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PHOTO: ELLA FITZGERALD (1917-1996)
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/ella-fitzgerald-mn0000184502/biography
Ella Fitzgerald
(1917-1996)
Artist Biography by Scott Yanow
The greatest female interpreter of the American songbook, a unique vocalist combining scat and jazz, with enduring influence.
"The First Lady of Song," Ella Fitzgerald was arguably the finest female jazz singer of all time (although some may vote for Sarah Vaughan or Billie Holiday). Blessed with a beautiful voice and a wide range, Fitzgerald could outswing anyone, was a brilliant scat singer, and had near-perfect elocution; one could always understand the words she sang. The one fault was that, since she always sounded so happy to be singing, Fitzgerald did not always dig below the surface of the lyrics she interpreted and she even made a downbeat song such as "Love for Sale" sound joyous. However, when one evaluates her career on a whole, there is simply no one else in her class.
Fitzgerald's Capitol and Reprise recordings of 1967-1970 are not on the same level as she attempted to "update" her singing by including pop songs such as "Sunny" and "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," sounding quite silly in the process. But Fitzgerald's later years were saved by Norman Granz's decision to form a new label, Pablo. Starting with a Santa Monica Civic concert in 1972 that is climaxed by Fitzgerald's incredible version of "C Jam Blues" (in which she trades off with and "battles" five classic jazzmen), Fitzgerald was showcased in jazz settings throughout the 1970s with the likes of Count Basie, Oscar Peterson, and Joe Pass, among others. Her voice began to fade during this era and by the 1980s her decline due to age was quite noticeable. Troubles with her eyes and heart knocked her out of action for periods of time, although her increasingly rare appearances found Fitzgerald still retaining her sense of swing and joyful style. By 1994, Ella Fitzgerald was in retirement and she passed away two years later, but she remains a household name and scores of her recordings are easily available on CD.
Considered by many to be the 20th century's greatest female singer of jazz and American popular song, Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996) is one of the few singers whose work transcends generations and musical genres. Fortunately, over the course of a career that spanned six decades, "The First Lady of Song" amassed a nearly unrivaled discography. It is a testament to Fitzgerald's art and her place in popular culture that the vast majority of her recorded output is readily available on compact disc.
Fitzgerald's career can be divided into five periods. During her Big Band Years (1935-1941) , she sang with the Chick Webb Orchestra (renamed after Webb's death in 1939 as Ella Fitzgerald and Her Famous Orchestra). By the age of 20, Fitzgerald was the most popular female singer in America, and, in 1938, she wrote and sang one of the biggest hits of the entire decade, "A Tisket, A Tasket." Her Decca Records Solo Years (1941-1955) were a mix of groundbreaking scat recordings, classy pop records, and trite novelty songs. By the early 1950s it became clear that Decca didn't know how best to utilize Fitzgerald's talents. Norman Granz, founder of Jazz at the Philharmonic and Ella's manager, formed Verve Records in no small part as a vehicle for Fitzgerald.
Her Verve Years (1956-1966) marked Fitzgerald's transition from singing star to cultural icon. Working at the absolute peak of her powers, Fitzgerald recorded a stunning collection of live and studio albums including her legendary Song Book series. By the mid-1960s, Fitzgerald found herself unsure of how to cope with the folk/rock revolution. During these Transitional Years (1967-1973) , she drifted between record labels and made some questionable efforts at a more contemporary sound. Finally, in the early 1970s, Norman Granz formed Pablo Records. During her Pablo Years (1973-1989) , Ella returned to recording classic standards in the company of great jazz musicians. During the last fifteen years of her career, age and declining health slowly eroded Fitzgerald's remarkable vocal abilities.
With the endless compilations and bootleg albums floating around, navigating Fitzgerald's discography can be difficult. So consider this a road map to the very best work of the very best singer that jazz has ever produced.
"ELLA IN...": THE LIVE RECORDINGS: Fitzgerald did more than any other singer to establish the live album as a viable commercial format. More importantly, her live recordings are the best place to hear Ella the improvising jazz artist at work. |
| The Complete Ella in Berlin: Mack the Knife (1960) Ella's most famous live album. While her unforgettable memory lapse on "Mack the Knife" remains a classic moment, the balance of the CD more than holds it own. Fitzgerald propels the swingers forward with irresistible force and caresses several beautiful ballads with her inimitable voice. Capping off the evening: An improvisational tour de force on "How High the Moon." |
| Ella at Juan-Les Pins (1964) The original LP culled songs from two concerts Ella gave on the French Riviera. For this expanded two-CD reissue, Verve has released both concerts in their entirety, creating an opportunity to compare and contrast Fitzgerald's work over two successive nights. The results are a reminder of Fitzgerald's fluid and improvisational live performances. |
| The Concert Years (1953-1983) During the years before and after Verve Records, Norman Granz frequently recorded Fitzgerald live. He eventually released most of the material on his Pablo label in the 1970s and several of the sets were subsequently reissued on CD by Fantasy. This four-CD set brings most of that material together in one package, with concerts from 1953, '66, '67, '71, '72, '74, '75, '77, '79, and '83 that not only feature Fitzgerald with her current working groups (led by pianists Paul Smith and Tommy Flanagan) but also include live encounters with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, the Count Basie Orchestra and several all-star sessions. |
THE SONG BOOKS: Fitzgerald's "Song Book" series remains a landmark in American popular music. Along with Sinatra's contemporaneous work on Capitol, these albums redefined the finest work of Tin Pan Alley as an important cultural treasure. Backed by the best arrangers of the era, Fitzgerald paid tribute to Porter, Rodgers & Hart, Berlin, Ellington, the Gershwins, Arlen, Kern and Mercer, and, in the process, erected the de facto pantheon of classic American songwriters. |
| Sings the Rodgers & Hart Song Book (1956) Conventional wisdom held that Fitzgerald was not a good choice to sing R&H because she couldn't mine the wit of Lorenz Hart's lyrics. Conventional wisdom must have wax in its ears. Fitzgerald doesn't sing Hart's lyrics with a wink and a nod in her voice—nor should she. Hart's words don't need theatrical embellishment, and thanks to the immaculate clarity of Fitzgerald's diction, it is possible to savor every clever turn of phrase. The few occasions where Fitzgerald doesn't do right by Hart's lyrics (i.e.,"Manhattan") are redeemed by her consistently glorious treatment of Rodgers' melodies. |
| Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book (1957) The jazz roots of Ellington's songwriting make his body of work a particularly apt fit for Fitzgerald. She stretches out more on this material than on any of her other Song Book sessions, and the results are both sublime and swinging. The three-CD reissue is also an opportunity to compare Fitzgerald's work in a wide variety of instrumental settings, from the full might of the Ellington Orchestra all the way down to gorgeous duets with guitarist Barney Kessel. |
| Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Song Book (1959) A monumental achievement that finds Fitzgerald and Nelson Riddle, the greatest arranger of the era, tackling nearly the entire catalog of arguably America's premier songwriting team, George and Ira Gershwin. Ira's oft-repeated line serves as the best endorsement for these recordings: "I never knew how good our songs were until I heard Ella Fitzgerald sing them." Originally released as a five-LP set, the Verve Master Edition reissue contains four CDs including some previously unreleased bonus material. |
| ELLA & THE ARRANGERS: In addition to the Song Book series, Fitzgerald also recorded numerous singles and albums in the company of a wide variety of top arrangers. |
Like Someone in Love (1957) Fitzgerald recorded several wonderful albums with arranger Frank DeVol. Like Someone In Love reissues the contents of that LP along with material from the same sessions originally released on the LP Hello Love. Stan Getz makes an appearance, but the real attraction is Fitzgerald's glorious voice framed by DeVol's understated arrangements. |
| Ella Swings Lightly (1958) The standout of Fitzgerald's three collaborations with arranger Marty Paich and one of her most enjoyable studio recordings. Although most of the songs have associations with the big bands of the '30s and '40s, Paich's arrangements avoid presenting the material in a nostalgic vein. For her part, Fitzgerald tackles these Swing Era tunes with an authority and playfulness only hinted at during her own days as a big band singer. |
| Ella Swings Brightly With Nelson (1961) Ella's non-Song Book collaborations with arranger Nelson Riddle reached their pinnacle with this album and its companion, Ella Swings Gently with Nelson. Swings Brightly is an energetic, up-tempo affair highlighted by extraordinary renditions of "Don't Be That Way" and "I Won't Dance." |
THE DUOS: Ella sang with nearly every type of instrumental configuration from large string orchestras to big bands to combos to small groups, all filled with the finest jazz and studio musicians available. However, these recordings prove that all she ever needed to create great music was her voice and a sympathetic accompanist. |
| Pure Ella (1950, 1954) This CD reissues the two now-legendary voice and piano EP's Fitzgerald made with Ellis Larkins, Ella Sings Gershwin (1950) and Songs in a Mellow Mood (1954). These recordings are perhaps the most effective rebuttal to the charge that Fitzgerald did not care about the meaning of lyrics. "Someone to Watch Over Me" remains the only version of this extraordinary song that this world ever really needed. |
The Intimate Ella (1960) These duets with pianist Paul Smith were originally released as Songs from Let No Man Write My Epitaph. Ironically, Fitzgerald's voice never sounded richer or more radiantly beautiful than on this collection of songs about loss, regret and revenge. Ella often cited "Angel Eyes" as one of her favorite songs, and she never sang it better than on this record. |
| Take Love Easy (1973) During the last twenty years of her career, Fitzgerald performed countless duets with guitarist Joe Pass. Take Love Easy is probably the strongest of the four studio albums released by the pair. Fitzgerald sounds relaxed and confident, and Pass plays with deftness and sensitivity. |
THE SUMMITS: Although fans often lament the pairings that never happened (imagine what a duet album with Sarah Vaughan or Frank Sinatra might have yielded), Norman Granz ensured that Fitzgerald had the opportunity to work with some of her fellow jazz legends. |
| The Complete Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong on Verve (1956-1957) This strangely packaged three-CD set collects the three memorable LPs that Ella and Pops recorded together for Verve along with bonus material. Oscar Peterson's quartet backed the singers on Ella and Louis and Ella and Louis Again, and Russ Garcia wrote the orchestral arrangements for Porgy and Bess , which is easily the best of the numerous two-singer jazz versions of this classic American opera. |
| Ella and Basie! (1963) The close rapport and deep personal friendship Fitzgerald and Basie shared always made their collaborations memorable occasions. Quincy Jones's arrangements aren't as sharply drawn as they should be, but Fitzgerald and Basie are in such good form that it doesn't really matter. Worth the price of admission just to hear Basie on organ trailing lovingly behind Fitzgerald on a gorgeous "Dream a Little Dream of Me." |
| Ella at Duke's Place (1965) A studio meeting between the First Lady and the Duke, the original LP featured all ballads on one side and all swingers on the other side. Although some of the up-tempo material is wonderful, the ballads, most notably "Something to Live For" and "A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing," are what make this an essential Fitzgerald item. |
BEYOND CATEGORIZATION: Although these recordings don't fall neatly into any of the above groupings, they remain a necessary part of any Ella Fitzgerald collection. |
| The Best of Ella Fitzgerald (Decca) (1938-1955) This nicely chosen compilation showcases some of Fitzgerald's best work for Decca Records during the pre-LP era. The chronological sequencing allows the listener to trace Fitzgerald's development and sample her earliest efforts at both vocal improvisation and sophisticated jazz-influenced pop singing. |
| Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie! (1961) Although she toured the world with a jazz quartet, Fitzgerald rarely brought that format into the studio and given the results on display here, it is difficult to understand why. Part of the record's appeal no doubt rests with the rather offbeat-for-Fitzgerald song selection. An under-appreciated gem in the Fitzgerald catalog. |
| Fine and Mellow
(1974) The idea was to put Ella in the studio with some of the best
jazz musicians in the world (Tommy Flanagan, Ray Brown, Louie Bellson,
Clark Terry, Zoot Sims, Lockjaw Davis and Sweets Edison) and turn them
loose on a choice collection of standards. It turned out to be a pretty
good idea. Fine and Mellow captures in the intimacy of a studio
the kind of freewheeling improvisational performances that Ella usually
reserved for the stage. |
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/ella-fitzgerald/something-to-live-for/590/
Premiere: 12/8/1999
One
of the early “scat” performers, Fitzgerald found a place among the
growing jazz innovators, making recordings with such greats as Billie
Holiday, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong. Through fifty-eight years
of performing, thirteen Grammys and more than forty million records
sold, she elevated swing, bebop, and ballads to their highest potential.
