Ella Fitzgerald
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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. She is widely considered to have been one of the supreme interpreters of the Great American Songbook. One of her greatest album released was, Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook.
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About
Ella Fitzgerald was born on April 25, 1917 in Newport News, Virginia to "William Fitzgerald" and "Temperance Fitzgerald". The two parted ways shortly after Ella's birth. Ella and her mother moved to Yonkers, New York. Her mother later moved in with a boyfriend named Joe, whom Ella came to regard as a stepfather. To support the family, Joe dug ditches and was a part-time chauffeur, while Tempie worked at a laundromat and did some catering.
In her youth, Ella wanted to be a dancer, though she loved listening to jazz recordings of Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby and The Boswell Sisters. When she was growing up amateur talent competitions were commonplace. At the age of 17, she entered an amateur night talent contest at the Apollo Theater with a dancing routine. Because of the reputation of the Apollo crowd for being hard on performers, she developed stage fright and sang, instead. She won the contest.
In January 1935 she won the chance to perform for a week with the Tiny Bradshaw band at the Harlem Opera House. “Charlie Linton”, who sang with the Chick Webb band at the Savoy Ballroom, heard her. Chick offered Ella the opportunity to test with his band when they played a dance at Yale University. Despite the rough crowd, Ella was a great success, and Chick hired her to travel with the band.
Ella recorded several hit songs with them, including "Love and Kisses" and "(If You Can't Sing It) You'll Have to Swing It". But it was her 1938 version of the nursery rhyme, "A-Tisket, A-Tasket", a song she co-wrote, that brought her wide public acclaim. The album sold 1 million copies, hit number one, and stayed on the pop charts for 17 weeks. Suddenly, Ella became famous.
Other hits with Chick included "Sing Me A Swing Song", "Oh, Yes, Take Another Guess", "The Dipsy Doodle", "If Dreams Come True", "F.D.R. Jones" and "Undecided". Chick died on June 16, 1939, and his band was renamed "Ella Fitzgerald and her Famous Orchestra" with Ella taking the role of bandleader.
In 1942, Ella left the band to begin a solo career. She was teamed with the Ink Spots, Louis Jordan and the Delta Rhythm Boys for some best-sellers and in 1946 began working regularly for "Norman Granz's Jazz" at the Philharmonic.
She toured with Dizzy Gillespie's big band, adopted bop as part of her style and started including exciting scat-filled romps in her set. Her recordings of "Lady Be Good," "How High the Moon" and "Flying Home" during 1945-47 became popular and her stature as a major jazz singer rose. She was certainly the most popular jazz singer with non-jazz audiences, and through judicious choice of repertoire, became the foremost female interpreter of the Great American Popular Song Book.
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 with the artists she covered. Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook, released in 1956, was the first of eight "Songbooks" Ella would record for Verve.
She had health problems, beginning with her eyes in the seventies and continuing with her heart in the eighties, which slowed her career, but she continued to perform, even if she was on crutches, until the early nineties. Even in her sickness, the perfection of her voice never failed.
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. By 1994, Ella 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.
Her honorary doctorates and Grammies and other awards are almost numberless and yet when we think of Ella, what we will always hear is that pure, passionate, endlessly creating voice, and the soul behind it, telling us what she knows about life and love and hope and courage.
Awards & Certifications
| Year | Award | Category] |
|---|---|---|
| 1959 | Grammy Award | Best Jazz Performance, Soloist |
| 1959 | Grammy Award | Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook" |
| 1959 | Grammy Award | Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Songbook" |
| 1959 | Grammy Award | Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance, Soloist for "But Not for Me" |
| 1959 | Grammy Award | Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Ella Swings Lightly" |
| 1960 | Grammy Award | Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Berlin: Mack the Knife" |
| 1962 | Grammy Award | Best Jazz Vocal for "Ella Swings Brightly with Nelson" |
| 1967 | Grammy Award | Lifetime Achievement Award |
| 1976 | Grammy Award | Best Jazz Vocal for "Fitzgerald and Pass... Again" |
| 1979 | Grammy Award | Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female for "Fine and Mellow" |
| 1980 | Grammy Award | Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female for "A Perfect Match" |
| 1981 | Grammy Award | Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female for "Digital III at Montreux" |
| 1983 | Grammy Award | Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female for "The Best Is Yet to Come" |
| 1990 | Grammy Award | Best Historical Album for "All That Jazz" |
| 1995 | Grammy Award | Best Historical Album for "Ella Fitzgerald Songbooks" |
Chart Toppers
| Year | Pop Albums | Album |
|---|---|---|
| 1955 | 7 | Songs From Pete Kelly's Blues |
| 1956 | 12 | Ella and Louis |
| 1956 | 15 | Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Cole Porter Song Book |
| 1957 | 11 | Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Rodgers and Hart Song Book |
News
Tours & Concerts
There are no current tour and concert schedules for Ella Fitzgerald.
