“Oh, Lady Be Good” is a similarly effortless cascade of scatting over Benny Goodman’s jovial band, as is “How High the Moon.” But “Airmail Special” is a singular triumph, and one that completely transforms – and ramps up to an ecstatic, euphoric level – in live recordings (notably the one from her 1957 Newport Jazz Festival performance). Granz wrote it into the contracts of his artists that they wouldn't play segregated halls. Following the death of Webb in 1939, Ella was dubbed the orchestra’s new bandleader, and she sang with them through 1942. Tour legs were full of these humiliating discriminations, inconvenient accommodations, and separate venues, but Ella Fitzgerald, magnanimous as ever, still packed her schedule. Despite the hypocrisy, at the age of 24, she was billed as a "special attraction" at USO benefit shows. She released several albums dedicated to these then-retro gems and remade them in her own image, with the Broadway-worthy verve of “I Got Rhythm” and swingin’ charm of “Puttin’ on the Ritz” wooing listeners a generation removed from their creators. However, as reported by NPR, Ella's aunt struggled to support her. Fitzgerald had planned to dance, but after watching the reigning dance duo the Edwards Sisters, she decided to sing. Who could resist Marilyn Monroe? Around the same time that Billie Holiday was making a name for herself on the jazz scene, Ella Fitzgerald was moving along a similar path. In fact, hundreds of copies of "The Muffin Man" were sent to London to boost morale during the Blitz, according to the National World War II Museum New Orleans. Fitzgerald was in and out of hospitals for respiratory illnesses or exhaustion. In fact, the profound impact of the pair's compassionate friendship inspired the 2008 play Marilyn and Ella. Throughout her life, she was intent on bolstering the lives of orphaned children, including funding housing for a war orphan in Naples post-World War II, according to the National World War II Museum of New Orleans. Despite her undeniable talent, both Fletcher Henderson and Chick Webb were initially hesitant to hire Ella Fitzgerald, with her unkempt hair, eyeglasses, and modest clothing. He had two children from his previous marriage, Cole and Ella. From the start, Ella Fitzgerald’s voice was a force, and one that grew more nuanced and respected with time – but the earliest tapes of her singing reveal a vibrant, vivacious appeal that charmed listeners and kept them coming back for more. Listen to the best Ella Fitzgerald songs on Apple Music and Spotify. "I don't want to say the wrong thing, which I always do. “Someone to Watch Over Me” may be one of Gershwin’s most revered accomplishments, and it’s one of Ella’s best songs (particularly her recording with the London Symphony Orchestra, which was taped at Abbey Road Studios). The Lost Berlin Tapes can be bought here. Listeners agreed, and the song was her ticket to fame: she performed it in Abbott & Costello’s 1942 film, Ride ‘Em Cowboy, which served as her onscreen debut. The compositions of Jerome Kern, the Gershwins, Porter, Berlin, Rodgers & Hart, and more soundtracked the jazz age – and were revived, with great success, by Ella Fitzgerald’s refreshing vocals in the 50s. A few more times over the course of their friendship, Monroe stepped in to boost Fitzgerald's signal and advocate for the respect she deserved. It was a love affair of musicians with the same passion — it was also a love affair of conflicting schedules. This is the tragic real-life story of Ella Fitzgerald, who quietly rose from the humble streets of New York to become the beloved American icon with the glass-shattering voice. Ella Fitzgerald might have concealed her troubled years from the public, but they were deeply etched into her psyche. Fitzgerald wowed them with renditions of "The Object of My Affection" and "Judy," imitating her favorite singer Connee Boswell, and won first place. Ironically for such a charismatic performer, Ella Fitzgerald was cripplingly self-conscious and shy. Granz became her manager, signing her to his label Verve when her contract with Decca Records lapsed. But the unflappable Ella Fitzgerald took her bandmates' jabs about her shoes, dresses, and hair in stride. In March 1955, Fitzgerald headlined the Mocambo for a few weeks, selling the house out and bringing in stars like Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland. It was her turn to take the lead at just 22. ". As Ella Fitzgerald’s spotlight grew brighter and bigger, so did her range. Her singular voice proved to be a salve for men and women enduring the fallout of World War II. What she was going to do was stun the crowd. Her renditions of these jazz classics, from the work of Irving Berlin and George and Ira Gershwin to Duke Ellington, have become renowned standards in and of themselves. "I feel grateful that I've been able to pay all those dues... that's how we become greater. As adored and accessible as these immediately recognizable songs are, Fitzgerald was as much a pioneer as she was a powerhouse. She