She was, undeniably, the First Lady of Song.
Born in Newport News, Virginia in 1917, Ella Fitzgerald moved with her mother to New York after the death of her father. Living in Yonkers, Fitzgerald attended public school, where she sang in the glee club and received her musical education. After her early success at the Apollo, and as a popular performer at a number of other amateur venues, Fitzgerald was invited to join Chick Webb’s band. Within a short while she was the star attraction, and had made a number hits including her trademark “A-tisket, A-tasket” (1938). After Webb’s death in 1939, Fitzgerald led the band for three years.
During her time with Webb’s band, Fitzgerald recorded with a number of other musicians, including Benny Goodman. By the time she began her solo career in the mid-1940s, she was a well-respected figure throughout the music industry. Her vibrant and energetic voice showed an exceptional range and control. Performing with “Jazz at the Philharmonic,” her popularity grew beyond the music world. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, she continued to perform as a jazz musician, but concentrated primarily on popular music. Rivaled only by Frank Sinatra, her recordings of work by Cole Porter, Ira and George Gershwin, and Rogers and Hart were incredibly successful.
One of the early “scat” performers, Fitzgerald found a place among the growing jazz innovators, making recordings with such greats as Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong. Her true genius, however, was not formal innovation or deeper expression, but artistic renderings of the enthusiastic songs of her time. “I’m very shy, and I shy away from people,” Ella once said. “But the moment I hit the stage, it’s a different feeling. I get nerve from somewhere; maybe it’s because it’s something I love to do.” More than anything, it is this love of performing that won her the hearts of millions throughout the world.
By the 1970s, she was performing with a trio headed by pianist Tommy Flanagan, and regularly with dozens of different symphony orchestras. Though her voice was not what it had been, Fitzgerald’s enthusiasm and charisma continued to excite crowds well into the 1980s. After a successful appearance in the United Kingdom in 1990, she retired due to ailing health. Two years later President Ronald Reagan awarded her the National Medal of Honor. Suffering continued health problems, Fitzgerald spent the last few years of her life in her Beverly Hills home. On June 15, 1996 she died at the age of seventy-eight.
Of Fitzgerald, Johnny Mathis said, “She was the best there ever was. Amongst all of us who sing, she was the best.” From those early days on Harlem streets to the upper stratosphere of musical fame, Ella Fitzgerald’s life was the quintessential American success story. Through fifty-eight years of performing, thirteen Grammys and more than forty million records sold, she elevated swing, bebop, and ballads to their highest potential. She was, undeniably, the First Lady of Song.
http://www.ellafitzgerald.com/about/index.html
Biography
Dubbed "The First Lady of Song," Ella Fitzgerald was the most popular female jazz singer in the United States for more than half a century. In her lifetime, she won 13 Grammy awards and sold over 40 million albums.
Her voice was flexible, wide-ranging, accurate and ageless. She could sing sultry ballads, sweet jazz and imitate every instrument in an orchestra. She worked with all the jazz greats, from Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Nat King Cole, to Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie and Benny Goodman. (Or rather, some might say all the jazz greats had the pleasure of working with Ella.)
She performed at top venues all over the world, and packed them to the hilt. Her audiences were as diverse as her vocal range. They were rich and poor, made up of all races, all religions and all nationalities. In fact, many of them had just one binding factor in common - they all loved her.
Humble but happy beginnings
Ella Jane Fitzgerald was born in Newport News, Va. on April 25, 1917. Her father, William, and mother, Temperance (Tempie), parted ways shortly after her birth. Together, Tempie and Ella went to Yonkers, N.Y, where they eventually moved in with Tempie's longtime boyfriend Joseph Da Silva. Ella's half-sister, Frances, was born in 1923 and soon she began referring to Joe as her stepfather.
To support the family, Joe dug ditches and was a part-time chauffeur, while Tempie worked at a laundromat and did some catering. Occasionally, Ella took on small jobs to contribute money as well. Perhaps naïve to the circumstances, Ella worked as a runner for local gamblers, picking up their bets and dropping off money.
Their apartment was in a mixed neighborhood, where Ella made friends easily. She considered herself more of a tomboy, and often joined in the neighborhood games of baseball. Sports aside, she enjoyed dancing and singing with her friends, and some evenings they would take the train into Harlem and watch various acts at the Apollo Theater.
A rough patch
In 1932, Tempie died from serious injuries that she received in a car accident. Ella took the loss very hard. After staying with Joe for a short time, Tempie's sister Virginia took Ella home. Shortly afterward Joe suffered a heart attack and died, and her little sister Frances joined them.
Unable to adjust to the new circumstances, Ella became increasingly unhappy and entered into a difficult period of her life. Her grades dropped dramatically, and she frequently skipped school. After getting into trouble with the police, she was taken into custody and sent to a reform school. Living there was even more unbearable, as she suffered beatings at the hands of her caretakers.
Eventually Ella escaped from the reformatory. The 15-year-old found herself broke and alone during the Great Depression, and strove to endure.
Never one to complain, Ella later reflected on her most difficult years with an appreciation for how they helped her to mature. She used the memories from these times to help gather emotions for performances, and felt she was more grateful for her success because she knew what it was like to struggle in life.
"What's she going to do?"
In 1934 Ella's name was pulled in a weekly drawing at the Apollo and she won the opportunity to compete in Amateur Night. Ella went to the theater that night planning to dance, but when the frenzied Edwards Sisters closed the main show, Ella changed her mind. "They were the dancingest sisters around," Ella said, and she felt her act would not compare.
Once on stage, faced with boos and murmurs of "What's she going to do?" from the rowdy crowd, a scared and disheveled Ella made the last minute decision to sing. She asked the band to play Hoagy Carmichael's "Judy," a song she knew well because Connee Boswell's rendition of it was among Tempie's favorites. Ella quickly quieted the audience, and by the song's end they were demanding an encore. She obliged and sang the flip side of the Boswell Sister's record, "The Object of My Affections."
Off stage, and away from people she knew well, Ella was shy and reserved. She was self-conscious about her appearance, and for a while even doubted the extent of her abilities. On stage, however, Ella was surprised to find she had no fear. She felt at home in the spotlight.
"Once up there, I felt the acceptance and love from my audience," Ella said. "I knew I wanted to sing before people the rest of my life."
In the band that night was saxophonist and arranger Benny Carter. Impressed with her natural talent, he began introducing Ella to people who could help launch her career. In the process he and Ella became lifelong friends, often working together.
Fueled by enthusiastic supporters, Ella began entering - and winning - every talent show she could find. In January 1935 she won the chance to perform for a week with the Tiny Bradshaw band at the Harlem Opera House. It was there that Ella first met drummer and bandleader Chick Webb. Although her voice impressed him, Chick had already hired male singer Charlie Linton for the band. He offered Ella the opportunity to test with his band when they played a dance at Yale University.
"If the kids like her," Chick said, "she stays."
Despite the tough crowd, Ella was a major success, and Chick hired her to travel with the band for $12.50 a week.
Jazzing things up
In mid 1936, Ella made her first recording. "Love and Kisses" was released under the Decca label, with moderate success. By this time she was performing with Chick's band at the prestigious Harlem's Savoy Ballroom, often referred to as "The World's Most Famous Ballroom."
Shortly afterward, Ella began singing a rendition of the song, "(If You Can't Sing It) You Have to Swing It." During this time, the era of big swing bands was shifting, and the focus was turning more toward bebop. Ella played with the new style, often using her voice to take on the role of another horn in the band. "You Have to Swing It" was one of the first times she began experimenting with scat singing, and her improvisation and vocalization thrilled fans. Throughout her career, Ella would master scat singing, turning it into a form of art.
In 1938, at the age of 21, Ella recorded a playful version of the nursery rhyme, "A-Tisket, A-Tasket." The album sold 1 million copies, hit number one, and stayed on the pop charts for 17 weeks. Suddenly, Ella Fitzgerald was famous.
Coming into her own
On June 16, 1939, Ella mourned the loss of her mentor Chick Webb. In his absence the band was renamed "Ella Fitzgerald and Her Famous Band," and she took on the overwhelming task of bandleader.
Perhaps in search of stability and protection, Ella married Benny Kornegay, a local dockworker who had been pursuing her. Upon learning that Kornegay had a criminal history, Ella realized that the relationship was a mistake and had the marriage annulled.
While on tour with Dizzy Gillespie's band in 1946, Ella fell in love with bassist Ray Brown. The two were married and eventually adopted a son, whom they named Ray, Jr.
At the time, Ray was working for producer and manager Norman Granz on the "Jazz at the Philharmonic" tour. Norman saw that Ella had what it took to be an international star, and he convinced Ella to sign with him. It was the beginning of a lifelong business relationship and friendship.
Under Norman's management, Ella joined the Philharmonic tour, worked with Louis Armstrong on several albums and began producing her infamous songbook series. From 1956-1964, she recorded covers of other musicians' albums, including those by Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, the Gershwins, Johnny Mercer, Irving Berlin, and Rodgers and Hart. The series was wildly popular, both with Ella's fans and the artists she covered.
"I never knew how good our songs were until I heard Ella Fitzgerald sing them," Ira Gershwin once remarked.
Ella also began appearing on television variety shows. She quickly became a favorite and frequent guest on numerous programs, including "The Bing Crosby Show," "The Dinah Shore Show," "The Frank Sinatra Show," "The Ed Sullivan Show," "The Tonight Show," "The Nat King Cole Show," "The Andy Willams Show" and "The Dean Martin Show."
Due to a busy touring schedule, Ella and Ray were often away from home, straining the bond with their son. Ultimately, Ray Jr. and Ella reconnected and mended their relationship.
"All I can say is that she gave to me as much as she could," Ray, Jr. later said, "and she loved me as much as she could."
Unfortunately, busy work schedules also hurt Ray and Ella's marriage. The two divorced in 1952, but remained good friends for the rest of their lives.
Overcoming discrimination
On the touring circuit it was well-known that Ella's manager felt very strongly about civil rights and required equal treatment for his musicians, regardless of their color. Norman refused to accept any type of discrimination at hotels, restaurants or concert halls, even when they traveled to the Deep South.
Once, while in Dallas touring for the Philharmonic, a police squad irritated by Norman's principles barged backstage to hassle the performers. They came into Ella's dressing room, where band members Dizzy Gillespie and Illinois Jacquet were shooting dice, and arrested everyone.
"They took us down," Ella later recalled, "and then when we got there, they had the nerve to ask for an autograph."
Norman wasn't the only one willing to stand up for Ella. She received support from numerous celebrity fans, including a zealous Marilyn Monroe.
"I owe Marilyn Monroe a real debt," Ella later said. "It was because of her that I played the Mocambo, a very popular nightclub in the '50s. She personally called the owner of the Mocambo, and told him she wanted me booked immediately, and if he would do it, she would take a front table every night. She told him - and it was true, due to Marilyn's superstar status - that the press would go wild. The owner said yes, and Marilyn was there, front table, every night. The press went overboard. After that, I never had to play a small jazz club again. She was an unusual woman - a little ahead of her times. And she didn't know it."
Worldwide recognition
Ella continued to work as hard as she had early on in her career, despite the ill effects on her health. She toured all over the world, sometimes performing two shows a day in cities hundreds of miles apart. In 1974, Ella spent a legendary two weeks performing in New York with Frank Sinatra and Count Basie. Still going strong five years later, she was inducted into the Down Beat magazine Hall of Fame, and received Kennedy Center Honors for her continuing contributions to the arts.
Outside of the arts, Ella had a deep concern for child welfare. Though this aspect of her life was rarely publicized, she frequently made generous donations to organizations for disadvantaged youths, and the continuation of these contributions was part of the driving force that prevented her from slowing down. Additionally, when Frances died, Ella felt she had the additional responsibilities of taking care of her sister's family.
In 1987, United States President Ronald Reagan awarded Ella the National Medal of Arts. It was one of her most prized moments. France followed suit several years later, presenting her with their Commander of Arts and Letters award, while Yale, Dartmouth and several other universities bestowed Ella with honorary doctorates.
End of an era
In September of 1986, Ella underwent quintuple coronary bypass surgery. Doctors also replaced a valve in her heart and diagnosed her with diabetes, which they blamed for her failing eyesight. The press carried rumors that she would never be able to sing again, but Ella proved them wrong. Despite protests by family and friends, including Norman, Ella returned to the stage and pushed on with an exhaustive schedule.
By the 1990s, Ella had recorded over 200 albums. In 1991, she gave her final concert at New York's renowned Carnegie Hall. It was the 26th time she performed there.
