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Ella Fitzgerald

March 08, 2023

Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.

Ella Fitzgerald
Fitzgerald, c. 1962
Born
Ella Jane Fitzgerald

(1917-04-25)April 25, 1917
Newport News, Virginia, U.S.
DiedJune 15, 1996(1996-06-15) (aged 79)
Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Resting placeInglewood Park Cemetery
OccupationSinger
Spouses
  • Benny Kornegay
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1941; annulled 1942)​
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 1947; div. 1953)​
ChildrenRay Brown Jr.
Musical career
Genres
Instrument(s)Vocals
Years active1929–1995
Labels
Websiteellafitzgerald.com

After a tumultuous adolescence, Fitzgerald found stability in musical success with the Chick Webb Orchestra, performing across the country but most often associated with the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. Her rendition of the nursery rhyme "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" helped boost both her and Webb to national fame. After taking over the band when Webb died, Fitzgerald left it behind in 1942 to start her solo career. Her manager was Moe Gale, co-founder of the Savoy,[1] until she turned the rest of her career over to Norman Granz, who founded Verve Records to produce new records by Fitzgerald. With Verve she recorded some of her more widely noted works, particularly her interpretations of the Great American Songbook.

While Fitzgerald appeared in films and as a guest on popular television shows in the second half of the twentieth century, her musical collaborations with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and The Ink Spots were some of her most notable acts outside of her solo career. These partnerships produced some of her best-known songs such as "Dream a Little Dream of Me", "Cheek to Cheek", "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall", and "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)". In 1993, after a career of nearly sixty years, she gave her last public performance. Three years later, she died at age 79 after years of declining health. Her accolades included 14 Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts, the NAACP's inaugural President's Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Early life

Fitzgerald was born on April 25, 1917, in Newport News, Virginia.[2] She was the daughter of William Fitzgerald and Temperance "Tempie" Henry, both described as "mulatto" in the 1920 census.[3] Her parents were unmarried but lived together in the East End section of Newport News[4] for at least two and a half years after she was born. In the early 1920s, Fitzgerald's mother and her new partner, a Portuguese immigrant named Joseph da Silva,[3] moved to Yonkers, in Westchester County, New York.[3] Her half-sister, Frances da Silva, whom she stayed close to for all of her life, was born in 1923.[5] By 1925, Fitzgerald and her family had moved to nearby School Street, a poor Italian area.[5] She began her formal education at the age of six and was an outstanding student, moving through a variety of schools before attending Benjamin Franklin Junior High School in 1929.[6]

Starting in third grade, Fitzgerald loved dancing and admired Earl Snakehips Tucker. She performed for her peers on the way to school and at lunchtime.[7] She and her family were Methodists and were active in the Bethany African Methodist Episcopal Church, where she attended worship services, Bible study, and Sunday school.[7] The church provided Fitzgerald with her earliest experiences in music.[8]

Fitzgerald listened to jazz recordings by Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, and The Boswell Sisters. She loved the Boswell Sisters' lead singer Connee Boswell, later saying, "My mother brought home one of her records, and I fell in love with it...I tried so hard to sound just like her."[9]

In 1932, when Fitzgerald was 15 years old, her mother died from injuries sustained in a car accident.[10] Her stepfather took care of her until April 1933 when she moved to Harlem to live with her aunt.[11] This seemingly swift change in her circumstances, reinforced by what Fitzgerald biographer Stuart Nicholson describes as rumors of "ill treatment" by her stepfather, leaves him to speculate that Da Silva might have abused her.[11]

Fitzgerald began skipping school, and her grades suffered. She worked as a lookout at a bordello and with a Mafia-affiliated numbers runner.[12] She never talked publicly about this time in her life.[13] When the authorities caught up with her, she was placed in the Colored Orphan Asylum in Riverdale in the Bronx.[14] When the orphanage proved too crowded, she was moved to the New York Training School for Girls, a state reformatory school in Hudson, New York.[14]

Early career

 
A young Fitzgerald, photographed by Carl Van Vechten in January 1940

While she seems to have survived during 1933 and 1934 in part by singing on the streets of Harlem, Fitzgerald made her most important debut at the age of 17 on November 21, 1934, in one of the earliest Amateur Nights at the Apollo Theater.[15][16] She had intended to go on stage and dance, but she was intimidated by a local dance duo called the Edwards Sisters and opted to sing instead.[16][17] Performing in the style of Connee Boswell, she sang "Judy" and "The Object of My Affection" and won first prize.[18] She won the chance to perform at the Apollo for a week but, seemingly because of her disheveled appearance, the theater never gave her that part of her prize.[19]

In January 1935, Fitzgerald won the chance to perform for a week with the Tiny Bradshaw band at the Harlem Opera House.[15] Later that year, she was introduced to drummer and bandleader Chick Webb by Benny Carter[20] or Buck Ram[21] who had heard from singer Charlie Linton that Webb wanted to add a female singer. Although "reluctant to sign her...because she was gawky and unkempt, a 'diamond in the rough,'"[9] Webb offered her the opportunity to test with his band at a dance at Yale University.[15]

