Ella Fitzgerald
This date in 1918 marks the birth of Ella Fitzgerald, a Black jazz singer from Newport News, Virginia.
Considered one of the greatest singers in jazz history, Fitzgerald moved as a child with her mother and stepfather to Yonkers, New York. As a teenager, she began winning amateur talent contests at the Harlem Opera House and its nearby competitor, the Apollo Theater. This recognition led to an invitation to sing with drummer and bandleader Chick Webb at the Savoy Ballroom. Upon Webb’s death in 1939, Fitzgerald became the band's leader.
By the 1940s, Ella Fitzgerald had established a style that was a warm and lovely voice, unfailingly accurate pitch, superb clarity of diction, and an irresistible sense of swing. In the 1950s, she began a series of songbook recordings, interpreting classics by Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, and Cole Porter. She also made collaborative recordings with legendary bandleaders such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie. She earned 14 Grammy Awards (including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1967), many honorary doctorates, and other prizes, and she gave generously to charitable and humanitarian causes.
She successfully brought jazz into mainstream American culture and was dubbed the "First Lady of Song." Ella Fitzgerald died on June 15, 1996; a year later, her son and attorney presented her archives to the Smithsonian Institution, which opened an exhibition on her life and contributions in 1998.
A Century of Jazz by Roy Carr
Da Capo Press, New York
Copyright 1997
ISBN 0-306-80778-5
