Known as "The First Lady of Song,"
Ella Fitzgerald was the most popular female jazz singer in the United States for more than half a century and is considered one of the most influential jazz artists of the Twentieth Century. In her lifetime, she won 13 Grammy awards and sold over 40 million albums. She was also awarded the National Medal of Art by Ronald Reagan and the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George H. W.
Bush. She was born Ella Jane Fitzgerald in Newport News, Virginia, on April 25, 1917, but soon moved to Yonkers, New York with her mother. Although she
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initially wanted to be a dancer, Ella soon turned to song and made her singing debut at seventeen on November 21, 1934 at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York, where she won first prize in an amateur’s night contest. Shortly thereafter, Chick Webb sent his vocalist out to find a pretty lady singer to help push his
Orchestra to the popular heights that Webb desired. He brought back Fitzgerald to Webb. Webb initially refused to let her sing, thinking that she lacked the looks he was seeking. The vocalist persuaded Webb to give Ella a chance and she was an instant hit. The Chick Webb Orchestra took off and turned out hit after hit. The song A-Tisket, A-Tasket remained at #1 for 17 weeks.
When Webb died, Ella took over the orchestra. She continued recording in the Forties, but in the Fifties, her career took off. She signed with Verve records and Verve impresario Norman Granz set her up with her classic songbook series, in which she recorded separate records, each containing Ella Fitzgerald songs dedicated to a different composer, such as
Cole Porter, George and Ira Gershwin, Johnny Mercer,
Irving Berlin, and
Duke Ellington. She also recorded with
Louis Armstrong. Critics agreed that at his point in her career, Ella’s voice had reached full maturity with its smooth, creamy richness. Though she lacked the emotional drama of
Billie Holiday, she had mastered the ballad and could scat like no other. From the mid-sixties on, her voice declined somewhat, but she continued to record and toured until poor health overtook her and she stopped recording in 1989. Ella Fitzgerald died in 1996, but not before she had left her mark as an unparalleled jazz superstar.