Met with approval by both audiences and her fellow musicians, Fitzgerald was asked to join Webb's orchestra and gained acclaim as part of the group's performances at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom.[15] Fitzgerald recorded several hit songs, including "Love and Kisses" and "(If You Can't Sing It) You'll Have to Swing It (Mr. Paganini)".[15] But it was her 1938 version of the nursery rhyme, "A-Tisket, A-Tasket", a song she co-wrote, that brought her public acclaim. "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" became a major hit on the radio and was also one of the biggest-selling records of the decade.[17][22]

Webb died of spinal tuberculosis on June 16, 1939,[23] and his band was renamed Ella and Her Famous Orchestra with Fitzgerald taking on the role of bandleader.[24] She recorded nearly 150 songs with Webb's orchestra between 1935 and 1942. In addition to her work with Webb, Fitzgerald performed and recorded with the Benny Goodman Orchestra. She had her own side project, too, known as Ella Fitzgerald and Her Savoy Eight.[25]

Decca years

 
Fitzgerald with Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Brown, Milt Jackson, and Timme Rosenkrantz in New York City, 1947

In 1942, with increasing dissent and money concerns in Fitzgerald's band, Ella and Her Famous Orchestra, she started to work as lead singer with The Three Keys, and in July her band played their last concert at Earl Theatre in Philadelphia.[26][27] While working for Decca Records, she had hits with Bill Kenny & the Ink Spots,[28] Louis Jordan,[29] and the Delta Rhythm Boys.[30] Producer Norman Granz became her manager in the mid-1940s after she began singing for Jazz at the Philharmonic, a concert series begun by Granz.

With the demise of the swing era and the decline of the great touring big bands, a major change in jazz music occurred. The advent of bebop led to new developments in Fitzgerald's vocal style, influenced by her work with Dizzy Gillespie's big band. It was in this period that Fitzgerald started including scat singing as a major part of her performance repertoire. While singing with Gillespie, Fitzgerald recalled: "I just tried to do [with my voice] what I heard the horns in the band doing."[18]

Her 1945 scat recording of "Flying Home" arranged by Vic Schoen would later be described by The New York Times as "one of the most influential vocal jazz records of the decade....Where other singers, most notably Louis Armstrong, had tried similar improvisation, no one before Miss Fitzgerald employed the technique with such dazzling inventiveness."[9] Her bebop recording of "Oh, Lady Be Good!" (1947) was similarly popular and increased her reputation as one of the leading jazz vocalists.[31]

Verve years

 
Ella Fitzgerald at the Paul Masson Winery, Saratoga, California in 1986

Fitzgerald made her first tour of Australia in July 1954 for the Australian-based American promoter Lee Gordon.[32] This was the first of Gordon's famous "Big Show" promotions and the "package" tour also included Buddy Rich, Artie Shaw and comedian Jerry Colonna.

Although the tour was a big hit with audiences and set a new box office record for Australia, it was marred by an incident of racial discrimination that caused Fitzgerald to miss the first two concerts in Sydney, and Gordon had to arrange two later free concerts to compensate ticket holders. Although the four members of Fitzgerald's entourage – Fitzgerald, her pianist John Lewis, her assistant (and cousin) Georgiana Henry, and manager Norman Granz – all had first-class tickets on their scheduled Pan-American Airlines flight from Honolulu to Australia, they were ordered to leave the aircraft after they had already boarded and were refused permission to re-board the aircraft to retrieve their luggage and clothing. As a result, they were stranded in Honolulu for three days before they could get another flight to Sydney. Although a contemporary Australian press report[33] quoted an Australian Pan-Am spokesperson who denied that the incident was racially based, Fitzgerald, Henry, Lewis and Granz filed a civil suit for racial discrimination against Pan-Am in December 1954[34] and in a 1970 television interview Fitzgerald confirmed that they had won the suit and received what she described as a "nice settlement".[35]

Fitzgerald was still performing at Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP) concerts by 1955. She left Decca, and Granz, now her manager, created Verve Records around her. She later described the period as strategically crucial, saying, "I had gotten to the point where I was only singing be-bop. I thought be-bop was 'it', and that all I had to do was go some place and sing bop. But it finally got to the point where I had no place to sing. I realized then that there was more to music than bop. Norman ... felt that I should do other things, so he produced Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book with me. It was a turning point in my life."[9]

On March 15, 1955, Ella Fitzgerald opened her initial engagement at the Mocambo nightclub in Hollywood,[36][37] after Marilyn Monroe lobbied the owner for the booking.[38] The booking was instrumental in Fitzgerald's career. Bonnie Greer dramatized the incident as the musical drama, Marilyn and Ella, in 2008. It had previously been widely reported that Fitzgerald was the first black performer to play the Mocambo, following Monroe's intervention, but this is not true. African-American singers Herb Jeffries,[39] Eartha Kitt,[40] and Joyce Bryant[41] all played the Mocambo in 1952 and 1953, according to stories published at the time in Jet magazine and Billboard.

Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book, released in 1956, was the first of eight Song Book sets Fitzgerald would record for Verve at irregular intervals from 1956 to 1964. The composers and lyricists spotlighted on each set, taken together, represent the greatest part of the cultural canon known as the Great American Songbook. Her song selections ranged from standards to rarities and represented an attempt by Fitzgerald to cross over into a non-jazz audience. The sets are the most well-known items in her discography.

 
Fitzgerald in 1968, courtesy of the Fraser MacPherson estate

Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book was the only Song Book on which the composer she interpreted played with her. Duke Ellington and his longtime collaborator Billy Strayhorn both appeared on exactly half the set's 38 tracks and wrote two new pieces of music for the album: "The E and D Blues" and a four-movement musical portrait of Fitzgerald. The Song Book series ended up becoming the singer's most critically acclaimed and commercially successful work, and probably her most significant offering to American culture. The New York Times wrote in 1996, "These albums were among the first pop records to devote such serious attention to individual songwriters, and they were instrumental in establishing the pop album as a vehicle for serious musical exploration."[9]

Days after Fitzgerald's death, The New York Times columnist Frank Rich wrote that in the Song Book series Fitzgerald "performed a cultural transaction as extraordinary as Elvis' contemporaneous integration of white and African-American soul. Here was a black woman popularizing urban songs often written by immigrant Jews to a national audience of predominantly white Christians."[12] Frank Sinatra, out of respect for Fitzgerald, prohibited Capitol Records from re-releasing his own recordings in separate albums for individual composers in the same way.[citation needed]

Fitzgerald also recorded albums exclusively devoted to the songs of Porter and Gershwin in 1972 and 1983; the albums being, respectively, Ella Loves Cole and Nice Work If You Can Get It. A later collection devoted to a single composer was released during her time with Pablo Records, Ella Abraça Jobim, featuring the songs of Antônio Carlos Jobim.

While recording the Song Books and the occasional studio album, Fitzgerald toured 40 to 45 weeks per year in the United States and internationally, under the tutelage of Norman Granz. Granz helped solidify her position as one of the leading live jazz performers.[9] In 1961 Fitzgerald bought a house in the Klampenborg district of Copenhagen, Denmark, after she began a relationship with a Danish man. Though the relationship ended after a year, Fitzgerald regularly returned to Denmark over the next three years and even considered buying a jazz club there. The house was sold in 1963, and Fitzgerald permanently returned to the United States.[42]

 
Fitzgerald performing at the Helsinki Culture Hall in Helsinki, Finland, in April 1963

There are several live albums on Verve that are highly regarded by critics. At the Opera House shows a typical Jazz at the Philharmonic set from Fitzgerald. Ella in Rome and Twelve Nights in Hollywood display her vocal jazz canon. Ella in Berlin is still one of her best-selling albums; it includes a Grammy-winning performance of "Mack the Knife" in which she forgets the lyrics but improvises to compensate.

Verve Records was sold to MGM in 1960 for $3 million and in 1967 MGM failed to renew Fitzgerald's contract. Over the next five years she flitted between Atlantic, Capitol and Reprise. Her material at this time represented a departure from her typical jazz repertoire. For Capitol she recorded Brighten the Corner, an album of hymns, Ella Fitzgerald's Christmas, an album of traditional Christmas carols, Misty Blue, a country and western-influenced album, and 30 by Ella, a series of six medleys that fulfilled her obligations for the label. During this period, she had her last US chart single with a cover of Smokey Robinson's "Get Ready", previously a hit for the Temptations, and some months later a top-five hit for Rare Earth.

The surprise success of the 1972 album Jazz at Santa Monica Civic '72 led Granz to found Pablo Records, his first record label since the sale of Verve. Fitzgerald recorded some 20 albums for the label. Ella in London recorded live in 1974 with pianist Tommy Flanagan, guitarist Joe Pass, bassist Keter Betts and drummer Bobby Durham, was considered by many to be some of her best work. The following year she again performed with Joe Pass on German television station NDR in Hamburg. Her years with Pablo Records also documented the decline in her voice. "She frequently used shorter, stabbing phrases, and her voice was harder, with a wider vibrato", one biographer wrote.[43] Plagued by health problems, Fitzgerald made her last recording in 1991 and her last public performances in 1993.[44]

Film and television

 
Fitzgerald shakes hands with President Ronald Reagan after performing in the White House, 1981

In her most notable screen role, Fitzgerald played the part of singer Maggie Jackson in Jack Webb's 1955 jazz film Pete Kelly's Blues.[45] The film costarred Janet Leigh and singer Peggy Lee.[46] Even though she had already worked in the movies (she sang two songs in the 1942 Abbott and Costello film Ride 'Em Cowboy),[47] she was "delighted" when Norman Granz negotiated the role for her, and, "at the time ... considered her role in the Warner Brothers movie the biggest thing ever to have happened to her."[43] Amid The New York Times pan of the film when it opened in August 1955, the reviewer wrote, "About five minutes (out of ninety-five) suggest the picture this might have been. Take the ingenious prologue ... [or] take the fleeting scenes when the wonderful Ella Fitzgerald, allotted a few spoken lines, fills the screen and sound track with her strong mobile features and voice."[48]