As the effects from her diabetes worsened, 76-year-old Ella experienced severe circulatory problems and was forced to have both of her legs amputated below the knees. She never fully recovered from the surgery, and afterward, was rarely able to perform. During this time, Ella enjoyed sitting outside in her backyard, and spending time with Ray, Jr. and her granddaughter Alice.
"I just want to smell the air, listen to the birds and hear Alice laugh," she said.
On June 15, 1996, Ella Fitzgerald died in her Beverly Hills home. Hours later, signs of remembrance began to appear all over the world. A wreath of white flowers stood next to her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and a marquee outside the Hollywood Bowl theater read, "Ella, we will miss you."
After a private memorial service, traffic on the freeway was stopped to let her funeral procession pass through. She was laid to rest in the "Sanctuary of the Bells" section of the Sunset Mission Mausoleum at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.
Ella Fitzgerald
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.
After a tumultuous adolescence, Fitzgerald found stability in musical success with the Chick Webb Orchestra, performing across the country but most often associated with the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. Her rendition of the nursery rhyme "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" helped boost both her and Webb to national fame. After taking over the band when Webb died, Fitzgerald left it behind in 1942 to start her solo career. Her manager was Moe Gale, co-founder of the Savoy,[1] until she turned the rest of her career over to Norman Granz, who founded Verve Records to produce new records by Fitzgerald. With Verve, she recorded some of her more widely noted works, particularly her interpretations of the Great American Songbook.
Fitzgerald also appeared in films and as a guest on popular television shows in the second half of the twentieth century. Outside her solo career, she created music with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and The Ink Spots. These partnerships produced songs such as "Dream a Little Dream of Me", "Cheek to Cheek", "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall", and "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)". In 1993, after a career of nearly sixty years, she gave her last public performance. Three years later, she died at age 79 after years of declining health. Her accolades included 14 Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts, the NAACP's inaugural President's Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Early life
Fitzgerald was born on April 25, 1917, in Newport News, Virginia.[2] She was the daughter of William Fitzgerald and Temperance "Tempie" Henry, both described as "mulatto" in the 1920 census.[3] Her parents were unmarried but lived together in the East End section of Newport News[4] for at least two and a half years after she was born. In the early 1920s, Fitzgerald's mother and her new partner, a Portuguese immigrant named Joseph da Silva,[3] moved to Yonkers, in Westchester County, New York.[3] Her half-sister, Frances da Silva, was born in 1923.[5] By 1925, Fitzgerald and her family had moved to nearby School Street, a poor Italian area.[5] She began her formal education at the age of six and was an outstanding student, moving through a variety of schools before attending Benjamin Franklin Junior High School in 1929.[6]
She and her family were Methodists and were active in the Bethany African Methodist Episcopal Church, where she attended worship services, Bible study, and Sunday school.[7] The church provided Fitzgerald with her earliest experiences in music.[8] Starting in third grade, Fitzgerald loved dancing and admired Earl Snakehips Tucker. She performed for her peers on the way to school and at lunchtime.[7]
Fitzgerald listened to jazz recordings by Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, and The Boswell Sisters. She loved the Boswell Sisters' 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."[9]
In 1932, when Fitzgerald was 15 years old, her mother died from injuries sustained in a car accident.[10] Fitzgerald's stepfather took care of her until April 1933 when she moved to Harlem to live with her aunt.[11] This seemingly swift change in her circumstances, reinforced by what Fitzgerald biographer Stuart Nicholson describes as rumors of "ill treatment" by her stepfather, leaves him to speculate that Da Silva might have abused her.[11]
Fitzgerald began skipping school, and her grades suffered. She worked as a lookout at a bordello and with a Mafia-affiliated numbers runner.[12] She never talked publicly about this time in her life.[13] When the authorities caught up with her, she was placed in the Colored Orphan Asylum in Riverdale in The Bronx.[14] When the orphanage proved too crowded, she was moved to the New York Training School for Girls, a state reformatory school in Hudson, New York.[14]
Early career
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While she seems to have survived during 1933 and 1934 in part by singing on the streets of Harlem, Fitzgerald debuted at the age of 17 on November 21, 1934, in one of the earliest Amateur Nights at the Apollo Theater.[15][16] She had intended to go on stage and dance, but she was intimidated by a local dance duo called the Edwards Sisters and opted to sing instead.[16][17] Performing in the style of Connee Boswell, she sang "Judy" and "The Object of My Affection" and won first prize.[18] She won the chance to perform at the Apollo for a week but, seemingly because of her disheveled appearance, the theater never gave her that part of her prize.[19]
In January 1935, Fitzgerald won the chance to perform for a week with the Tiny Bradshaw band at the Harlem Opera House.[15] Later that year, she was introduced to drummer and bandleader Chick Webb by Bardu Ali.[20] Although "reluctant to sign her...because she was gawky and unkempt, a 'diamond in the rough,'"[9] after some convincing by Ali, Webb offered her the opportunity to test with his band at a dance at Yale University.[15]
Met with approval by both audiences and her fellow musicians, Fitzgerald was asked to join Webb's orchestra and gained acclaim as part of the group's performances at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom.[15] Fitzgerald recorded several hit songs, including "Love and Kisses" and "(If You Can't Sing It) You'll Have to Swing It (Mr. Paganini)".[15] But it was her 1938 version of the nursery rhyme, "A-Tisket, A-Tasket", a song she co-wrote, that brought her public acclaim. "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" became a major hit on the radio and was also one of the biggest-selling records of the decade.[17][21]
Webb died of spinal tuberculosis on June 16, 1939,[22] and his band was renamed Ella Fitzgerald and Her Famous Orchestra, with Fitzgerald taking on the role of bandleader.[23] Ella and the band recorded for Decca and appeared at the Roseland Ballroom, where they received national exposure on NBC radio broadcasts.
She recorded nearly 150 songs with Webb's orchestra between 1935 and 1942. In addition to her work with Webb, Fitzgerald performed and recorded with the Benny Goodman Orchestra. She had her own side project, too, known as Ella Fitzgerald and Her Savoy Eight.[24]
Decca years
In 1942, with increasing dissent and money concerns in Fitzgerald's band, Ella Fitzgerald and Her Famous Orchestra, she started to work as lead singer with The Three Keys, and in July her band played their last concert at Earl Theatre in Philadelphia.[25][26] While working for Decca Records, she had hits with Bill Kenny & the Ink Spots,[27] Louis Jordan,[28] and the Delta Rhythm Boys.[29] Producer Norman Granz became her manager in the mid-1940s after she began singing for Jazz at the Philharmonic, a concert series begun by Granz.
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 Fitzgerald's vocal style, influenced by her work with Dizzy Gillespie's 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."[18]
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."[9] Her bebop recording of "Oh, Lady Be Good!" (1947) was similarly popular and increased her reputation as one of the leading jazz vocalists.[30]
Verve years
Fitzgerald made her first tour of Australia in July 1954 for the Australian-based American promoter Lee Gordon.[31] This was the first of Gordon's famous "Big Show" promotions and the "package" tour also included Buddy Rich, Artie Shaw and comedian Jerry Colonna.
Although the tour was a big hit with audiences and set a new box office record for Australia, it was marred by an incident of racial discrimination that caused Fitzgerald to miss the first two concerts in Sydney, and Gordon had to arrange two later free concerts to compensate ticket holders. Although the four members of Fitzgerald's entourage – Fitzgerald, her pianist John Lewis, her assistant (and cousin) Georgiana Henry, and manager Norman Granz – all had first-class tickets on their scheduled Pan-American Airlines flight from Honolulu to Australia, they were ordered to leave the aircraft after they had already boarded and were refused permission to re-board the aircraft to retrieve their luggage and clothing. As a result, they were stranded in Honolulu for three days before they could get another flight to Sydney. Although a contemporary Australian press report[32] quoted an Australian Pan-Am spokesperson who denied that the incident was racially based, Fitzgerald, Henry, Lewis and Granz filed a civil suit for racial discrimination against Pan-Am in December 1954[33] and in a 1970 television interview Fitzgerald confirmed that they had won the suit and received what she described as a "nice settlement".[34]
Fitzgerald was still performing at Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP) concerts by 1955. She left Decca, and Granz, now her manager, created Verve Records around her. She 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 Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book with me. It was a turning point in my life."[9]
On March 15, 1955, Ella Fitzgerald opened her initial engagement at the Mocambo nightclub in Hollywood,[35][36] after Marilyn Monroe lobbied the owner for the booking.[37] The booking was instrumental in Fitzgerald's career. Bonnie Greer dramatized the incident as the musical drama, Marilyn and Ella, in 2008. It had previously been widely reported that Fitzgerald was the first black performer to play the Mocambo, following Monroe's intervention, but this is not true. African-American singers Herb Jeffries,[38] Eartha Kitt,[39] and Joyce Bryant[40] all played the Mocambo in 1952 and 1953, according to stories published at the time in Jet magazine and Billboard.
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book, released in 1956, was the first of eight Song Book 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 and by 1956 Fitgerald's recordings were showcased nationally by Ben Selvin within the RCA Thesaurus transcription library.[41]
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book was the only Song Book on which the composer she interpreted played with her. Duke Ellington and his longtime collaborator Billy Strayhorn both appeared on exactly half the set's 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 Song Book series ended up becoming the singer's 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."[9]
Days after Fitzgerald's death, The New York Times columnist Frank Rich wrote that in the Song Book 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."[12] Frank Sinatra, out of respect for Fitzgerald, prohibited Capitol Records from re-releasing his own recordings in separate albums for individual composers in the same way.[citation needed]
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 Song Books 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.[9] In 1961 Fitzgerald bought a house in the Klampenborg district of Copenhagen, Denmark, after she began a relationship with a Danish man. Though the relationship ended after a year, Fitzgerald regularly returned to Denmark over the next three years and even considered buying a jazz club there. The house was sold in 1963, and Fitzgerald permanently returned to the United States.[42]
There are several live albums on Verve that are highly regarded by critics. At the Opera House shows a typical Jazz at the Philharmonic 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 to compensate.
Verve Records was sold to MGM in 1960 for $3 million and in 1967 MGM failed to renew Fitzgerald's 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 Fitzgerald's 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 Robinson's "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.[43] Plagued by health problems, Fitzgerald made her last recording in 1991 and her last public performances in 1993.[44]
Film and television
Fitzgerald played the part of singer Maggie Jackson in Jack Webb's 1955 jazz film Pete Kelly's Blues.[45] The film costarred Janet Leigh and singer Peggy Lee.[46] Even though she had already worked in the movies (she sang two songs in the 1942 Abbott and Costello film Ride 'Em Cowboy),[47] 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."[43] 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."[48]
After Pete Kelly's Blues, she appeared in sporadic movie cameos, in St. Louis Blues (1958)[49] and Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960).[50]
She made numerous guest appearances on television shows, singing on The Frank Sinatra Show, The Carol Burnett 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 Sullivan's comic operetta The Mikado alongside Joan Sutherland and Dinah Shore on Shore's weekly variety series in 1963. A performance at Ronnie Scott's 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 special Music, Music, Music.[51]
Fitzgerald also appeared in TV commercials, including an ad for Memorex.[52] In the commercials, she sang a note that shattered a glass while being recorded on a Memorex cassette tape.[53] The tape was played back and the recording also broke another glass, asking: "Is it live, or is it Memorex?"[53] She also appeared in a number of commercials for Kentucky Fried Chicken, singing and scatting to the fast-food chain's longtime slogan: "We do chicken right!"[54] Her last commercial campaign was for American Express, in which she was photographed by Annie Leibovitz.[55]
Ella Fitzgerald Just One of Those Things is a film about her life including interviews with many famous singers and musicians who worked with her and her son. It was directed by Leslie Woodhead and produced by Reggie Nadelson. It was released in the UK in 2019.[56]
Collaborations
Fitzgerald's 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. Of the seven, four reached the top of the pop charts, including "I'm Making Believe" and "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall", which both reached No. 1.
- Fitzgerald recorded three Verve studio albums with Louis Armstrong, two albums of standards (1956's Ella and Louis and 1957's Ella and Louis Again), and a third album featured music from the Gershwin opera 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 Basie's 1957 album One O'Clock 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 'Song Book' 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 Fitzgerald's 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 Song Book placed Ellington firmly in the canon known as the Great American Songbook, and the 1960s saw Fitzgerald and the 'Duke' meet on the Côte d'Azur for the 1966 album Ella and Duke at the Cote D'Azur, and in Sweden for The Stockholm Concert, 1966. Their 1965 album Ella at Duke's 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 Fitzgerald mostly in live, small group settings.
