Fitzgerald, Ella

April 25, 1918
June 15, 1996

In a career lasting half a century, jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald's superb pitch and diction, infallible sense of rhythm, and masterful scat singing all became part of the fabric of American music, and she was recognized as one "First Lady of Song." While her background and technique were rooted in jazz, she was always a popular singer, with a soothing yet crystalline sound that brought wide acclaim. Born in Newport News, Virginia, she came north as a child to Yonkers, New York, with her mother. In 1934, on a dare, she entered a Harlem amateur-night contest as a dancer but became immobile with stage fright when called on to perform. Instead, she sang two songs popularized by the Boswell Sisters, "Judy" and "The Object of My Affection," and won first prize.

After she had won several more amateur competitions, an opportunity came in February 1935, when she appeared at the Apollo and was spotted by Bardu Ali, the master of ceremonies for Chick Webb's band, who persuaded Webb to hire her. Fitzgerald began performing with Webb's band at the Savoy Club and cut her first record, "Love and Kisses," with them in June 1935. Inspired by a nursery rhyme, Fitzgerald cowrote and recorded "ATisket, A-Tasket" with Webb's group in 1938; it became one of the most successful records of the swing era and transformed the young singer into a national celebrity.

When Webb died suddenly in 1939, Fitzgerald assumed nominal leadership of his band, which broke up two years later. During the 1940s she gained prominence as a solo performer through hit records that showcased her versatility. Influenced by Dizzy Gillespie and bebop, in 1947 she recorded, "Oh, Lady Be Good" and "How High the Moon," two songs that utilized her scat singing, the wordless vocal improvising that became her signature style. By the early 1950s she had appeared around the world with the star-studded Jazz and the Philharmonic tours organized by Norman Granz, a record producer and impresario who became her manager in 1954. Under his supervision and on his Verve label, she recorded The Cole Porter Songbook in 1956, followed by anthologies devoted to George and Ira Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, and other popular composers. Heavily arranged and cannily designed to promote both songwriter and performer, Fitzgerald's "songbooks" extended her appeal.

By the 1960s Fitzgerald was one of the world's most respected and successful singers. In the following years, she became something of an institution, regularly honored. She was named "Best Female Vocalist" by Down Beat magazine several times, and she won more Grammy Awards than any other female jazz singer. Following heart bypass surgery in 1986, she suffered from erratic health, but she intermittently recorded and gave concerts until her death in 1996.

See also Jazz; Jazz Singers; Music

Bibliography

Colin, Sid. Ella: The Life and Times of Ella Fitzgerald. London: Trafalgar Square, 1986.

Gourse, Leslie. The Ella Fitzgerald Companion: Seven Decades of Commentary. Woodbridge, Conn.: Schirmer Books, 1998.

Kliment, Bud. Ella Fitzgerald. New York: Chelsea House, 1988.

Pleasants, Henry. "Ella Fitzgerald." In The Great American Popular Singers. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1974, pp. 168–180.

bud kliment (1996)
Updated by publisher 2005