skipped school, and she took up work as a lookout at a bordello and as a courier for a numbers-runner. They were named after John Coltrane (Cole) and Ella Fitzgerald (Ella), Kamala wrote in an essay for Elle . I look at myself and say, 'Now, Ella, you could lose that weight and be just like so-and-so.' Best Blue Note Album Covers: 20 Groundbreaking Artworks, The Women of Stax: Five Unheralded Pioneers, Up To 11: The Songs That Inspired Heavy Metal, The Beatles’ ‘Get Back’ Documentary: Everything You Need To Know, Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images. She had planned on dancing in hopes of securing her shot at fame, but was intimidated by a tap-dancing act who won the crowd over with their fancy footwork before her turn. Like many families during the great migration, Temperance struggled to make ends meet and moved north to Yonkers, New York, with her daughter and new boyfriend Joseph Da Silva. Reportedly, as told to BBC Four Legends, the judge at her annulment told her, "You just keep singing 'A-Tisket, A-Tasket.' Meanwhile, Ray Jr. and his mother were distanced. She learned to imitate her favorite singers on the radio and phonograph and would take trips to the city to check out the latest steps at dance halls. ... was born on April 7, 1915, and died in 1959 at the age … Ella Josephine Baker was born on December 13, 1903 in Norfolk, Virginia. By 1938, Fitzgerald had brought the big band acclaim when she helped co-write the nursery theme "A-Tisket, A-Tasket." Fitzgerald was restricted to certain cars on public transportation and had limited hotel options. After Temperance's passing, it's alleged that Ella's stepfather mistreated her. A list of the best Ella Fitzgerald songs would hardly be complete without her fruitful collaborations with Louis Armstrong. As quoted in Marilyn Monroe: Cover to Cover, Fitzgerald told Ms. Magazine in 1972 that, "I owe Marilyn Monroe a real debt.". As she inched onstage, according to Fitzgerald in the documentary "Ella Fitzgerald — Something to Live For," someone in the famously tough crowd hollered, "What's she going to do?". She founded the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation in 1993, which aimed to provide assistance for at-risk youth and develop art programs. It was an overtly racist sting — Fitzgerald recalled to the Los Angeles Times, "At the police station, they even had the nerve to ask me for my autograph.". However, the delightful jazz, pop, and swing Fitzgerald delivered to the world was not her sole legacy. In the early 1970s, she had an eye cataract removed and also suffered an eye hemorrhage, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. 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Three years later, she found her national breakthrough in an unlikely source: “A-Tisket A-Tasket” made for a sweet spin thanks to its origins as a familiar nursery rhyme, but Ella’s take is anything but juvenile: it borrows the wordplay and melody while giving it an easily danceable beat, one that could easily translate to a bustling dance hall. Fitzgerald enlivened mid-20th century pop music with her popular songbooks featuring the compositions of Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, and Ira and George Gershwin, among others. The romance was cut short when Larsen was arrested for stealing money from a former fiancée and barred from entering the US. "My cousin Georgia always taught me that if you smile, people will like you." At age 79 in 1996, she passed away from a stroke. After that, she was moved to the New York Training School for Girls, a state reformatory school in Albany notorious for its squalid conditions. She filed a lawsuit for $270,000, citing humiliation and pain from racial discrimination, according to the court record. Ella Fitzgerald's big break came at age 17, when she put her name in to perform at the Amateur Talent Night at the Apollo Theater in 1934. In fact, Fitzgerald was said to have been held in the basement of one of the cottages, where she was allegedly beaten and served only bread and water. With a neck-breaking tour schedule, Fitzgerald began to feel the wear on her body after three decades on the road. By 1940, Ella Fitzgerald enjoyed popularity at home and a spark of fame abroad. In 1986, she underwent quintuple bypass surgery and rested for a scant nine months before booking performances again. When the New York Training School for Girls invited her to come back as a "success story" in the 1960s, she refused them. John Travolta receives a beaming 67th birthday tribute from his daughter Ella Travolta, 20, as she gushes 'you are my best friend,' as they celebrate his first birthday without the late Kelly Preston To say that Ella was a great scatter doesn’t quite capture it. As a girl, Ella was meek but still incredibly ambitious. Running away from the reformatory school, she lived hand-to-mouth and danced for tips on 125th Street in New York. The pair adopted the son of Fitzgerald's half-sister and named him Ray Jr., but their son was frequently in the care of