Illness and death
Fitzgerald had diabetes for several years of her later life, which had led to numerous complications.[9] In 1985, Fitzgerald was hospitalized briefly for respiratory problems,[57] in 1986 for congestive heart failure,[58] and in 1990 for exhaustion.[59] In March 1990, she appeared at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England, with the Count Basie Orchestra for the launch of Jazz FM, plus a gala dinner at the Grosvenor House Hotel at which she performed.[60] In 1993, she had to have both of her legs amputated below the knee due to the effects of diabetes.[61] Her eyesight was affected as well.[9]
She died in her home from a stroke on June 15, 1996, at the age of 79.[9] A few hours after her death, the Playboy Jazz Festival was launched at the Hollywood Bowl. In tribute, the marquee read: "Ella We Will Miss You."[62] Her funeral was private,[62] and she was buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.[63]
Personal life
Fitzgerald married at least twice, and there is evidence that suggests that she may have married a third time. Her first marriage was in 1941, to Benny Kornegay, a convicted drug dealer and local dockworker. The marriage was annulled in 1942.[64] Her second marriage was in December 1947, to the famous bass player Ray Brown, whom she had met while on tour with Dizzy Gillespie's band a year earlier. Together they adopted a child born to Fitzgerald's half-sister, Frances, whom they christened Ray Brown Jr. With Fitzgerald and Brown often busy touring and recording, the child was largely raised by his mother's aunt, Virginia. Fitzgerald and Brown divorced in 1953, due to the various career pressures both were experiencing at the time, though they would continue to perform together.[9]
In July 1957, Reuters reported that Fitzgerald had secretly married Thor Einar Larsen, a young Norwegian, in Oslo. She had even gone as far as furnishing an apartment in Oslo, but the affair was quickly forgotten when Larsen was sentenced to five months' hard labor in Sweden for stealing money from a young woman to whom he had previously been engaged.[65]
Fitzgerald was notoriously shy. Trumpet player Mario Bauzá, who played behind Fitzgerald in her early years with Chick Webb, remembered that "she didn't hang out much. When she got into the band, she was dedicated to her music...She was a lonely girl around New York, just kept herself to herself, for the gig."[43] When, later in her career, the Society of Singers named an award after her, Fitzgerald explained, "I don't want to say the wrong thing, which I always do but I think I do better when I sing."[18]
From 1949 to 1956, Fitzgerald resided in the St. Albans neighborhood of Queens, New York, an enclave of prosperous African Americans where she counted among her neighbors Illinois Jacquet, Count Basie, Lena Horne, and other jazz luminaries.[66]
Fitzgerald was a civil rights activist, using her talent to break racial barriers across the nation. She was awarded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Equal Justice Award and the American Black Achievement Award.[67] In 1949, Norman Granz recruited Fitzgerald for the Jazz at the Philharmonic tour.[68] The Jazz at the Philharmonic tour would specifically target segregated venues. Granz required promoters to ensure that there was no "colored" or "white" seating. He ensured Fitzgerald was to receive equal pay and accommodations regardless of her sex and race. If the conditions were not met shows were cancelled.[69]
Bill Reed, author of Hot from Harlem: Twelve African American Entertainers, referred to Fitzgerald as the "Civil Rights Crusader", facing discrimination throughout her career.[70] In 1954 on her way to one of her concerts in Australia she was unable to board the Pan American flight due to racial discrimination.[71] Although she faced several obstacles and racial barriers, she was recognized as a "cultural ambassador", receiving the National Medal of Arts in 1987 and America's highest non-military honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.[69][72]
In 1993, Fitzgerald established the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation focusing on charitable grants for four major categories: academic opportunities for children, music education, basic care needs for the less fortunate, medical research revolving around diabetes, heart disease, and vision impairment.[73] Her goals were to give back and provide opportunities for those "at risk" and less fortunate. In addition, she supported several nonprofit organizations like the American Heart Association, City of Hope, and the Retina Foundation.[74][75][76]
Discography and collections
The primary collections of Fitzgerald's media and memorabilia reside at and are shared between the Smithsonian Institution and the US Library of Congress.[77]
Awards, citations and honors
Fitzgerald won 13 Grammy Awards,[78] and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1967.[78]
In 1958 Fitzgerald became the first African-American woman to win at the inaugural show.[78]
Other major awards and honors she received during her career were the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Medal of Honor Award, National Medal of Art, first Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award (named "Ella" in her honor), Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement, UCLA Spring Sing, and the UCLA Medal (1987).[79] Across town at the University of Southern California, she received the USC "Magnum Opus" Award, which hangs in the office of the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation. In 1986, she received an honorary doctorate of music from Yale University.[80] In 1990, she received an honorary doctorate of Music from Harvard University.[81]
Tributes and legacy
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The career history and archival material from Fitzgerald's long career are housed in the Archives Center at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, while her personal music arrangements are at the Library of Congress. Her extensive cookbook collection was donated to the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University, and her extensive collection of published sheet music was donated to UCLA. Harvard gave her an honorary degree in music in 1990.
In 1997, Newport News, Virginia created a week-long music festival with Christopher Newport University to honor Fitzgerald in her birth city.
Ann Hampton Callaway, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Patti Austin have all recorded albums in tribute to Fitzgerald. Callaway's album To Ella with Love (1996) features 14 jazz standards made popular by Fitzgerald, and the album also features the trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. Bridgewater's album Dear Ella (1997) featured many musicians that were closely associated with Fitzgerald during her career, including the pianist Lou Levy, the trumpeter Benny Powell, and Fitzgerald's second husband, double bassist Ray Brown. Bridgewater's following album, Live at Yoshi's, was recorded live on April 25, 1998, what would have been Fitzgerald's 81st birthday.
Austin's album, For Ella (2002) features 11 songs most immediately associated with Fitzgerald, and a twelfth song, "Hearing Ella Sing" is Austin's tribute to Fitzgerald. The album was nominated for a Grammy. In 2007, We All Love Ella, was released, a tribute album recorded for Fitzgerald's 90th birthday. It featured artists such as Michael Bublé, Natalie Cole, Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight, Diana Krall, k.d. lang, Queen Latifah, Ledisi, Dianne Reeves, Linda Ronstadt, and Lizz Wright, collating songs most readily associated with the "First Lady of Song". Folk singer Odetta's album To Ella (1998) is dedicated to Fitzgerald, but features no songs associated with her. Her accompanist Tommy Flanagan affectionately remembered Fitzgerald on his album Lady be Good ... For Ella (1994).
"Ella, elle l'a", a tribute to Fitzgerald written by Michel Berger and performed by French singer France Gall, was a hit in Europe in 1987 and 1988.[82] Fitzgerald is also referred to in the 1976 Stevie Wonder hit "Sir Duke" from his album Songs in the Key of Life, and the song "I Love Being Here With You", written by Peggy Lee and Bill Schluger. Sinatra's 1986 recording of "Mack the Knife" from his album L.A. Is My Lady (1984) includes a homage to some of the song's previous performers, including 'Lady Ella' herself. She is also honored in the song "First Lady" by Canadian artist Nikki Yanofsky.
In 2008, the Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center in Newport News named its new 276-seat theater the Ella Fitzgerald Theater. The theater is located several blocks away from her birthplace on Marshall Avenue. The Grand Opening performers (October 11 and 12, 2008) were Roberta Flack and Queen Esther Marrow.
In 2012, Rod Stewart performed a "virtual duet" with Ella Fitzgerald on his Christmas album Merry Christmas, Baby, and his television special of the same name.[83]
There is a bronze sculpture of Fitzgerald in Yonkers, the city in which she grew up, created by American artist Vinnie Bagwell. It is located southeast of the main entrance to the Amtrak/Metro-North Railroad station in front of the city's old trolley barn. The statue's location is one of 14 tour stops on the African American Heritage Trail of Westchester County. A bust of Fitzgerald is on the campus of Chapman University in Orange, California. Ed Dwight created a series of over 70 bronze sculptures at the St. Louis Arch Museum at the request of the National Park Service; the series, "Jazz: An American Art Form", depicts the evolution of jazz and features various jazz performers, including Fitzgerald.[84]
On January 9, 2007, the United States Postal Service announced that Fitzgerald would be honored with her own postage stamp.[52] The stamp was released in April 2007 as part of the Postal Service's Black Heritage series.[85]
In April 2013, she was featured in Google Doodle, depicting her performing on stage. It celebrated what would have been her 96th birthday.[86][87]
On April 25, 2017, the centenary of her birth, UK's BBC Radio 2 broadcast three programmes as part of an "Ella at 100" celebration: Ella Fitzgerald Night, introduced by Jamie Cullum; Remembering Ella; introduced by Leo Green; and Ella Fitzgerald – the First Lady of Song, introduced by Petula Clark.[88]
In 2019, Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things, a documentary by Leslie Woodhead, was released in the UK. It featured rare footage, radio broadcasts and interviews with Jamie Cullum, Andre Previn, Johnny Mathis, and other musicians, plus a long interview with Fitzgerald's son, Ray Brown Jr.[56]
In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Fitzgerald at No. 45 on their list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.[89]
Sources
- Gourse, Leslie (1998). The Ella Fitzgerald Companion. London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-6916-7.
- Hemming, Roy; Hajdu, David (1991). Discovering great singers of classic pop : a new listener's guide to the sounds and lives of the top performers and their recordings, movies, and videos. New York: Newmarket Press. ISBN 978-1-55704-148-7. OCLC 1033645473.
- Johnson, J. Wilfred (2001). Ella Fitzgerald: An Annotated Discography. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0906-1.
- Nicholson, Stuart (1996). Ella Fitzgerald: 1917–1996. London: Indigo. ISBN 978-0-575-40032-0.
- Nicholson, Stuart (2004). Ella Fitzgerald : the complete biography. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-78813-0. OCLC 884745086. OCLC 1033559908, 884645602.
Further reading
- Gourse, Leslie (1998), The Ella Fitzgerald Companion: Seven Decades of Commentary. Music Sales Ltd; ISBN 0-02-864625-8
- Yazza, Houria (2000), Ella and Marilyn, the perfect friendship. NY 2000
- Johnson, J. Wilfred (2001), Ella Fitzgerald: A Complete Annotated Discography. McFarland & Co Inc.; ISBN 0-7864-0906-1
External links
| Archives at | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
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| How to use archival material |
- Ella Fitzgerald – official site
- Ella Fitzgerald discography at Discogs
- Ella Fitzgerald recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings
- Ella Fitzgerald at IMDb
- Ella Fitzgerald at the Internet Broadway Database
- Ella Fitzgerald at Find a Grave
- Ella Fitzgerald at the Library of Congress
- "Remembering Ella" by Phillip D. Atteberry (originally published in The Mississippi Rag, April 1996)
- Ella Fitzgerald at the Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University
- Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things (documentary) Archived June 13, 2022, at the Wayback Machine
Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996) was one of the greatest and most influential singers of the 20th century, and a consummate master of the American popular song tradition. What follows is just a small sampling of the massive extraordinary discography of her stunning sixty year career as one of the premiere members of the original elite pantheon of legendary African American female singers (e.g. Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, Betty Carter, Dinah Washington, and Abbey Lincoln) who dominated American singing from 1920-1990 and laid the primary creative foundation for the many women singers in the American popular song tradition both in this country and abroad who followed in their glorious and massive footsteps (e.g. Anita O'Day, Judy Garland, Peggy Lee, Jeri Southern, Julie London, Barbara Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Nancy Wilson, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Chaka Khan, Patti Austin, Etta James, Dionne Warwick, Natalie Cole, Donna Summer, Cassandra Wilson, and Whitney Houston etc.). Long live Ella and her incredible artistic legacy...
