratory problems,[35] in 1986 for congestive heart failure,[36] and in 1990 for exhaustion.[37] In 1993, she had to have both of her legs amputated below the knee due to the effects of diabetes.[38] Her eyesight was affected as well.[1] In 1996, tired of being in the hospital, she wished to spend her last days at home. Confined to a wheelchair, she spent her final days in her backyard of her Beverly Hills mansion on Whittier, with her son Ray and 12 year old granddaughter Alice. I just want to smell the air, listen to the birds and hear Alice laugh, she reportedly said. On her last day, she was wheeled outside one last time, and sat there for about an hour. When she was taken back in, she looked up with a soft smile on her face and said, Im ready to go now. She died in her home on June 15, 1996 at the age of 79.[1] A few hours after her death, the Playboy Jazz Festival was launched at the
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