Fitzgerald's aunt Virginia due to touring. “Cry Me A River” was originally penned for Ella by Arthur Hamilton, and though the scorned anthem has led many to the mic, her version in all its glowering glory is pure, potent emotion. Sadly, Chick Webb died of tuberculosis in 1939, and Fitzgerald lost her friend and father figure. A list of the best Ella Fitzgerald songs simply must include a section on one specific part of her singing ability: With her exceptional enunciation, quick tongue, and mighty lungs, Ella Fitzgerald could deliver rapid-fire scat outbursts that took a straightforward performance into immortal territory. Despite championing equality in their policies, many USO shows were segregated: Of 3,000 total USO clubs, only 109 staffed by white volunteers would admit African Americans. "I worked with the band when we had to travel through the South, and I went through all those experiences," Fitzgerald said of her early career in Ella Fitzgerald — Something to Live For. At an early age, Ella already knew stories about slavery and slave revolts from her maternal grandmother who was born into slavery. Full film now streaming. According to the Los Angeles Times, she was shaking in her boots to perform with Bing Crosby in the 1940s, and when she met Clint Eastwood, she ended up asking him for an autograph. Still a ward of the state, Ella Fitzgerald was paroled to Chick Webb's band, as noted by History. Features Best Ella Fitzgerald Songs: 20 Standards From The First Lady Of Jazz. At age 30, Fitzgerald married bassist Ray Brown. Bandmates reported that she always went straight home from live shows. Ella Fitzgerald. Even when she flubbed the lines, she won over audiences. Her father left the picture when Ella was two and a half, and she never developed any relationship with him. With her soft-spoken humility and endless dedication to her craft, Lady Ella never stopped trying to earn the love of her audience. In the fall of 1934, Ella Fitzgerald – then a homeless, 17-year-old girl in Harlem – took the stage at the Apollo Theater’s very first Amateur Night. She joined the ranks of Chick Webb’s orchestra as its velvet voice within a year of her triumphant Amateur Night debut. The Tragic Real-Life Story Of Ella Fitzgerald, National World War II Museum of New Orleans. That determined young girl would be waylaid by grief. The word “bebop” literally originated in one of her improvisational interludes. By 1933, she'd fled to her aunt's in Harlem to escape. Hear Ella like you’ve never heard her before on The Lost Berlin Tapes, featuring her performance at Berlin’s Sportpalast on March 25, 1962 and finds Fitzgerald at the top of her game with a trio led by pianist Paul Smith, Wilfred Middlebrooks on bass, and Stan Levey on drums. A focal point of Fitzgerald's anxiety was her weight. When her half-sister passed away, Fitzgerald saw to supporting her extended family financially, and that required even more dates. Norman Granz was not solely a champion of artistic progressiveness, but he also lobbied for top and equal treatment for his signed performers, per NPR. Sometimes, she fought back. Fitzgerald would later say that meeting Norman Granz, who became her advocate and business partner through the 1970s, "was a turning point in my life.". Though Fitzgerald was providing a service, she still — like her contemporary African American performers — experienced heinous racial discrimination during her time volunteering. Encouraged by bandmates and handlers to end the marriage, Fitzgerald got an annulment a year later. When Chick Webb first saw her, he whispered to Charles Linton, "You're not puttin' that on my bandstand," according to the Houston Symphony. "I never knew how good our songs were," Ira Gershwin once said, as quoted by The New York Times, "until I heard Ella Fitzgerald sing them.". As noted by The New York Times, it was Granz who first suggested that Fitzgerald record songbooks of major composers, a career-defining pivot. She was an effortless scatter, fluent in jazz’s improvisational language; she never settled for the comforts of success and challenged herself to sing swing, musical theater, pop, and beyond, a mix that made her shows (and her subsequent live albums) captivating proof of her prowess. With peerless diction and a girlish tone, Fitzgerald had a breakthrough hit by 1938 and brought the melodic ease of scatting and swing to an audience reeling from the effects of the Great Depression, and soon, the coming war. She was presented with the Kennedy Center’s Medal of Honor in 1979, as well as the presidential medal of freedom in 1992, and her work is preserved by both the Smithsonian Institute and Library of Congress. As much a pioneer as she was a powerhouse, Ella Fitzgerald’s timeless tunes only get better with age. With her truancy and ties with criminal work, Fitzgerald was sent to the overcrowded Colored Orphan Asylum in Riverdale, according to The New York Times. “Satin Doll,” her 1953 version of Ellington’s jazz standard, is a textbook example of doing the most with