Ella Fitzgerald in 1955 on the verge of becoming one of the few jazz icons to command a popular audience.
Ella Fitzgerald was one of the great singers of the century, and the most important practitioner of bebop and jazz scat singing. Her career, spanning seven decades, rested on an upbeat, joyful expressiveness and a nimble vocal quality that was unrivalled.
Fitzgerald was born on April 25, 1917, to a poor family in Virginia. Her childhood was difficult and after the death of both parents she was sent to live in an orphanage in New York. There she dreamed of singing and dancing, and when, at age 17, she won the Apollo Theater amateur contest in Harlem, her career was ready to take off. She was soon performing with the Chick Webb big band, and in 1937 had her first hit song, “A-Tisket, A-Tasket.” The song, which Fitzgerald co-wrote, was representative of a tendency, especially early in her career, toward pop and novelty songs.
In the 1940s, Fitzgerald performed with Dizzy GILLE-SPIE’S big band, and began to develop her “scat” solos. Scat is when a singer improvises a solo using sets of seemingly nonsense syllables to give vocal variety. Singing and scatting on songs such as “Lady Be Good” and “How High the Moon” established Fitzgerald as a scat singer. In 1948, she married bassist Ray Brown, who was leading his own band. She performed with Brown’s group until the couple divorced in 1952.
In 1956, the promoter Norman Granz became Fitzgerald’s manager. Under Granz’s guidance, she made a series of excellent recordings of the songs of several great songwriters, including Ira and George GERSHWIN, Duke ELLINGTON, Cole PORTER, and Richard RODGERS. This series, known as the “songbooks,” was oriented more toward popular music than jazz, and helped spread her reputation to a wider audience.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Fitzgerald continued a busy schedule of performances and recordings, including many on the Pablo label with Count BASIE and Oscar Peterson. Her tremendous vocal abilities and technique began to decline in the 1980s, as did her health, and by 1994 she had retired. She died in 1996.
Fitzgerald is remembered for a great sense of jazz rhythm and melody, and for an impeccable technique. She was blessed with a wide range, and her intonation was nearly flawless. Her vocal tone colour was clear and bright, and while she did not place importance on the meaning of the lyrics, her great virtuosity with rhythm, swing, and melody made her one of jazz’s greatest vocal improvisers. While the songbook series remains popular, it is Ella Fitzgerald’s brilliant scat singing that ensures her a more prominent and permanent place in the history of jazz.
Ella Fitzgerald in 1955 on the verge of becoming one of the few jazz icons to command a popular audience.
Paul Rinzler
SEE ALSO:
BAUZÁ MARIO; BEBOP; JAZZ; POPULAR MUSIC.
FURTHER READING
Gourse, Leslie. The Ella Fitzgerald Companion: Seven Decades of Commentary (New York: Schirmer Books, 1998);
Nicholson, S. Ella Fitzgerald: A Biography of the First Lady of jazz (New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1993).
SUGGESTED LISTENING
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook; Ella
Fitzgerald Sings the Rodgers & Hart Songbook; Ella in
London; Ella in Rome; Mack the Knife; Ella in Berlin;
75th Birthday Celebration.