Ella Fitzgerald
April 25, 1917 — June 15, 1996 — Beverly Hills, California
Ella Fitzgerald — "The First Lady of Song" — had a voice of such range, warmth, and precision that she became the standard against which all jazz and pop vocalists are measured.
Discovery
Born on April 25, 1917 in Newport News, Virginia, Fitzgerald's early years were difficult — her mother died when she was fifteen. She took the stage at Harlem's Apollo Amateur Night in 1934, won on her first try, and was soon hired by drummer and bandleader Chick Webb. By 1938 her novelty swing hit "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" had reached number one and made her a household name.
The Songbook Series
Her landmark achievement was the Songbook series: eight double albums for Verve between 1956 and 1964, devoted to the composers of the Great American Songbook — Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, and others. The Cole Porter Songbook (1956) was the first, and together the series effectively rescued the Songbook from the lounge-act circuit and established it as art.
Did You Know?
When Fitzgerald took the stage at Harlem's Apollo Amateur Night in 1934, she had planned to dance — not sing. She switched at the last minute because she was too nervous. She won the competition, was hired by Chick Webb's orchestra, and never looked back.
Scat & Legacy
Fitzgerald's scat singing was a discipline unto itself — her ability to improvise with the precision and expressivity of a horn player is documented across dozens of live recordings. She worked with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie across a fifty-year career. She won thirteen Grammy Awards, including the first Grammy ever awarded for Best Female Jazz Vocal Performance. She died on June 15, 1996, in Beverly Hills, at seventy-eight.