Announcements
There are no announcements as of this time
Discography
Albums
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Singles
| Date | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Stick it in Your Ear | Verve |
Compilations & Live Releases
| Date | Album | Label | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1935 | With The Chick Webb Band | Flapper | |
| 1935 | Dreams Come True | Drive Archive | |
| 1937 | Ella Swings Easy | Memoir | |
| 1938 | Ella and Her Fellas | Decca | |
| 1938 | 75th Birthday Celebration | GRP | |
| 1938 | Ella: The Legendary Decca Recordings | GRP | |
| 1939 | The Chick Webb Orchestra Directed By Ella Fitzgerald | Jazz Anthology | |
| 1940 | Ella Fitzgerald and Her Orchestra | Sunbeam | |
| 1940 | Sing Song Swing | Laserlight | |
| 1940 | Live From The Roseland Ballroom New York 1941 | Jazz Anthology | |
| 1941 | The War Years | GRP | |
| 1946 | Ella Sings Gershwin | Decca | |
| 1947 | The First Lady of Song | Decca | |
| 1949 | Ella Fitzgerald Set | Verve | |
| 1949 | The Ultimate Ella Fitzgerald | Verve | |
| 1950 | Pure Ella | Decca | |
| 1953 | Blueella | Pablo | |
| 1953 | The Concert Years | Pablp | |
| 1956 | Best of The Songs Book | Verve | |
| 1956 | The Complete Ella Songs Books | Verve | |
| 1956 | For The Love of Ella | Verve | |
| 1956 | Verve Jazz Masters | Polygram | |
| 1956 | The Silver Collection | Verve | |
| 1956 | Ella Fitzgerald Live | Verve | |
| 1957 | Ella Fitzgerald and Jazz at The Philharmonic | Tax | |
| 1957 | At Newport | Verve | |
| 1957 | Ella and The Opera House | Verve | |
| 1958 | Ella in Rome: The Birthday Concert | Verve | |
| 1958 | The Best of Ella | Decca | |
| 1960 | Mack The Knife: Ella in Berlin | Verve | |
| 1960 | Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas | Polydor | |
| 1961 | Ella Returns To Berlin | Verve | |
| 1961 | Golden Favorites | Decca | |
| 1964 | Ella at Juan-Les-Pins | Verve | |
| 1965 | Ella in Hamburg | Verve | |
| 1966 | Ella and Duke at The Cote D' Azur | Verve | |
| 1966 | The Stockholm Concert | Pablo | |
| 1967 | Ella Fitzgerald's Christmas | Capitol | |
| 1973 | Carnegie Hall 1973 | Jazzotheque | |
| 1973 | Newport Jazz Festival:Live at Carnegie Hall | Columbia | |
| 1975 | Ella Fitzgerald at The Montreux Jazz Festival | Pablo | |
| 1979 | Digital 3 at Montreux | Pablo | |
| 1991 | Ella Subgs, Chick Swings | Olympic | |
| 1993 | Ella By Starlight | Quicksilver | |
| 1993 | Love and Kisses | Laserlight | |
| 1994 | The Incomparable Ella | Universal Jazz | |
| 1994 | The Essential | Polygram | |
| 1994 | Live at Newport | Tristar | |
| 1994 | Millenium Anthology | Millenium | |
| 1994 | First Ladies of Jazz | Fat Boy | |
| 1995 | Roseland Dance City | Canby | |
| 1995 | Christmas with Ella | Cema Special Markets | |
| 1995 | Swing Me A Swing Song | Jazz Hour | |
| 1995 | It's A Blue World | Drive | |
| 1995 | Daydream | Verve | |
| 1996 | The Platinum Collection | Charly Budget | |
| 1997 | Revue Collection | Revue Collection | |
| 1998 | Classic Decade | Prism Leisure | |