less: accompanied by a tight, demure band, Ella vocalized, simply and wordlessly telling a story with the ebb and flow of the melody. After a few trial gigs, Webb asked her to join the band for $12.50 a week. It was hard for Ella Fitzgerald to keep a social life outside of her grueling 45-weeks-per-year touring schedule. The American Songbook truly met its modern match in Ella. “Blue Skies,” with the swell of the big band and her effervescent scatting, is a perfect example of Ella in her prime: every vocal flourish and captivating improvisation makes the song her own. Her catalog, which, by the late 1940s, consisted of standouts like "Flying Home" and "Lady Be Good," was full of fluffy novelty tunes that were considered below her skill level by critics. I'm going to be famous," as told in Stuart Nicholson's biography Ella Fitzgerald: A Biography of the First Lady of Jazz. She would become an interpreter of great composers and expand her work to major concert venues like Carnegie Hall and take bit parts in films like Pete Kelly's Blues and St. Louis Blues. “Mack the Knife” was already a hit by the time Ella covered the song in 1960, but a recording of her performing it with the Paul Smith quartet in Berlin – on a night where she forgot the words, and sang some of her own off-the-cuff lyrics instead – earned her a Grammy. In 1941, after Chick Webb's death, Ella Fitzgerald married Benjamin Kornegay, a shipyard worker known for petty theft and drug-dealing. Fitzgerald, underage in a discriminatory world, was powerless in the legal system. Ella Fitzgerald defies the often-held misconceptions that singers aren’t as virtuosic as their instrumentalist counterparts. Then I'll get real self-conscious," she said in Ella Fitzgerald – Something to Live For. Knowing that it was a dose of luck and talent that had uplifted her from poverty, Fitzgerald sought to enrich the lives of all disadvantaged children. Soon, Ella was singing with bands as they provided the soundtrack for smoke-filled dance halls, like Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom, and swinging, sultry jazz nights across town. It's reported that on a crowded train near the DC area, Fitzgerald took a seat on a whites-only car after she was unable to find other seating. Ella Lopez is the Los Angeles Police Department's forensic scientist. Her standards became the standard at the intersection of jazz and pop. In 1993, tragically, Fitzgerald's legs were amputated below the knees due to complications from diabetes, and her touring stopped, as told by Encyclopedia Britannica. She was the first black female artist to win a Grammy, and collected 13 over the course of her career (and that doesn’t count her lifetime achievement award, which she received in 1967). 1956’s Lullabies of Birdland offers a masterclass in the form: “Flying Home” does have a few lyrics, but Ella’s scatting coasts the curves of every chord progression as the song gallops to its finish. The following year, when the nightclub Mocambo in West Hollywood refused to book Fitzgerald because of her weight and looks, Monroe leveraged her star power. The First Lady of Song, the Queen of Jazz, Lady Ella — whatever you call jazz, swing, and bebop legend Ella Fitzgerald, it can hardly encapsulate the incomparable pitch, melodic sophistication, expert diction, and crystalline clarity of her voice. Rarely giving interviews, the First Lady of Song only ever felt at home when she was onstage. Ella Fitzgerald was born in Newport News, Virginia, on April 25, 1917, to her mother, Temperance Fitzgerald. She navigated dance floor ditties and mournful ballads with ease, collaborated with legendary bandleaders like Benny Goodman and Count Basie, and belted and crooned her way through the great American Songbook. Her first credited song, 1935’s “I’ll Chase the Blues Away” with the Chick Webb Orchestra, is a buoyant, cheerful flirtation of an introduction, a love note set to a toe-tapping beat. I think I do better when I sing," she was quoted as saying by CNN. ", In 1955, Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, and a few members of their bands were arrested in Jim Crow-era Houston for playing dice in their dressing rooms backstage. The Jazz Age was a period in the 1920s and 1930s in which jazz music and dance styles rapidly gained nationwide popularity in the United States. Healing from her divorce, it was rumored that Fitzgerald had a secret marriage with Norwegian producer Thor Einar Larsen in 1957, per The Independent. Your email address will not be published. However, that all changed in 1954, when actress Marilyn Monroe, at the peak of her Gentlemen Prefer Blondes fame, saw Fitzgerald perform, and the two became fast friends. Renamed Ella and Her Famous Orchestra, the group went on to record 150 songs before disbanding in 1941, per the National World War II Museum New Orleans. Due to her race, Fitzgerald was sometimes asked to enter a club from the side door — but not anymore. Fitzgerald proved that talent and verve transcended first impressions. Championed today