Kofi
Albums:
Ella Fitzgerald [ASV/Living Era] (ASV / Living Era 1935)
Ella and Her Fellas (Decca 1938)
75th Birthday Celebration (GRP 1938)
The Chick Webb Orchestra Directed by Ella...(Jazz Anthology 1939)
New York 1940 (Jazz Anthology 1940)
Ella Fitzgerald and Her Orchestra (Sunbeam 1940)
Sing Song Swing (Laserlight 1940)
Live from the Roseland Ballroom New York 1940 (Jazz Anthology 1940)
For Sentimental Reasons (Decca 1944)
Lullabies of Birdland (Decca 1945)
Ella & Ray (Jazz Live 1948)
Ella Fitzgerald Set (Verve 1949)
Miss Ella Fitzgerald and Mr. Nelson Riddle... (Decca 1949)
Gershwin Songs (Decca 1950)
Souvenir Album (Decca 1950)
Bluella: Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Blues (Pablo 1953)
Sweet and Hot (Decca 1953)
Songs in a Mellow Mood (Decca 1954)
Songs from 'Pete Kelly's Blues' (Decca 1955)
One O' Clock Jump (Verve 1956)
Sings Cole Porter (Verve 1956)
Sings More Cole Porter (Verve 1956)
A Tribute to Cole Porter (Verve 1956)
Sings the Cole Porter Song Book, Vol. 1 (Verve 1956)
Sings the Cole Porter Song Book, Vol. 2 (Verve 1956)
Ella and Louis Together [Laserlight] (Laserlight 1956)
Ella and Louis (Verve 1956)
Sings the Rodgers & Hart Song Book, Vols. 1-2 (Verve 1956)
Sings the Rodgers & Hart Song Book, Vol. 1 (Verve 1956)
Sings the Rodgers & Hart Song Book, Vol. 2 (Verve 1956)
Sings the Rodgers & Hart Song Book, Vol. 2 (Verve 1956)
Ella Fitzgerald Live (Verve 1956)
Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book, Vol. 2 (Verve 1956)
Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book, Vol. 1 (Verve 1956)
Ella Fitzgerald and Jazz at the... (Tax 1957)
Ella and Billie at Newport (Verve 1957)
Ella and Louis Again (Verve 1957)
Ella and Louis Again, (Verve 1957)
Ella and Louis Again, Vol. 2 (Verve 1957)
Hello, Love (Verve 1957)
Get Happy (Verve 1957)
At the Opera House (Verve 1957)
Ella Fitzgerald at the Opera House (Verve 1957)
Lady Be Good! (Verve 1957)
Like Someone in Love (Verve 1957)
Sings the Irving Berlin Song Book, Vol. 2 (Verve 1958)
Sings the Irving Berlin Song Book, Vol. 1 (Verve 1958)
Ella in Rome: The Birthday Concert [live] (Verve 1958)
Ella Swings Lightly (Verve 1958)
Sings Sweet Songs for Swingers (Verve 1958)
Ella Swings Brightly with Nelson (Verve 1959)
Sings the George & Ira Gershwin Song Book (Verve 1959)
Sings the George & Ira Gershwin Song Book,... (Verve 1959)
Sings the George & Ira Gershwin Song Book,... (Verve 1959)
Sings the George & Ira Gershwin Song Book,... (Verve 1959)
Sings the George & Ira Gershwin Song Book,... (Verve 1959)
Sings the George & Ira Gershwin Song Book,... (Verve 1959)
Sings the George & Ira Gershwin Song Book,... (Verve 1959)
Ella Sings Gershwin [MCA] (MCA 1959)
Sings the George & Ira Gershwin Song Book (Verve 1959)
Ella in Berlin [live] (Verve 1960)
Ella Sings Songs from "Let No Man Write My... (Verve 1960)
The Intimate Ella (Verve 1960)
Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas (Verve 1960)
Sings the Harold Arlen Song Book [Original... (Verve 1960)
Sings the Harold Arlen Song Book, Vol. 2 (Verve 1960)
Sings the Harold Arlen Song Book, Vol. 1 (Verve 1960)
Ella Returns to Berlin (Verve 1961)
Ella in Hollywood (Verve 1961)
Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie! (Verve 1961)
Ella Swings Gently with Nelson (Verve 1961)
Rhythm Is My Business (Verve 1962)
Ella Sings Broadway (Verve 1962)
Sings the Jerome Kern Song Book (Verve 1963)
Ella and Basie! (Verve 1963)
Ella and Basie (Verve 1963)
These Are the Blues (Verve 1963)
Hello Dolly (Verve 1964)
Ella at Juan Les Pins (Verve 1964)
Sings the Johnny Mercer Song Book (Verve 1964)
Stairway to the Stars (Decca 1965)
Ella in Hamburg (Verve 1965)
Ella Fitzgerald [MCA] (Metro 1965)
Ella at Duke's Place (Verve 1965)
The Stockholm Concert, 1966 [live] (Pablo 1966)
Whisper Not (Verve 1966)
Ella & Duke at the Cote D'azur (Verve 1966)
The World of Ella Fitzgerald (Metro 1966)
Misty Blue (Capitol 1967)
Ella Fitzgerald's Christmas (Capitol 1967)
Brighten the Corner (Capitol 1967)
Thirty by Ella (Capitol 1968)
Sunshine of Your Love (Prestige 1969)
Ella (Reprise 1969)
Ella Fitzgerald with the Tommy Flanagan Trio (Delta 1969)
Ella a Nice Original (Jazz 1971)
Loves Cole (Atlantic 1972)
Dream Dancing (Pablo 1972)
Carnegie Hall 1973, Vol. 1 [live] (Jazzotheque 1973)
Carnegie Hall 1973, Vol. 2 Jazzotheque 1973)
Newport Jazz Festival: Live at Carnegie Hall (Columbia 1973)
Take Love Easy (Pablo 1973)
Ella Fitzgerald Jams (Pablo 1974)
Fine and Mellow (Pablo 1974)
Ella in London (Pablo / OJC 1974)
Ella and Oscar (Pablo 1974)
Montreux '75 [live] (Pablo 1975)
Ella Fitzgerald at the Montreux Jazz... [live] (Pablo 1975)
At the Montreaux Festival (Original Jazz 1975)
Fitzgerald and Pass...Again (Pablo 1976)
Ella Fitzgerald [Pablo] (Pablo 1976)
Montreux '77 (Original Jazz 1977)
Lady Time (Pablo / OJC 1978)
A Classy Pair (Pablo 1979)
Live: Digital 3 at Montreux (Pablo 1979)
Perfect Match (Pablo 1979)
Ella Abraca Jobim (Pablo 1980)
The Best Is Yet to Come (Pablo 1982)
Speak Love (Pablo 1982)
Nice Work If You Can Get It (Pablo 1983)
Let's Call the Whole Thing Off (Pablo 1983)
Billie Holiday & Ella Fitzgerald (MCA 1986)
Easy Living (Pablo 1986)
Wishes You a Swinging Christmas (Polydor 1988)
All That Jazz (Pablo 1989)
Starlit Hour (Rounder 1989)
Ella: Things Ain't What They Used to Be (Reprise 1991)
Memories (MCA 1991)
Ella Sings, Chick Swings (Olympic 1991)
Ella with Her Savoy Eight (ASV / Living Era 1992)
Ella Fitzgerald ([Laserlight] Laserlight 1992)
Lady Is a Tramp (ITM 1994)
Sings the Cole Porter Song Book, Vol. 1 (Polygram 1994)
Roseland Dance City (Canby 1995)
Christmas with Ella Fitzgerald (Cema Special 1995)
My Heart Belongs to Daddy (Musketeer 1995)
Hallelujah (Smash 1995)
It's a Blue World (Drive 1995)
Hallelujah! (Hot Club de 1995)
My Happiness (Parrot 1995)
You'll Have to Swing It (Eclipse Music 1996)
A-Tisket A-Tasket ([Intercontinental] Intercontinent 1996)
Stockholm Concert [live] (Jazz World 1996)
Ella & Friends ([GRP] GRP 1996)
One Side of Me (Master Series 1996)
Fabulous (Musketeer 1996)
First Lady of Jazz (Leader Music 1996)
A-Tisket A-Tasket ([Hallmark] Hallmark 1996)
Together (Collector's 1996)
Rhythm & Romance ([ASV] Charly Budget 1997)
Sings Songs from Let No Man Write My Epitaph (Classic 1997)
Celebrated (Magnum America 1998)
In Budapest [live] (Pablo 1999)
The Enchanting Ella Fitzgerald: Live at... (Baldwin Street 2000)
The Very Best of Ella Fitzgerald ([Pulse] Pulse 2000)
A Kiss Goodnight (2001)
Ella Fitzgerald & Friends at Birdland:... [live] (Jazz Band 2001)
2001 Lady Be Good: Live Just Jazz
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/reich/ct-howard-reich-interviews-famous-jazz-musicians-20140822-column.html#page=1
Ella Fitzgerald, June 9, 1991:http://music.cbc.ca/#!/blogs/2012/10/Giants-of-Jazz-Ella-Fitzgerald-in-exclusive-interview-from-CBCs-Hot-Air-archive
"I used to go and jam with Dizzy (Gillespie), and that's how I learned my bop. Back then (in the early '40s), they used to have places where you could just go and jam, you know? Although they'd be sort of seedy after-hours spots, it was still the place to be. So I used to follow Dizzy, travel a couple places with him, and I guess I was just thrilled with what was going on (in Gillespie's band), and I tried to do it. I just tried to do what I heard the horns in the band doing."
Giants of Jazz: Ella Fitzgerald in exclusive interview from CBC's Hot Air archive
She grew up in a humble home, landed in reform school after her mother died, got her big break at a talent contest at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, and worked her way into the hearts of legions of jazz fans everywhere. Her fame became bigger than the genre she worked in. She racked up an amazing 13 Grammy Awards in her career and sold more than 40 million records.
play
Listen to Bob Smith's interview with Ella Fitzgerald from 1972, 14 minutes and 25 seconds.
http://www.thenotesyoudontplay.com/ella-fitzgerald-interview-with-bobbie-wygant/
To celebrate the First Lady of Song on her 95th birthday, here is a TV interview from what my best guess is late 1979 or 1980 (the Iran hostage crisis is alluded to during the interview). The interview runs about 5 minutes and includes a few quick clips of Ella onstage singing pieces of tunes including “There Will Never Be Another You”:
VIDEO OF INTERVIEW: https://vimeo.com/27625402
http://jazztimes.com/articles/28170-ella-fitzgerald-norman-granz-she-was-his-star
Ella Fitzgerald & Norman Granz: She Was His Star
Excerpt from Tad Hershorn's Norman Granz: The Man Who Used Jazz for Justice
This excerpt from Tad Hershorn’s soon-to-be-published Norman Granz: The Man Who Used Jazz for Justice (University of California Press) explores the complex history and sometimes mysterious nature of that legendary partnership.
*****
Jazz at the Philharmonic’s 1953 tour of Japan was still in progress when Norman Granz acquired the Hope Diamond of his career. On the flight between Tokyo and Osaka, he talked with Ella Fitzgerald about taking over her personal management when her contract with Moe Gale at Associated Booking Corporation would expire that December. Gale, one of the owners of the Savoy Ballroom, had been involved with Fitzgerald since the beginning of her career as part of his managing the Chick Webb Orchestra from late 1929. Gale had also delivered the band to Decca Records as one of the new label’s earliest attractions, and had pressed Webb to bring a female vocalist into the band.
“I’d been thinking for years about taking over Ella’s personal management. … Ella was afraid. She thought I was too much of a blow-top,” Granz reflected. “So I told her it was a matter of pride with me, that she still hadn’t been recognized—economically, at least—as the greatest singer of our time. I asked her to give me a year’s trial, no commission, but she wound up insisting on paying the commission. We had no contract. Mutual love and respect was all the contract we needed.” In 2001, he added, “I didn’t claim to be the only manager. I never had a contract with Ella or Oscar [Peterson] or Basie or Duke. I told Ella, if you want the luxury of saying, ‘Norman, I quit,’ you’re off. Go for yourself, but I want the luxury of quitting you, too. So we had a nice relationship. Ella lasted for maybe 40 or 45 years, Oscar well over 50.” After she agreed to go with Granz, he satisfied an IRS debt that Gale had allowed to pile up and that the government was pressing to settle. The changing of the guard was at hand.
Together, they worked to polish her talent and enhance her reputation. Granz had plans to widen her scope musically and upgrade the venues in which she appeared, as well as to get her higher pay that would leave what Granz called “52nd Street money” in the dust. Signs were abundant that Fitzgerald was ready to enjoy a deeper appreciation of her talent. In May 1954, on her opening night at New York’s Basin Street East club, the entertainment elite gathered to celebrate her 19 years in the business. Decca Records presented the singer with a plaque citing her sales of over 22 million records since the Chick Webb days. Newsweek’s coverage of the evening captured the essence of what Granz would capitalize on in the years ahead, when he coordinated her personal management and recording activities. “Other popular singers tend to become identified with a particular musical groove,” the magazine reported. “Ella Fitzgerald plays the field, exerting a talent which, in addition to an unmatched pliability, has demonstrated an uncommon staying power.”