After Pete Kelly's Blues, she appeared in sporadic movie cameos, in St. Louis Blues (1958)[49] and Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960).[50]

She made numerous guest appearances on television shows, singing on The Frank Sinatra Show, The Carol Burnett Show, The Andy Williams Show, The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, and alongside other greats Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, Mel Tormé, and many others. She was also frequently featured on The Ed Sullivan Show. Perhaps her most unusual and intriguing performance was of the "Three Little Maids" song from Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operetta The Mikado alongside Joan Sutherland and Dinah Shore on Shore's weekly variety series in 1963. A performance at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London was filmed and shown on the BBC. Fitzgerald also made a one-off appearance alongside Sarah Vaughan and Pearl Bailey on a 1979 television special honoring Bailey. In 1980, she performed a medley of standards in a duet with Karen Carpenter on the Carpenters' television special Music, Music, Music.[51]

Fitzgerald also appeared in TV commercials, her most memorable being an ad for Memorex.[52] In the commercials, she sang a note that shattered a glass while being recorded on a Memorex cassette tape.[53] The tape was played back and the recording also broke another glass, asking: "Is it live, or is it Memorex?"[53] She also appeared in a number of commercials for Kentucky Fried Chicken, singing and scatting to the fast-food chain's longtime slogan: "We do chicken right!"[54] Her last commercial campaign was for American Express, in which she was photographed by Annie Leibovitz.[55]

Ella Fitzgerald Just One of Those Things is a film about her life including interviews with many famous singers and musicians who worked with her and her son. It was directed by Leslie Woodhead and produced by Reggie Nadelson. It was released in the UK in 2019.[56]

Collaborations

Fitzgerald's most famous collaborations were with the vocal quartet Bill Kenny & the Ink Spots, trumpeter Louis Armstrong, the guitarist Joe Pass, and the bandleaders Count Basie and Duke Ellington.

  • From 1943 to 1950, Fitzgerald recorded seven songs with the Ink Spots featuring Bill Kenny. Of the seven, four reached the top of the pop charts, including "I'm Making Believe" and "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall," which both reached No. 1.
  • Fitzgerald recorded three Verve studio albums with Louis Armstrong, two albums of standards (1956's Ella and Louis and 1957's Ella and Louis Again), and a third album featured music from the Gershwin opera Porgy and Bess. Fitzgerald also recorded a number of sides with Armstrong for Decca in the early 1950s.
  • Fitzgerald is sometimes referred to as the quintessential swing singer, and her meetings with Count Basie are highly regarded by critics. Fitzgerald features on one track on Basie's 1957 album One O'Clock Jump, while her 1963 album Ella and Basie! is remembered as one of her greatest recordings. With the 'New Testament' Basie band in full swing, and arrangements written by a young Quincy Jones, this album proved a respite from the 'Song Book' recordings and constant touring that Fitzgerald was engaged in during this period. Fitzgerald and Basie also collaborated on the 1972 album Jazz at Santa Monica Civic '72, and on the 1979 albums Digital III at Montreux, A Classy Pair and A Perfect Match.
  • Fitzgerald and Joe Pass recorded four albums together toward the end of Fitzgerald's career. She recorded several albums with piano accompaniment, but a guitar proved the perfect melodic foil for her. Fitzgerald and Pass appeared together on the albums Take Love Easy (1973), Easy Living (1986), Speak Love (1983) and Fitzgerald and Pass... Again (1976).
  • Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington recorded two live albums and two studio albums. Her Duke Ellington Song Book placed Ellington firmly in the canon known as the Great American Songbook, and the 1960s saw Fitzgerald and the 'Duke' meet on the Côte d'Azur for the 1966 album Ella and Duke at the Cote D'Azur, and in Sweden for The Stockholm Concert, 1966. Their 1965 album Ella at Duke's Place is also extremely well received.

Fitzgerald had a number of famous jazz musicians and soloists as sidemen over her long career. The trumpeters Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie, the guitarist Herb Ellis, and the pianists Tommy Flanagan, Oscar Peterson, Lou Levy, Paul Smith, Jimmy Rowles, and Ellis Larkins all worked with Fitzgerald mostly in live, small group settings.

Possibly Fitzgerald's greatest unrealized collaboration (in terms of popular music) was a studio or live album with Frank Sinatra. The two appeared on the same stage only periodically over the years, in television specials in 1958 and 1959, and again on 1967's A Man and His Music + Ella + Jobim, a show that also featured Antônio Carlos Jobim. Pianist Paul Smith has said, "Ella loved working with [Frank]. Sinatra gave her his dressing-room on A Man and His Music and couldn't do enough for her." When asked, Norman Granz would cite "complex contractual reasons" for the fact that the two artists never recorded together.[43][57] Fitzgerald's appearance with Sinatra and Count Basie in June 1974 for a series of concerts at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, was seen as an important incentive for Sinatra to return from his self-imposed retirement of the early 1970s. The shows were a great success, and September 1975 saw them gross $1,000,000 in two weeks on Broadway, in a triumvirate with the Count Basie Orchestra.[58]

