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Ella Fitzgerald

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Max Mink Mgr. 1613 Euclid Ave., Cleveland Call and Post, June 1, 1950 Pg. 5D
Max Mink Mgr. 1613 Euclid Ave., Cleveland Call and Post, June 1, 1950 Pg. 5D

Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996), also known as "Lady Ella" and the "First Lady of Song", is considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century.[1]

With a vocal range spanning three octaves, she was noted for her purity of tone, phrasing and intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing. She is widely considered to have been one of the supreme interpreters of the Great American Songbook.[2]

Over a recording career that lasted 57 years, she was the winner of 13 Grammy Awards, and was awarded the National Medal of Art by Ronald Reagan and the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George H. W. Bush.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Ella Jane Fitzgerald was born in Newport News, Virginia, the child of a common-law marriage between William and Temperance "Tempie" Fitzgerald.[3]

The pair separated soon after her birth and she and her mother moved to Yonkers, New York, with Tempie's boyfriend, Joseph Da Silva. Fitzgerald's half-sister, Frances Da Silva, was born in 1923. As a child, Fitzgerald was placed in the Colored Orphan Asylum in Riverdale, the Bronx.[4]

In her youth, she wanted to be a dancer, although she loved listening to jazz recordings by Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby and The Boswell Sisters. She idolized the lead singer Connee Boswell, later saying, "My mother brought home one of her records, and I fell in love with it....I tried so hard to sound just like her."[5]

In 1932, her mother died from a heart attack.[6] After staying with Da Silva for a short time, she was taken in by Tempie's sister, Virginia. Shortly afterward, Da Silva suffered a heart attack and died, and her sister Frances joined Ella at Virginia's home in New York City.[6]

Following these traumas, Fitzgerald's grades dropped dramatically, and she frequently skipped school. At one point, she worked as a lookout at a bordello and also with a Mafia-affiliated numbers runner.[7] After getting into trouble with the police, she was taken into custody and sent to a reform school. Eventually she escaped from the reformatory, and for a time was homeless.

She made her singing debut at 17 on November 21, 1934 at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. She pulled in a weekly audience at the Apollo and she won the opportunity to compete in one of the earliest of its famous "Amateur Nights." She had originally intended to go on stage and dance but, intimidated by the Edwards Sisters, a local dance duo, she opted to sing instead, in the style of Connie Boswell. She sang Hoagy Carmichael's "Judy" and "The Object of My Affection", a song recorded by the Boswell Sisters, and won the first prize of US$25.00.[8]

[edit] Ella Fitzgerald : One note Samba (scat singing) 1969

[edit] References

  1. ^ Scott Yanow. "Ella Fitzgerald". allmusic.com. Retrieved on 2007-03-16.
  2. ^ Vickie Smith, Jazz Vocalist. "Dedicated To Ella". VickieSmith.com. Retrieved on 2007-03-16.
  3. ^ Nicholson, Stuart (1993). Ella Fitzgerald: A Biography of the First Lady of Jazz. New York: C. Scribner's Sons. ISBN 0-575-40032-3.
    For many years Fitzgerald's birthdate was thought to be on the same date one year later in 1918 — and is still listed as such in some sources — but research by Nicholson has established 1917 as the correct year of her birth.
  4. ^ Bernstein, Nina. "Ward of the State;The Gap in Ella Fitzgerald's Life", The New York Times, June 23, 1996. Accessed May 3, 2008. "Her most recent biographer, Stuart Nicholson, has surmised that the authorities caught up with her and placed her in the Colored Orphan Asylum in Riverdale."
  5. ^ Stephen Holden (1996-06-16). "Ella Fitzgerald, the Voice of Jazz, Dies at 79", The New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-04-06.
  6. ^ a b
  7. ^ Frank Rich (1996-06-19). "Journal; How High the Moon". The New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-04-06.
  8. ^ Jim Moret (1996-06-15). "‘First Lady of Song’ passes peacefully, surrounded by family", CNN. Retrieved on 2007-01-30.
  • Gourse, Leslie (1998). The Ella Fitzgerald Companion. London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-71196-916-7.
  • Johnson, J. Wilfred (2001). Ella Fitzgerald: An Annotated Discography. McFarland. ISBN 0-78640-906-1.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://www.wikimusicmemorabilia.com/Ella_Fitzgerald"
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