| 1998 | Celebrated | Magnum America | |
| 1998 | Swingsation | GRP | |
| 1998 | Gold Collection | Retro | |
| 1998 | Portrait of Ella Fitzgerald | Gallerie | |
| 1998 | Sings Christmas | Empire | |
| 1999 | Live From The Cave Super Club | Jazz Band | |
| 1999 | Masters of Jazz | Cee-Dee | |
| 1999 | Classic Ella | Charly | |
| 1999 | Forever Gold | St. Clair | |
| 1999 | Compact Ella Live | IMS | |
| 1999 | Pablo Years | New Note | |
| 1999 | Essential Masters of Jazz | Proper | |
| 1999 | Rhythm and Romance | Brisa Entertainment | |
| 1999 | Radio Years 1940 | Storyville | |
| 1999 | In Budapest | Pablo | |
| 2000 | Classics | Classics | |
| 2000 | Jazz and Blues | Blues and Jazz | |
| 2000 | In The Groove | Buddha | |
| 2000 | Universal Master Collection | Universal | |
| 2000 | The Early Years | Dog N' Roll | |
| 2001 | Two Sides of Ella | Dutton Vocalion | |
| 2001 | Jazz Collection | Sony International | |
| 2001 | Signature Series | Direct Source | |
| 2001 | Cheek to Cheek | Midnite | |
| 2001 | Masters | Eagle | |
| 2001 | Sophisticated Lady | Pablo | |
| 2001 | Selection of Ella | Proper | |
| 2001 | Basin Street Blues | Elap | |
| 2001 | Shine | Laserlight | |
| 2002 | Les 100 Plus Grands | Virgin France | |
| 2002 | A Fine Romance | 303 Recordings | |
| 2002 | Golden Greats | Golden Greats | |
| 2002 | Queen of Jazz | Newsound 2000 | |
| 2003 | 20th Century Masters -The Millenium Collection: The Best of Ella Fitzgerlad | Verve | |
| 2003 | Ella For Lovers | Verve | |
| 2003 | Love You Madly | Delta | |
| 2004 | Introducing Ella | Naxos Jazz | |
| 2004 | The Jazz | Suave | |
| 2005 | Tenderly | Bellevue Entertainment | |
| 2005 | Airmail Special | Quadromania | |
| 2005 | Ella | Universal Jazz | |
| 2006 | Love Songs | Laserlight | |
| 2006 | 75 Original Recordings | Prsim | |
| 2006 | My Man | Creative Sounds | |
| 2006 | 18 Greatest | Direct Sourcee | |
| 2006 | What A Wonderful Duet | Music Gallery | |
| 2006 | Ella Christmas | Capitol | |
| 2006 | Definitive Gold | Deva Ju | |
| 2006 | Live in Stockholm 1957 | Lone Hill Jazz | |
| 2007 | Live in San Francisco | Verve | |
| 2007 | Diamond | Prism | |
| 2007 | The Great American Songbook | Deluxe | |
| 2007 | The Essential Collection | Avid | |
| 2007 | Double Best Collection | Double Best | |
| 2007 | Love Letters From Ella | Concord Jazz | |
| 2007 | Miss Ella's Playhouse | Verve |
Other artists
Similar artists
Contemporaries
Influences
Trivia
- In 1979, Ella was elected by the Readers into the Down Beat Hall of Fame.
- Ella is also an inspiration for her lifetime of good works, receiving the Whitney M. Young, Jr., Award of the Los Angeles Urban League, the first woman to receive it
- Charter inductee of the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1978.
- Ranked #13 on VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock N Roll.
- Pictured on a 39¢ USA commemorative postage stamp in the Black Heritage series, issued 10 January 2007.
Reviews
External Links
Categories: Artist | Ballads | Swing | Traditional Pop | Vocal Jazz