Illness and death

Fitzgerald suffered from diabetes for several years of her later life, which had led to numerous complications.[9] In 1985, Fitzgerald was hospitalized briefly for respiratory problems,[59] in 1986 for congestive heart failure,[60] and in 1990 for exhaustion.[61] In March 1990, she appeared at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England, with the Count Basie Orchestra for the launch of Jazz FM, plus a gala dinner at the Grosvenor House Hotel at which she performed.[62] In 1993, she had to have both of her legs amputated below the knee due to the effects of diabetes.[63] Her eyesight was affected as well.[9]

She died in her home from a stroke on June 15, 1996, at the age of 79.[9] A few hours after her death, the Playboy Jazz Festival was launched at the Hollywood Bowl. In tribute, the marquee read: "Ella We Will Miss You."[64] Her funeral was private,[64] and she was buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.

Personal life

Fitzgerald married at least twice, and there is evidence that suggests that she may have married a third time. Her first marriage was in 1941, to Benny Kornegay, a convicted drug dealer and local dockworker. The marriage was annulled in 1942.[65] Her second marriage was in December 1947, to the famous bass player Ray Brown, whom she had met while on tour with Dizzy Gillespie's band a year earlier. Together they adopted a child born to Fitzgerald's half-sister, Frances, whom they christened Ray Brown Jr. With Fitzgerald and Brown often busy touring and recording, the child was largely raised by his mother's aunt, Virginia. Fitzgerald and Brown divorced in 1953, due to the various career pressures both were experiencing at the time, though they would continue to perform together.[9]

In July 1957, Reuters reported that Fitzgerald had secretly married Thor Einar Larsen, a young Norwegian, in Oslo. She had even gone as far as furnishing an apartment in Oslo, but the affair was quickly forgotten when Larsen was sentenced to five months' hard labor in Sweden for stealing money from a young woman to whom he had previously been engaged.[66]

Fitzgerald was notoriously shy. Trumpet player Mario Bauzá, who played behind Fitzgerald in her early years with Chick Webb, remembered that "she didn't hang out much. When she got into the band, she was dedicated to her music...She was a lonely girl around New York, just kept herself to herself, for the gig."[43] When, later in her career, the Society of Singers named an award after her, Fitzgerald explained, "I don't want to say the wrong thing, which I always do but I think I do better when I sing."[18]

From 1949 to 1956, Fitzgerald resided in St. Albans, New York, an enclave of prosperous African Americans where she counted among her neighbors Illinois Jacquet, Count Basie, Lena Horne, and other jazz luminaries.[67]

Fitzgerald was a civil rights activist, using her talent to break racial barriers across the nation. She was awarded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Equal Justice Award and the American Black Achievement Award.[68] In 1949, Norman Granz recruited Fitzgerald for the Jazz at the Philharmonic tour.[69] The Jazz at the Philharmonic tour would specifically target segregated venues. Granz required promoters to ensure that there was no "colored" or "white" seating. He ensured Fitzgerald was to receive equal pay and accommodations regardless of her sex and race. If the conditions were not met shows were cancelled.[70]

Bill Reed, author of Hot from Harlem: Twelve African American Entertainers, referred to Fitzgerald as the "Civil Rights Crusader", facing discrimination throughout her career.[71] In 1954 on her way to one of her concerts in Australia she was unable to board the Pan American flight due to racial discrimination.[72] Although she faced several obstacles and racial barriers, she was recognized as a "cultural ambassador", receiving the National Medal of Arts in 1987 and America's highest non-military honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.[70][73]

In 1993, Fitzgerald established the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation focusing on charitable grants for four major categories: academic opportunities for children, music education, basic care needs for the less fortunate, medical research revolving around diabetes, heart disease, and vision impairment.[74] Her goals were to give back and provide opportunities for those "at risk" and less fortunate. In addition, she supported several nonprofit organizations like the American Heart Association, City of Hope, and the Retina Foundation.[75][76][77]

Discography and collections

Further information: Ella Fitzgerald discography

The primary collections of Fitzgerald's media and memorabilia reside at and are shared between the Smithsonian Institution and the US Library of Congress.[78]

Awards, citations and honors

Further information: List of awards received by Ella Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald won 13 Grammy Awards,[79] and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1967.[79]

In 1958 Fitzgerald became the first African-American female to win at the inaugural show.[79]

Other major awards and honors she received during her career were the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Medal of Honor Award, National Medal of Art, first Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award (named "Ella" in her honor), Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement, UCLA Spring Sing, and the UCLA Medal (1987).[80] Across town at the University of Southern California, she received the USC "Magnum Opus" Award, which hangs in the office of the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation. In 1986, she received an honorary doctorate of Music from Yale University.[81] In 1990, she received an honorary doctorate of Music from Harvard University.[82]

Tributes and legacy

 
Fitzgerald in 1960 by Erling Mandelmann

The career history and archival material from Fitzgerald's long career are housed in the Archives Center at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, while her personal music arrangements are at the Library of Congress. Her extensive cookbook collection was donated to the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University, and her extensive collection of published sheet music was donated to UCLA. Harvard gave her an honorary degree in music in 1990.