Granz translated that acclaim to book the singer into more prestigious clubs and hotel showrooms that had previously been closed both to black artists and to jazz in general. Granz and Fitzgerald were not alone in thinking that her talent deserved a higher profile. In early 1955, Marilyn Monroe lent her prestige to help broker Fitzgerald’s first appearance at the Mocambo on Los Angeles’ Sunset Strip. The run was extended to three weeks after sold-out crowds brought club-owner Charlie Morrison completely around and led him shortly thereafter to book Nat Cole and Eartha Kitt. Fitzgerald returned to the Mocambo twice more in the next year and a half, generating the club’s largest business after the release of Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook in 1956. The success of Fitzgerald’s appearance also helped usher in the opening of integrated nightclubs in Hollywood, among them Pandora’s Box, the Purple Onion, the Crescendo and the Renaissance.
Word of Fitzgerald’s drawing power at the Mocambo spread across the industry, and within a month Granz had booked her for three weeks at the Venetian Room of the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, marking the first time the room had ever booked a jazz act. In November 1955 she returned to Las Vegas after a five-year absence for a date at the Flamingo Hotel.
Granz’s campaign for Fitzgerald’s recording contract became more aggressive as the deadline to re-sign with Decca Records approached and her apparent frustrations with her longtime label surfaced. Nat Hentoff conducted a particularly revealing interview published in February 1955, when one can almost hear Granz’s prompting behind her unusually frank and public airing of what she considered missed opportunities with Decca. Granz finally had the opportunity to pry Fitzgerald away 10 months later and swooped in like a hawk. In June 1955 Universal had begun prerecording the soundtrack of The Benny Goodman Story starring Steve Allen as Goodman. Many of the musicians from the clarinetist’s former bands played themselves, along with a handful of contemporary musicians. Decca did not know or did not think it mattered until late in the game that Gene Krupa, Teddy Wilson and Stan Getz were all under exclusive contract to Granz. Although Lionel Hampton recorded extensively for Granz, he was not similarly bound contractually. When Decca finally came to Granz seeking a release for the musicians, he expressed his willingness to negotiate. Ever the wily bargainer, he knew he held all the cards. “I proposed that if they wanted the soundtrack badly enough, in return I wanted a release of Ella from her Decca contract. It was that simple.” The label finally ceded Fitzgerald in the first week of January 1956, barely a month before the film’s release on Feb. 2. Granz, anticipating Ella Fitzgerald’s arrival, announced the formation of Verve Records almost as soon as she departed Decca.
Thus began the second and greatest of the three major phases of her recording career, the last being the Pablo years in the 1970s and 1980s. Granz insisted that her leaving Decca and the establishment of Verve were unrelated. His plan, he said, had been to merge Clef, Norgran and Down Home into a broader-based entity that would include popular music as well as jazz. Rather than being created merely as a vehicle for Fitzgerald, Verve was his solution to another longstanding problem: the hemorrhaging of money from his jazz labels, whose finances had up until then depended exclusively on the tours. Granz said the wider focus of Verve allowed him to design a more effective network of disc-jockey promotion and other activities more associated with pop music.
“Granz will have no connection with Verve except for owning it,” DownBeat reported. “All central operations will be handled by 24-year-old arranger-conductor Buddy Bregman.” The two had met in November 1955 on the tennis courts at Rosemary Clooney and José Ferrer’s home in Los Angeles. Bregman, the nephew of songwriter Jule Styne, had been a fan of Granz and JATP since seeing the concerts at the Civic Opera House in the late 1940s. Granz told him of his plans to begin a new label and asked if he would consider going to work for him. Bregman’s early successes with popular music and his enthusiasm gained Granz’s confidence. Granz may have also felt that Bregman’s youth would make him more affordable, more controllable, and better attuned to the contemporary pop markets than an established arranger. He reported for work at the Granz offices at 451 North Canon Drive in Beverly Hills as head of pop A&R at a weekly salary of $500, plus scale for all orchestrations and sessions. “I started on a Monday, we did not have a name on Tuesday, and by Wednesday, Norman had come up with Verve.”
Granz had wanted Fitzgerald to do a Cole Porter album for many years and had unsuccessfully appealed to Decca to undertake such a work. “They rejected it on the grounds that Ella wasn’t that kind of singer,” Granz said in 1990. “I could understand it from their point of view, because they had one thing in mind and that was finding hit singles. I was interested in how I could enhance Ella’s position, to make her a singer with more than just a cult following amongst jazz fans. … So I proposed to Ella that the first Verve album would not be a jazz project, but rather a songbook of the works of Cole Porter. I envisaged her doing a lot of composers. The trick was to change the backing enough so that, here and there, there would be signs of jazz.”
Granz prepared for the Porter recording with the same methodical zeal that he had shown in producing such pioneering deluxe album projects as The Jazz Scene (1950) and The Astaire Story (1953). He instructed his main assistant, Mary Jane Outwater—“secretary” would be too narrow a term to describe the role Granz entrusted her with—to track down two copies of every Cole Porter song in publication and then winnow them down to about 50 songs for Fitzgerald to consider. His first choice to arrange the 32-song two-LP set was Nelson Riddle, the former Tommy Dorsey trombonist and arranger who had made his mark in the early 1950s when Nat Cole selected him to oversee his Capitol vocal sessions. Frank Sinatra credited Riddle for virtually reviving his career on the same label. However, Riddle’s manager, Carlos Gastel, was not keen on loaning him out. Finally Granz chose to “take a chance on Bregman. He knew all of the songs and had an affinity for the material.”
Fitzgerald, Bregman and Granz soon got down to work. Bregman’s varied arrangements, played by top-drawer Los Angeles jazz and studio musicians, gave a pop quality to the songs; still, the sessions retained room for jazz feeling and some improvisation, accommodating Fitzgerald’s jazz instincts. Granz also leaned on Fitzgerald to sing all the verses to the songs—“She had to spend time learning the verses and she didn’t want to,” he recalled—to feature the full scope of the lyricists’ art and make the albums that much more distinctive and authoritative. The songbooks required a different approach from what Fitzgerald had been used to, when she went into a studio with a trio and reeled off tunes in two to three takes before quickly moving on. Granz noted, “When I recorded Ella, I always put her out front, not a blend. The reason was that I frankly didn’t care about what happened to the music. It was there to support her. I’ve had conductors tell me that in bar 23 the trumpet player hit a wrong note. Well, I don’t care. I wasn’t making perfect records. If they came out perfectly, fine. But I wanted to make records in which Ella sounded best. I wasn’t interested in doing six takes to come back to where we started. My position has always been that what you do before you go into the studio really defines you as a producer. The die has been cast. I have very little to do other than to say one take is better than another.”
Though Granz and Cole Porter had been friends through Fred Astaire since around the time of The Astaire Story, Granz chose not to involve him in the process, as Porter was notoriously picky about how singers recorded his work. Instead, once the recordings were done, he took a stack of the acetates with him to New York to play for Porter. “He loved them,” Granz said after two hours with the composer at his Waldorf Astoria apartment. Porter was delighted by Fitzgerald’s treatment of his work, including her diction. And if Porter was happy, the listening public was ecstatic to hear the old and familiar “Night and Day,” “In the Still of the Night,” “Begin the Beguine,” and “I Love Paris” side by side with lesser-known songs such as “All Through the Night,” “Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye” or “I Am in Love.”
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook took off beyond Granz and Fitzgerald’s wildest expectations, both commercially and artistically, becoming one of the top-selling jazz records of all time. Sales boosted the fortunes of the young Verve and laid the groundwork for the remainder of its signature series in the years to come. When sales hit 100,000 in the first month, the album went to No. 15 on the Billboard charts, and two weeks after its release it was ranked second in a DownBeat poll of bestselling jazz albums. “It was the 11th biggest LP of the year. That was insane for me. Verve put me in the commercial market for the first time,” Granz said of the best selling album of his career.
On Aug. 15, 1956, a spectacular concert at the Hollywood Bowl featured Louis Armstrong and his All-Stars and Art Tatum alongside Fitzgerald, the Oscar Peterson Trio and a JATP ensemble filled out by Roy Eldridge, Harry Edison, Flip Phillips, Illinois Jacquet and Buddy Rich. The album, Jazz at the Hollywood Bowl, became effectively the 1956 volume of the JATP recordings. Granz later received a letter from the Hollywood Bowl telling him that the concert had been the best attended jazz event in the history of the outdoor facility—ironic given that 11 years earlier the Bowl’s management told Granz that they did not want to host any event with the word “jazz” in its title.
Fitzgerald and Armstrong went into the studio with the Oscar Peterson Trio and Buddy Rich the day after the Bowl concert to record the first of three albums that not only sold well but are thought to be among the finest of Granz’s career. Armstrong was unusually hard to corral given his seemingly nonstop touring schedule, and often his trumpet playing was barely up to par when Granz had the chance to record him: To compensate, Armstrong sang more. His manager Joe Glaser didn’t make it any easier by approving dates for Armstrong at the last minute, leaving Granz with only a day or two at most to prepare, as was the case with all three of the Ella and Louis records from 1956 and 1957. Granz later said that Armstrong, unlike Fitzgerald, with her perfect diction and loyalty to the music as written, “never deferred to the material. He did what he did, and that was the thing I was trying to capture. You could hear his breathing or sighing or, instead of the word, he’d come out with a sound. But to me, that’s its quality.” The contrast between their styles was pure magic. Fitzgerald deferred to Armstrong to make the final choices on the songs and keys. Photographs taken during the sessions show Armstrong and Fitzgerald, dressed in casual summer clothes, thoroughly enjoying one another.
Shortly afterwards, on Aug. 21, 1956, Granz, Bregman and Fitzgerald returned to Capitol Studios to get started on the Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart songbook and thereby capitalize on the momentum provided by the Porter release. Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Rodgers and Hart Songbook followed the pattern set by the Porter, with big band, band with strings and small-group arrangements. Though the content of the Songbook albums was pretty much set by Granz in consultation with Fitzgerald, there was still give-and-take in the studio when the singer occasionally resisted her manager’s wishes. For example, during the recording of Rodgers and Hart, she refused to sing “Miss,” as in “Have You Met Miss Jones?” Granz recalled, “It was not a woman’s lyric. So she changed it to ‘Have you met Sir Jones?’ I was very unhappy about that, but we were in the midst of recording and Ella was very firm. I had to think of the whole project, and I didn’t think it warranted a stand on principle. I could have eliminated the song, and I considered that. But since it was such a good song and Buddy’s arrangement was good, I gave in.”
The benefits of Granz’s management, which, like Fitzgerald’s singing, found distinctive ways of melding jazz and pop, can be seen in an infatuated review in the Hollywood Reporter of her October 1956 Mocambo appearance. “The contagion grew to such proportions that they wouldn’t let the gal go after 13 songs and 50 minutes. It was a beg-off. … Miss Fitzgerald, spurred on by such idolatrous acclaim (heralded, of course by her smash LP album of Cole Porter songs), has never been in finer form,” the reviewer noted.
“Ella was easy,” Granz said late in life. “All Ella needed was a good manager, which I was for her compared to what she’d had—and the record company, that was total. Decca did good things for her and Milt Gabler was a good producer, but she was one of many artists at Decca. When I formed Verve, she became the artist and she had the advantage not only of someone to manage her, but also presenting her concerts. I was unique among managers, in that I owned the record company and I was also an impresario.” But Fitzgerald told her old friend Leonard Feather that she and Granz had had many confrontations over the years and that she had never been just putty in his hands. Rather, the two of them combined formidable qualities in making their partnership successful. “Granz has an irascible side; Ella says she has learned to live with it,” Feather said. As Fitzgerald explained, “The idea was, get him to do the talking for me and I’d do the singing. I needed that. Sometimes we’d argue and wouldn’t speak for weeks on end, and he’d give me messages through a third party, but now I accept him as he is, or I may just speak my mind. We’re all like a big family now.”
The exact nature of Fitzgerald and Granz’s relationship has long been a subject of fascination, with some believing that Granz exercised a disproportionate and domineering influence over the singer’s affairs. Others who knew her better paint a more complex picture of someone for whom work—and lots of it—was her life. Granz’s focus on Fitzgerald’s career demonstrated the attention to detail he had so fully mastered over the years. Pianist Paul Smith said Granz selected about 99 percent of the music Fitzgerald sang and recorded in the ensuing decades. He also handled the messy duty of hiring and firing musicians, always acting in concert with Fitzgerald’s wishes. “At the very beginning, I turned Ella’s career around by merely dictating different approaches—work at the Fairmont Hotel, not the 331 Club. But that was an economic decision,” Granz said. “When I first broke the Fairmont in San Francisco with Ella, she asked me what she was getting. I told her and she said, ‘But that’s not right. We’re getting less than in a club.’ I said, ‘Yes, but you’re building a reputation for playing the Fairmont Hotel. Next time around, you’ll get 10 times more.’”