as a civil rights pioneer, Ella Fitzgerald experienced plenty of discrimination in her career. Enter the game-changing Norman Granz, who invited her to join the Jazz at the Philharmonic series in 1949. Her parents, Georgiana and Blake Baker, raised her in Littleton, North Carolina, where they moved when Ella was seven years old. Required fields are marked *. From that exposure, Fitzgerald met bandleader Chick Webb, who was looking for an accompanying female singer for Charlie Linton. In 1954, Fitzgerald and her entourage were bumped from a Pan American flight, for which she had a first-class ticket, on the way to the Australian leg of her tour, as reported by The New York Times. Like her peers, Fitzgerald volunteered her talents with the United Service Organizations (USO), bringing her musical stylings to troops. Ella Fitzgerald, known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an immensely popular American jazz and song vocalist who interpreted much of the Great American Songbook. That lack of ego persisted even as Fitzgerald's fame skyrocketed through the decades. There, young Ella thrived in school, taking an interest in the church choir and dance and falling in love with the jazz records her mother brought home. When interviewed by CBC about the incident, Fitzgerald said she got "a nice settlement" and, in the face of discrimination, wouldn't hesitate to sue again. As much a pioneer as she was a powerhouse, Ella Fitzgerald’s timeless tunes only get better with age. Their voices made for stark textural foils, but soulmates in song: their first album together, 1956’s Ella and Louis, featured their smooth interpretation of the Gershwins’ “They Can’t Take That Away From Me,” as well as Berlin’s “Cheek to Cheek.” The pair were constantly in musical dialogue with each other, even when Satchmo doesn’t sing a word: his trumpet is a warm, brassy partner for Ella’s hypnotizing vocals. Though Ella Fitzgerald became one of the most successful and highly decorated vocal performers of a generation, her small beginnings remained a motivation for her work. After she moved to Harlem, Ella Fitzgerald entered a dark period — one she almost never spoke of publicly. The Queen of Jazz, the First Lady of Song, Lady Ella – no matter the title, listeners have loved Ella Fitzgerald and her music for nearly a century, and it’s no wonder that her timeless songs only get better with age. In many ways, Ella Fitzgerald regarded her role as the Queen of Jazz more seriously than her own heath. According to PBS American Masters, Fitzgerald slept wherever she could, essentially homeless. The other reason was that she simply needed the money, noted her friend Phoebe Jacobs in a BBC Four Legends special. "I always try to think 'I'm going to be happy.' While the conductor forced her off, a group of white sailors insisted that she remain with them. Fitzgerald had planned to dance, but after watching the reigning dance duo the Edwards Sisters, she decided to sing. Ella Fitzgerald's big break came at age 17, when she put her name in to perform at the Amateur Talent Night at the Apollo Theater in 1934. When she tried to join the school choir, she was banned due to her race. She played at least once a month through the early 1990s, according to The New York Times. Two more albums followed, 1957’s Ella and Louis Again, which offered their dizzyingly romantic “Autumn in New York,” and 1959’s Porgy and Bess. Stuck in Honolulu and unable to reboard to retrieve their belongings, Fitzgerald was forced to cancel her first two tour dates. Singer Charles Linton recalled, in Stuart Nicholson's Ella Fitzgerald: A Biography of the First Lady of Jazz, how when Fitzgerald saw people staring at her, she assumed it was about her appearance, not the more likely reason that they were huge fans. And so she turned herself into a force of music." “Summertime,” the haunting signature melody from Gershwin’s opera, is a swooning, jazzy shade of the lullaby – one that beautifully amplifies Ella’s incredible phrasing. With the Cole Porter Songbook and the Rodgers & Hart Songbook, she was exposed to the public as more than a jazz or scat singer. The ballads were just as captivating, and the palpable longing on Rodgers & Harts’ “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” is the stuff of slow-dance dreams. "I used to wish I was pretty," Fitzgerald recalled, per the book Words of Wisdom. Your email address will not be published. Despite her immense popularity from novelty songs and singles from the 1940s, Ella Fitzgerald's race and plain appearance kept her relegated to small jazz clubs and far from major nightclubs. Per Biography, Monroe cut a deal with Mocambo's owner that she — along with her celebrity friends — would sit in the front of the club if, in exchange, he gave Fitzgerald a try. On 125th Street in New York Times the same passion — it was also love... For remaining active through decades of weakening health was that she remain with them Fitzgerald experienced of... 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