In 1997, Newport News, Virginia created a week-long music festival with Christopher Newport University to honor Fitzgerald in her birth city.

Ann Hampton Callaway, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Patti Austin have all recorded albums in tribute to Fitzgerald. Callaway's album To Ella with Love (1996) features 14 jazz standards made popular by Fitzgerald, and the album also features the trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. Bridgewater's album Dear Ella (1997) featured many musicians that were closely associated with Fitzgerald during her career, including the pianist Lou Levy, the trumpeter Benny Powell, and Fitzgerald's second husband, double bassist Ray Brown. Bridgewater's following album, Live at Yoshi's, was recorded live on April 25, 1998, what would have been Fitzgerald's 81st birthday.

Austin's album, For Ella (2002) features 11 songs most immediately associated with Fitzgerald, and a twelfth song, "Hearing Ella Sing" is Austin's tribute to Fitzgerald. The album was nominated for a Grammy. In 2007, We All Love Ella, was released, a tribute album recorded for Fitzgerald's 90th birthday. It featured artists such as Michael Bublé, Natalie Cole, Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight, Diana Krall, k.d. lang, Queen Latifah, Ledisi, Dianne Reeves, Linda Ronstadt, and Lizz Wright, collating songs most readily associated with the "First Lady of Song". Folk singer Odetta's album To Ella (1998) is dedicated to Fitzgerald, but features no songs associated with her. Her accompanist Tommy Flanagan affectionately remembered Fitzgerald on his album Lady be Good ... For Ella (1994).

"Ella, elle l'a", a tribute to Fitzgerald written by Michel Berger and performed by French singer France Gall, was a hit in Europe in 1987 and 1988.[83] Fitzgerald is also referred to in the 1976 Stevie Wonder hit "Sir Duke" from his album Songs in the Key of Life, and the song "I Love Being Here With You", written by Peggy Lee and Bill Schluger. Sinatra's 1986 recording of "Mack the Knife" from his album L.A. Is My Lady (1984) includes a homage to some of the song's previous performers, including 'Lady Ella' herself. She is also honored in the song "First Lady" by Canadian artist Nikki Yanofsky.

In 2008, the Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center in Newport News named its new 276-seat theater the Ella Fitzgerald Theater. The theater is located several blocks away from her birthplace on Marshall Avenue. The Grand Opening performers (October 11 and 12, 2008) were Roberta Flack and Queen Esther Marrow.

In 2012, Rod Stewart performed a "virtual duet" with Ella Fitzgerald on his Christmas album Merry Christmas, Baby, and his television special of the same name.[84]

There is a bronze sculpture of Fitzgerald in Yonkers, the city in which she grew up, created by American artist Vinnie Bagwell. It is located southeast of the main entrance to the Amtrak/Metro-North Railroad station in front of the city's old trolley barn. The statue's location is one of 14 tour stops on the African American Heritage Trail of Westchester County. A bust of Fitzgerald is on the campus of Chapman University in Orange, California. Ed Dwight created a series of over 70 bronze sculptures at the St. Louis Arch Museum at the request of the National Park Service; the series, "Jazz: An American Art Form", depicts the evolution of jazz and features various jazz performers, including Fitzgerald.[85]

On January 9, 2007, the United States Postal Service announced that Fitzgerald would be honored with her own postage stamp.[52] The stamp was released in April 2007 as part of the Postal Service's Black Heritage series.[86]

In April 2013, she was featured in Google Doodle, depicting her performing on stage. It celebrated what would have been her 96th birthday.[87][88]

On April 25, 2017, the centenary of her birth, UK's BBC Radio 2 broadcast three programmes as part of an "Ella at 100" celebration: Ella Fitzgerald Night, introduced by Jamie Cullum; Remembering Ella; introduced by Leo Green; and Ella Fitzgerald – the First Lady of Song, introduced by Petula Clark.[89]

In 2019, Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things, a documentary by Leslie Woodhead, was released in the UK. It featured rare footage, radio broadcasts and interviews with Jamie Cullum, Andre Previn, Johnny Mathis, and other musicians, plus a long interview with Fitzgerald's son, Ray Brown Jr.[56]

References

  1. ^ "The Savoy Ballroom opens". African American Registry. Retrieved October 29, 2016.
  2. ^ "Biography". Ella Fitzgerald. March 11, 2015. Retrieved December 21, 2018.
  3. ^ a b c Nicholson 1996, p. 4.
  4. ^ Whitaker, Matthew (2011). Icons of Black America: Breaking Barriers and Crossing Boundaries. Vol. v. 1. Santa Barbara, CA, US: Greenwood. p. 302. ISBN 978-0-313-37643-6. OCLC 781709336.
  5. ^ a b Nicholson 1996, p. 5.
  6. ^ Nicholson 1996, p. 7, 13.
  7. ^ a b Nicholson 1996, p. 6.
  8. ^ Nicholson 1996, p. 7.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Holden, Stephen (June 16, 1996). "Ella Fitzgerald, the Voice of Jazz, Dies at 79". The New York Times. Retrieved March 23, 2015.
  10. ^ "Biography". EllaFitzgerald.com (Official website). March 11, 2015. Retrieved February 7, 2018.
  11. ^ a b Nicholson 1996, p. 14.
  12. ^ a b Rich, Frank (June 19, 1996). "Journal; How High the Moon". The New York Times. Retrieved February 22, 2014.
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Sources