Given her insecurities despite her renown, she needed some coaxing to come out of her shell to help Granz promote her career. For example, Virginia Wicks, both a personal friend and her publicist during this period, said Fitzgerald feared interviews partly because of her general shyness around other people. “She knew there were many intelligent people coming to interview her,” Wicks said. “She didn’t think she had the vocabulary or knowledge to deal with them. You almost had to trick her into an interview. It was very important to Norman. Yet Ella would really sulk. But she didn’t do a lot of talking. She kept a lot inside her head.”
Some have charged Granz with overworking Fitzgerald in the giddy years when she began to roam the upper echelons of the entertainment world. But those who knew Fitzgerald better describe someone for whom singing was her life. Her pianist Paul Smith first toured with Fitzgerald in 1960, spending six months in South America and Europe; in 1962, he was on the road with the singer for 46 weeks. “She was fun. How could you not have fun playing with her?” he said. “As far as the amount of work, Norman was kind of trapped in between. Ella would complain that she was working too hard and he would not book her for about two weeks. Then she would say, after about the first week, ‘Why aren’t I working? Don’t people want to see me?’ Norman was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t. Ella really didn’t have much of a home life. Her home was the stage. When she was onstage, she was loving it.”
Smith acknowledged that sometimes Fitzgerald got extra nervous when she knew Granz was coming in to hear a show and that sometimes Granz imposed his views on her repertoire in ways she didn’t like. For instance, Granz “disliked anything Stephen Sondheim ever wrote” and made sure Fitzgerald didn’t perform it. “Benny Carter wrote a beautiful arrangement of ‘Send in the Clowns,’” Smith remembered. “Norman came in and said, ‘What are you playing this for?’ He made such an issue of it we took it out of the book.”
Granz was also irritated, according to Smith, by the idea of Fitzgerald recording with her Verve label-mate Mel Tormé, who was Fitzgerald’s friend and was, like her, a master of scat singing as well as a gifted songwriter, arranger and all-around musician. The mentions of Granz in Tormé’s later memoirs are not entirely complimentary. After a concert tour with Fitzgerald to Australia, which Granz oversaw, Tormé came to the conclusion that “Norman was not one of nature’s noblemen.” Later he wrote, “What Ella needed was direction. She was in danger of falling into the ‘cult singer’ trap, an abyss wherein only jazz fans and musicians appreciated her. This was not the way to gold, and, even though she was solidly committed to singing in her jazz-oriented, jazz-influenced manner, she wanted more out of life than smoky joints and out-of-the-way venues in which to ply her trade. … Her help came in the form of Norman Granz. This Svengali-like handling of Ella has produced astounding results. . . . He had her embark on a series of ‘songbooks’ that elevated her into a new category, a ‘pop-jazz’ singer. These songbooks were landmark recordings and led to Ella becoming persona grata in every part of the civilized world. Her fame spread to the four corners of the earth, and in this country, she played where she wanted to.” Granz, however, disputed the “Svengali” image and the idea that he had begun to totally run the singer’s life from top to bottom. “None of that bothered me,” he said. “I had a job to do and I did it.”
Granz explained his relationship to Fitzgerald and how he saw his role in a 1987 interview with the record producer and broadcaster Elliot Meadow. “If I’m standing next to Ella Fitzgerald and people want her autograph, and someone in the line says, ‘I don’t know who that tall old man is standing next to Ella, but I think I’ll get his autograph, too. Who knows who he is?’ That’s all right,” Granz said. “My ego’s just as large as any performer’s, because I know my function. … Don’t worry. I know what my contribution was just as much as I know Ella’s contribution.”
Granz’s interest in seeing that Fitzgerald’s artistry and dignity were protected did cross over into her personal life. When Fitzgerald moved to Los Angeles to be closer to the center of the action with Granz, she bought a home on Hepburn Avenue on the predominantly black West Side. But as Granz later recalled, “Finally, when she really made big money, I suggested she move to Beverly Hills. The people who wanted to sell the house wanted the money, and they happened, by coincidence, to be Ella fans. I talked to the real estate agent, bought the house in my name and gave it to Ella in her name. That way, we circumvented the racism that existed. Ella was always shielded from economic choices, but she was always made aware of them.”
“There was a kind of naiveté about her,” Paul Smith said. “She was like a little girl. If she was unhappy she’d pout like an 8-year-old, which, in a way, she was. I always thought of her as a lady who never quite grew up. She always had that little girl quality about her. Her feelings could be hurt very easily. Ella was a very tender lady. She loved kids. She was kind of like a kid herself, inside. She never had a romantic life. Ella was a lonely lady and every once in a while one of those guys would come by and they’d have a live-in relationship for a short while. … Ella’s naiveté permeated her relations with men.”
One of her romances that ended up causing friction with Granz involved a Norwegian man whom she had met while touring Scandinavia with JATP. In July 1957, Reuters reported that she had married Thor Einar Larsen and was staying for the time being in a suburb of Oslo, a rumor she soon denied, although she indicated she might like to see it happen. She maintained an apartment in Copenhagen for four years. Granz, at her request, was working to help Larsen gain a visa to come to the United States. “Ella had called me from Europe, which she didn’t very often do, and said, ‘I’m in love.’ I think there came a point where Norman was losing patience with the man,” recalled Virginia Wicks, who was present backstage one night when the subject turned to Larsen. “There were words between Norman and Ella. I think that Norman realized before Ella did that Larsen was taking advantage of her. Norman tried to explain what was going on, and she was angry with him, saying, ‘You don’t run my life. You don’t run my personal life. You don’t know what goes on.’” As it turned out, Larsen had been convicted of defrauding a previous fiancée and had received five months’ hard labor in Sweden for his offense, so he was not even eligible to enter the United States for another five and a half years.
Phoebe Jacobs met Fitzgerald during the singer’s Decca period in the early 1950s and got to know her better over the next three decades at her uncle Ralph Watkins’ Basin Street East club in New York. “He ruled her life. I remember his buying her a sable coat, and Ella saying, ‘He bought it for me because he thought I should have one.’ Ella could have cared less whether or not she had a Rolls Royce. Norman saw to it she had one. He wanted her to have the best. She was his star.”
Jacobs, now president of the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation, continued, “I don’t know whether Norman and Ella were a good pairing. It was truly a professional relationship. They didn’t socialize. Norman was never a great extrovert. Music was the common denominator. He treated her like she was a queen. He was dedicated to presenting her in the atmosphere she should enjoy befitting her talent. He was a very savvy guy and Ella respected and trusted him implicitly.” That trust and love would be the basis of a shared enterprise that would fill record bins and concert halls and create a legend.
Fitzgerald said as much in a brief undated telegram that caught up with Granz in Paris: “Even half asleep, I love and appreciate you. Thanks very much. Ella.”
*****
Excerpted with permission from Norman Granz: The Man Who Used Jazz for Justice by Tad Hershorn, an archivist at the Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University. To be released October 2011 from University of California Press.
http://www.stlyrics.com
"I've had some wonderful love affairs and some that didn't work out. I don't want to dwell on that and I don't want to put people down, but I think all the fabulous places I've been, the wonderful things that have happened for me, the great people I've met - that ought to make a story."
"Some kids in Italy call me 'Mama Jazz; I thought that was so cute. As long as they don't call me 'Grandma Jazz.'"
"Oh, I have gobs and gobs of ideas, but... well, you dream things like that, and that's what these are, you know--my day dreams."
"I sing like I feel."
"A lot of singers think all they have to do is exercise their tonsils to get ahead. They refuse to look for new ideas and new outlets, so they fall by the wayside... I'm going to try to find out the new ideas before the others do."
"I know I'm no glamour girl, and it's not easy for me to get up in front of a crowd of people. It used to bother me a lot, but now I've got it figured out that God gave me this talent to use, so I just stand there and sing."
"I stole everything I ever heard, but mostly I stole from the horns."
"It isn't where you came from, it's where you're going that counts."
"Coming through the years, and finding that I not only have just the fans of my day, but the young ones of today -- that's what it means, it means it was worth all of it."
"The only thing better than singing is more singing."
"Once, when we were playing at the Apollo, Holiday was working a block away at the Harlem Opera House. Some of us went over between shows to catch her, and afterwards we went backstage. I did something then, and I still don't know if it was the right thing to do - I asked her for her autograph."
"Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong."
"I guess what everyone wants more than anything else is to be loved. And to know that you loved me for my singing is too much for me. Forgive me if I don't have all the words. Maybe I can sing it and you'll understand."
Quotes about Ella Fitzgerald:
"The one radio voice that I listened to above others belonged to Ella Fitzgerald. There was a quality to her voice that fascinated me, and I'd sing along with her, trying to catch the subtle ways she shaded her voice, the casual yet clean way she sang the words."
-- Doris Day
"Ella's voice becomes the orchestra's richest and most versatile sound."
-- Arthur Fiedler
"She has been more famous, over a longer time span, than any other female singer."
-- Leonard Feather
"Man, woman or child, Ella is the greatest of them all."
-- Bing Crosby
"The best way to start any musical evening is with this girl. It don't get better than this."
-- Frank Sinatra
"Music comes out of her. When she walks down the street, she leaves notes."
-- Jimmy Rowles
"She has been one of my all-time favorite singers for many years and still is - she's terrific."
-- Perry Como
"She was the best. She was the best there ever was. Amongst all of us who sing, she was the best."
-- Johnny Mathis
"Every other singer, male or female, if they're lucky, they listen to Ella."
-- Pat Boone
"I call her the High Priestess of Song."
-- Mel Torme
"I was there from the beginning, and it was obvious from the start what she had that night at the Apollo. My goodness, what she's done with it."
-- Benny Carter
"Whatever she does to my songs, she always makes them sound better."
-- Richard Rodgers
"There is no voice like that lady. She has it all. She's complete."
-- Louie Bellson
"Ella is simply the greatest singer of them all."
-- Pearly Bailey
"Ella's musicianship is just incredible. Playing with her is like playing with a full orchestra."
-- Ed Thigpen
"Ella's amazing! My daughter says that every time she makes a mistake, it becomes a hit record."
-- Lucille Ball
"If you want to learn how to sing, listen to Ella Fitzgerald."
-- Vincente Minnelli
"Ella is the boss lady. That's all."
-- Billy Strayhorn
"She brings out the best in everybody, making everyone work that much harder to keep up with her."
-- Andy Williams
"It is so much fun to sing with Ella. It is so nice to sing with someone who does more than make a pretty noise."
-- Jo Stafford
"She is the most thorough professional I have worked with, every working moment was pure joy."
-- Richard Perry
" She is amazingly creative, bringing so much more to a song than just a singer. She is a first-class musician and the most gracious person in the world."
-- Marty Paich
"She always encouraged me to create and take my turn in our duets, never playing the star."
-- Joe Pass
An Unlikely Sisterhood: Marilyn Monroe & Ella Fitzgerald
Apparently in the 50s, a popular nightclub, Mocambo would not book Ella Fitzgerald because she was black. Fortunately for Ella, she had a powerful and unlikely benefactor,
“I owe Marilyn Monroe a real debt…it was because of her that I played the Mocambo, a very popular nightclub in the ’50s. She personally called the owner of the Mocambo, and told him she wanted me booked immediately, and if he would do it, she would take a front table every night. She told him - and it was true, due to Marilyn’s superstar status - that the press would go wild. The owner said yes, and Marilyn was there, front table, every night. The press went overboard. After that, I never had to play a small jazz club again. She was an unusual woman - a little ahead of her times. And she didn’t know it.” - Ella Fitzgerald
I love this story. It's so great to hear about a woman giving another woman a boost despite differences in race especially in showbiz.
I wonder how much of this happens today and we just don't know about it?
The following are some of Ella's more notable career achievements. For specific dates and a more complete listing, please see her Awards section.
• 13 Grammy awards
• A-Tisket, A-Tasket entered into the Grammy Hall of Fame
• Kennedy Center for Performing Arts' Medal of Honor Award
• The Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award
• Pied Piper Award
• American Society of Composers
• Women at Work organization's Bicentennial Woman
• Authors and Publishers' highest honor
• George And Ira Gershwin Award for Outstanding Achievement
• National Medal of Art
• Honorary chairmanship of the Martin Luther King Foundation
• Received first ASCAP award in recognition of an artist
• Honorary doctorate degrees from Dartmouth, Talladega, Howard and Yale Universities
• Peabody Award for Outstanding Contributions in Music
• The first Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award, named "Ella" in her honor
• NAACP Award for lifetime achievement
© Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald received hundreds of awards and honors during her career and the following is by no means a comprehensive list. If there is an achievement you feel needs to be added to this page, please contact us.