  • Gourse, Leslie (1998). The Ella Fitzgerald Companion. London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-6916-7.
  • Hemming, Roy; Hajdu, David (1991). Discovering great singers of classic pop : a new listener's guide to the sounds and lives of the top performers and their recordings, movies, and videos. New York: Newmarket Press. ISBN 978-1-55704-148-7. OCLC 1033645473.
  • Johnson, J. Wilfred (2001). Ella Fitzgerald: An Annotated Discography. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0906-1.
  • Nicholson, Stuart (1996). Ella Fitzgerald: 1917–1996. London: Indigo. ISBN 978-0-575-40032-0.
  • Nicholson, Stuart (2004). Ella Fitzgerald : the complete biography. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-78813-0. OCLC 884745086. OCLC 1033559908, 884645602.

Further reading

  • Gourse, Leslie (1998), The Ella Fitzgerald Companion: Seven Decades of Commentary. Music Sales Ltd; ISBN 0-02-864625-8
  • Yazza, Houria (2000), Ella and Marilyn, the perfect friendship. NY 2000
  • Johnson, J. Wilfred (2001), Ella Fitzgerald: A Complete Annotated Discography. McFarland & Co Inc.; ISBN 0-7864-0906-1

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ella Fitzgerald.
 
Wikiquote has quotations related to Ella Fitzgerald.