1934
Won Amateur Night competition at the Apollo Theater
1935
Won one week of performing at the Harlem Opera House
1937
Top Female Vocalist, Down Beat magazine
1938
First No. 1 song, "A-Tisket, A-Tasket"
1954
Best Female Vocalist, Metronome magazine
Best Female Vocalist, Down Beat magazine (both readers' poll and critics' poll)
1956
All Star Female, Metronome magazine
1958
First Grammy awards held; won Best Female Vocal Performance for "The Irving Berlin Songbook" (album) and Best Individual Jazz Performance for T"he Duke Ellington Songbook" (album)
1959
Grammy awards, Best Female Vocal Performance for "But Not For Me" and Best Individual Jazz Performance for "Ella Swings Lightly"
1960
Honorary membership to Alpha Kappa Alpha, the oldest and largest African-American sorority in the United States
Grammy awards, Best Female Vocal Performance (single) for "Mack the Knife" and Best Female Vocal Performance (album) for "Ella in Berlin"
1962
Grammy award, Best Female Solo Vocal Performance for "Ella Swings Brightly With Nelson Riddle"
1965
Received first ASCAP award in recognition of an artist
1967
Grammy award, Bing Crosby Lifetime Achievement award
Honorary chairmanship of the newly formed Martin Luther King Foundation
1974
University of Maryland names its new $1.6 million, 1,200-seat theater and concert hall the Ella Fitzgerald Center for the Performing Arts
1976
(April 11) Ella Fitzgerald Day in Los Angeles
Honorary Doctorate in Music from Dartmouth College
Award of Distinction from National Association of Sickle Cell Diseases
Women at Work organization's Bicentennial Woman
Grammy award, Best Jazz Vocal Performance for "Fitzgerald and Pass…Again" (album)
1979
Grammy award, Best Jazz Vocal Performance for "Fine and Mellow" (album)
Kennedy Center Honors
1980
Will Rogers award from the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce and Civic Association
Honorary Doctor of Music from Howard University
Lord & Taylor Rose award for her outstanding contribution to music
Doctor of Human Letters from Talladega College of Alabama
Grammy award, Best Female Jazz Vocal Performance for "A Perfect Match; Ella and Basie" (album)
1981
Grammy award, Best Female Jazz Vocal Performance for "Digital III at Montreux" (album)
1982
Hasty Pudding Club Woman of the Year
1983
Peabody Award for Outstanding Contributions to Music in America
Grammy award, Best Female Jazz Vocal Performance for "The Best Is Yet to Come" (album)
1987
"A-Tisket, A-Tasket" entered into the Grammy Hall of Fame
UCLA Medal for Musical Achievements
National Medal of Arts
1988
NAACP Image award for Lifetime Achievement
1990
Grammy award, Best Female Jazz Vocal Performance for All That Jazz (album)
Commander of Arts and Letters (France)
Honorary Doctor of Music from Princeton University
1992
Miss Fitzgerald was awarded America's highest non-military honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
2007
U.S. Postal Service unveils the 2007 Ella Fitzgerald Commemorative Stamp
© Ella Fitzgerald
https://www.openculture.com/2020/07/ella-fitzgeralds-lost-interview-about-racism-segregation.html
Ella Fitzgerald’s Lost Interview about Racism & Segregation: Recorded in 1963, It’s Never Been Heard Until Now
in Music | July 7th, 2020
Ella Fitzgerald speaks about racism in the USA towards African Americans. #BlackLivesMatter
Ella Fitzgerald kicked off a plane because of her race: CBC Archives | CBC
When Ella Fitzgerald took the stage for the first time at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, “we heard a sound so perfect” that the entire theater went silent, says dancer and choreographer Norma Miller. “You could hear a rat piss on cotton.” Fitzgerald was 17 years old, and she had already faced severe racial discrimination. “Everything was race,” says Miller, describing the de facto segregation in Harlem in the 20s and 30s. “You couldn’t go out of your zone… slavery is over, but you don’t have jobs. So the confinement meant you had to do for yourself.”
In 1917, a 2 year old Fitzgerald had traveled with her mother and stepfather from Newport News, Virginia, where she was born, to Yonkers, New York. They were part of the Great Migration that brought blues and jazz to Northern cities. Fitzgerald grew up sneaking into Harlem’s ballrooms to hear Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. Then at age 13, her mother died. Fitzgerald was devastated. She began skipping school and the police arrested her for truancy and sent her to a reform school
Black girls at the school, writes Nina Bernstein in The New York Times, “were segregated in the two most crowded and dilapidated of the reformatory’s 17 ‘cottages,’ and were routinely beaten by male staff. There was a fine music program at the school, but Ella Fitzgerald was not in the choir: it was all white.” Fitzgerald escaped and made her way back to Harlem, where she slept on the streets. She stepped onstage at the Apollo’s amateur night as part of a dare and had originally planned to do a dance routine.
The year after her Apollo debut, Fitzgerald performed at Yale University with Chick Webb’s orchestra. She released her first single, one of the biggest records of the decade, in 1938. In 1939, she took over as bandleader and carved out a career in the following years that included tours in Japan, Europe, and Australia, where she became a huge sensation in 1954. In the states, however, she was still treated like a criminal. She missed her first two shows in Sydney because she and her pianist, assistant, and manager Norman Granz were thrown off the plane in Honolulu without explanation or recourse. (Fitzgerald later sued and won, as she explains in a 1970 CBC interview clip above.)
In 1955, Fitzgerald’s career received a major boost when Marilyn Monroe pressured the owner of Sunset Strip’s famed Mocambo to book the singer. “After that, I never had to play a small jazz club again,” Fitzgerald later recalled. That same year, reports USA Today, “she was arrested in her dressing room at an integrated show in Houston. When she arrived at the police station, an officer asked for her autograph, Fitzgerald recalls.” She rose above the ugliness with poise and grace and mostly preferred not to talk about it, though it surely took its toll. “She lived, she survived,” says cultural critic Margo Jefferson. “She became famous and she kept on keeping on—at what inner price, we don’t know.”
We do, however, have a slightly better sense of how she felt thanks to clips from a 1963 interview with New York radio host Fred Robbins that have emerged after going unheard for decades (beginning at :30 in the video at the top). Discussing her frustration with segregation in the South, she says:
Maybe I’m stepping out (of line), but I have to say it, because it’s in my heart. It makes you feel so bad to think we can’t go down through certain parts of the South and give a concert like we do overseas, and have everybody just come to hear the music and enjoy the music because of the prejudice thing that’s going on.
I used to always clam up because you (hear people) say, ‘Oh, gee, show people should stay out of politics.’ But we have traveled so much and been embarrassed so much. (Fans) can’t understand why you don’t play in Alabama, or (ask), ‘Why can’t you have a concert? Music is music.’
The situation was truly “embarrassing,” as she put it, for the country and for her and her fellow musicians. Fitzgerald had seen enough in her life at that point to understand how deeply entrenched racism could become. Hopeful about the future, she also recognized that there were some minds that would never change. “The die-hards, they’re just going to die hard,” she says. “They’re not going to give in. You’ve got to try and convince the younger ones, they’re the ones who’ve got to make the future and those are the ones we’ve got to worry about. Not those die-hards.”
Robbins had promised Fitzgerald that the interview would air “all over the world.” Instead, for reasons unknown, it was shelved and forgotten until author Reggie Nadelson discovered the recording in 2018 at the Paley Center for Media. Despite her reticence to speak out, Fitzgerald was grateful for the opportunity, even if it might end up costing her. “I really ran my mouth,” she says, worrying, “Is it going down South? You think they’re going to break my records up when they hear it? This is unusual for me.” Nonetheless, she says, “I’m so happy that you had me, because instead of singing, for a change I got a chance to get a few things off my chest. I just a human being.”
The clip at the top comes from a new documentary titled Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things. Watch the trailer for the film above.
via Ted Gioia
Related Content:
How Marilyn Monroe Helped Break Ella Fitzgerald Into the Big Time (1955)
Ella Fitzgerald Sings ‘Summertime’ by George Gershwin, Berlin 1968
Miles Davis is Attacked, Beaten & Arrested by the NYPD Outside Birdland, Eight Days After the Release of Kind of Blue (1959)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness
http://www.ellafitzgerald.com/about/discography.html
Discography
During Ella's 50-plus year career she recorded over 200 albums and around 2,000 songs. Among those recordings are works with some of history's greatest musicians and the legendary Songbook series.
Listed below are albums recorded by Ella Fitzgerald.
Decca (1934-1955)
1950
• Pure Ella (originally Ella Sings Gershwin)
• Souvenir Album
1954
• Lullabies of Birdland
• Songs in a Mellow Mood
1955
• For Sentimental Reasons
• Miss Ella Fitzgerald & Mr Gordon Jenkins Invite You to Listen and Relax
• Sweet and Hot
• The First Lady of Song
• Song's from "Pete Kelly's Blues"
Verve (1956-1966)
1956
• Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook
• Ella and Louis (with Louis Armstrong)
• Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Rodgers & Hart Songbook
1957
• Ella and Louis Again (with Louis Armstrong)
• Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook (with Duke Ellington) – Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance, Soloist
• Ella at the Opera House (Live)
• Like Someone in Love
• Porgy and Bess (with Louis Armstrong)
1959
• Get Happy!
• Ella Fitzgerald Sings Sweet Songs for Swingers
• Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook – Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
1960
• Ella in Berlin: Mack the Knife (Live) – Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
• Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas
• Hello, Love
• Sings Songs from Let No Man Write My Epitaph (Available on CD as The Intimate Ella)
1961
• Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Harold Arlen Songbook
• Ella in Hollywood (Live)
• Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie!
• Ella Returns to Berlin (Live) (Released in 1991)
1962
• Rhythm Is My Business
• Ella Swings Brightly with Nelson – Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
• Ella Swings Gently with Nelson
1963
• Ella Sings Broadway
• Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Jerome Kern Songbook
• Ella and Basie! (with Count Basie)
• These Are the Blues
1964
• Hello, Dolly!
• Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Johnny Mercer Songbook
• Ella at Juan-Les-Pins (Live)
1965
• Ella at Duke's Place (with Duke Ellington)
• Ella in Hamburg (Live)
1966
• Whisper Not
• Ella and Duke at the Cote D'Azur (Live) (with Duke Ellington)
1969
• Sunshine of your Love (Live)
Capitol (1967-1968)
1967
• Brighten the Corner
• Ella Fitzgerald's Christmas
1968
• 30 by Ella
• Misty Blue
Reprise (1969-1970)
1969
• Ella
1970
• Things Ain't What They Used to Be
• Things Ain't What They Used to Be
Atlantic (1972)
1972
• Ella Loves Cole (Released on the Pablo label as Dream Dancing)
Columbia (1972)
1973
• Newport Jazz Festival: Live at Carnegie Hall (Live)
Pablo (1970-1989)
1966
• The Stockholm Concert, 1966 (Live) (with Duke Ellington)
1970
• Ella in Budapest, Hungary (Live)
1971
• Ella A Nice (Live)
1972
• Jazz at Santa Monica Civic '72 (Live)
1973
• Take Love Easy (with Joe Pass)
1974
• Fine and Mellow (Released in 1979) – Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal
• Ella in London (Live)
1975
• Ella and Oscar (with Oscar Peterson)
• Montreux '75 (Live)
1976
• Fitzgerald and Pass... Again (with Joe Pass) – Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal
1977
• Montreux '77 (Live)
1978
• Lady Time
• Dream Dancing (First released on the Atlantic label as Ella Loves Cole)
1979
• Digital III at Montreux (Live) – Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female
• A Classy Pair (with Count Basie)
• A Perfect Match (Live) (with Count Basie) – Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female
1981
• Ella Abraça Jobim
1982
• The Best Is Yet to Come – Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female
1983
• Speak Love (with Joe Pass)
• Nice Work If You Can Get It (with André Previn)
1986
• Easy Living (with Joe Pass)
1989
• All That Jazz – Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female
Notable guest appearances
1955
• Songs from "Pete Kelly's Blues"
1957
• One o'Clock Jump (with Count Basie and Joe Williams)
1989
• Back on the Block (Qwest Records)
Boxed sets and collections
1994
• The Complete Ella Fitzgerald Songbooks
1997
• The Complete Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong on Verve