March 08, 2023
ella, fitzgerald, ella, jane, fitzgerald, april, 1917, june, 1996, american, jazz, singer, sometimes, referred, first, lady, song, queen, jazz, lady, ella, noted, purity, tone, impeccable, diction, phrasing, timing, intonation, horn, like, improvisational, abi. Ella Jane Fitzgerald April 25 1917 June 15 1996 was an American jazz singer sometimes referred to as the First Lady of Song Queen of Jazz and Lady Ella She was noted for her purity of tone impeccable diction phrasing timing intonation and a horn like improvisational ability particularly in her scat singing Ella FitzgeraldFitzgerald c 1962BornElla Jane Fitzgerald 1917 04 25 April 25 1917Newport News Virginia U S DiedJune 15 1996 1996 06 15 aged 79 Beverly Hills California U S Resting placeInglewood Park CemeteryOccupationSingerSpousesBenny Kornegay m 1941 annulled 1942 wbr Ray Brown m 1947 div 1953 wbr ChildrenRay Brown Jr Musical careerGenresJazz swing bebop traditional pop blues soul doo wop post bop rock and rollInstrument s VocalsYears active1929 1995LabelsDecca Verve Capitol Reprise PabloWebsiteellafitzgerald wbr comAfter a tumultuous adolescence Fitzgerald found stability in musical success with the Chick Webb Orchestra performing across the country but most often associated with the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem Her rendition of the nursery rhyme A Tisket A Tasket helped boost both her and Webb to national fame After taking over the band when Webb died Fitzgerald left it behind in 1942 to start her solo career Her manager was Moe Gale co founder of the Savoy 1 until she turned the rest of her career over to Norman Granz who founded Verve Records to produce new records by Fitzgerald With Verve she recorded some of her more widely noted works particularly her interpretations of the Great American Songbook While Fitzgerald appeared in films and as a guest on popular television shows in the second half of the twentieth century her musical collaborations with Louis Armstrong Duke Ellington and The Ink Spots were some of her most notable acts outside of her solo career These partnerships produced some of her best known songs such as Dream a Little Dream of Me Cheek to Cheek Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall and It Don t Mean a Thing If It Ain t Got That Swing In 1993 after a career of nearly sixty years she gave her last public performance Three years later she died at age 79 after years of declining health Her accolades included 14 Grammy Awards the National Medal of Arts the NAACP s inaugural President s Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom Contents 1 Early life 2 Early career 3 Decca years 4 Verve years 5 Film and television 6 Collaborations 7 Illness and death 8 Personal life 9 Discography and collections 9 1 Awards citations and honors 10 Tributes and legacy 11 References 12 Sources 13 Further reading 14 External linksEarly life EditFitzgerald was born on April 25 1917 in Newport News Virginia 2 She was the daughter of William Fitzgerald and Temperance Tempie Henry both described as mulatto in the 1920 census 3 Her parents were unmarried but lived together in the East End section of Newport News 4 for at least two and a half years after she was born In the early 1920s Fitzgerald s mother and her new partner a Portuguese immigrant named Joseph da Silva 3 moved to Yonkers in Westchester County New York 3 Her half sister Frances da Silva whom she stayed close to for all of her life was born in 1923 5 By 1925 Fitzgerald and her family had moved to nearby School Street a poor Italian area 5 She began her formal education at the age of six and was an outstanding student moving through a variety of schools before attending Benjamin Franklin Junior High School in 1929 6 Starting in third grade Fitzgerald loved dancing and admired Earl Snakehips Tucker She performed for her peers on the way to school and at lunchtime 7 She and her family were Methodists and were active in the Bethany African Methodist Episcopal Church where she attended worship services Bible study and Sunday school 7 The church provided Fitzgerald with her earliest experiences in music 8 Fitzgerald listened to jazz recordings by Louis Armstrong Bing Crosby and The Boswell Sisters She loved the Boswell Sisters lead singer Connee Boswell later saying My mother brought home one of her records and I fell in love with it I tried so hard to sound just like her 9 In 1932 when Fitzgerald was 15 years old her mother died from injuries sustained in a car accident 10 Her stepfather took care of her until April 1933 when she moved to Harlem to live with her aunt 11 This seemingly swift change in her circumstances reinforced by what Fitzgerald biographer Stuart Nicholson describes as rumors of ill treatment by her stepfather leaves him to speculate that Da Silva might have abused her 11 Fitzgerald began skipping school and her grades suffered She worked as a lookout at a bordello and with a Mafia affiliated numbers runner 12 She never talked publicly about this time in her life 13 When the authorities caught up with her she was placed in the Colored Orphan Asylum in Riverdale in the Bronx 14 When the orphanage proved too crowded she was moved to the New York Training School for Girls a state reformatory school in Hudson New York 14 Early career Edit A young Fitzgerald photographed by Carl Van Vechten in January 1940 While she seems to have survived during 1933 and 1934 in part by singing on the streets of Harlem Fitzgerald made her most important debut at the age of 17 on November 21 1934 in one of the earliest Amateur Nights at the Apollo Theater 15 16 She had intended to go on stage and dance but she was intimidated by a local dance duo called the Edwards Sisters and opted to sing instead 16 17 Performing in the style of Connee Boswell she sang Judy and The Object of My Affection and won first prize 18 She won the chance to perform at the Apollo for a week but seemingly because of her disheveled appearance the theater never gave her that part of her prize 19 In January 1935 Fitzgerald won the chance to perform for a week with the Tiny Bradshaw band at the Harlem Opera House 15 Later that year she was introduced to drummer and bandleader Chick Webb by Benny Carter 20 or Buck Ram 21 who had heard from singer Charlie Linton that Webb wanted to add a female singer Although reluctant to sign her because she was gawky and unkempt a diamond in the rough 9 Webb offered her the opportunity to test with his band at a dance at Yale University 15 Met with approval by both audiences and her fellow musicians Fitzgerald was asked to join Webb s orchestra and gained acclaim as part of the group s performances at Harlem s Savoy Ballroom 15 Fitzgerald recorded several hit songs including Love and Kisses and If You Can t Sing It You ll Have to Swing It Mr Paganini 15 But it was her 1938 version of the nursery rhyme A Tisket A Tasket a song she co wrote that brought her public acclaim A Tisket A Tasket became a major hit on the radio and was also one of the biggest selling records of the decade 17 22 Webb died of spinal tuberculosis on June 16 1939 23 and his band was renamed Ella and Her Famous Orchestra with Fitzgerald taking on the role of bandleader 24 She recorded nearly 150 songs with Webb s orchestra between 1935 and 1942 In addition to her work with Webb Fitzgerald performed and recorded with the Benny Goodman Orchestra She had her own side project too known as Ella Fitzgerald and Her Savoy Eight 25 Decca years Edit Fitzgerald with Dizzy Gillespie Ray Brown Milt Jackson and Timme Rosenkrantz in New York City 1947 In 1942 with increasing dissent and money concerns in Fitzgerald s band Ella and Her Famous Orchestra she started to work as lead singer with The Three Keys and in July her band played their last concert at Earl Theatre in Philadelphia 26 27 While working for Decca Records she had hits with Bill Kenny amp the Ink Spots 28 Louis Jordan 29 and the Delta Rhythm Boys 30 Producer Norman Granz became her manager in the mid 1940s after she began singing for Jazz at the Philharmonic a concert series begun by Granz With the demise of the swing era and the decline of the great touring big bands a major change in jazz music occurred The advent of bebop led to new developments in Fitzgerald s vocal style influenced by her work with Dizzy Gillespie s big band It was in this period that Fitzgerald started including scat singing as a major part of her performance repertoire While singing with Gillespie Fitzgerald recalled I just tried to do with my voice what I heard the horns in the band doing 18 Her 1945 scat recording of Flying Home arranged by Vic Schoen would later be described by The New York Times as one of the most influential vocal jazz records of the decade Where other singers most notably Louis Armstrong had tried similar improvisation no one before Miss Fitzgerald employed the technique with such dazzling inventiveness 9 Her bebop recording of Oh Lady Be Good 1947 was similarly popular and increased her reputation as one of the leading jazz vocalists 31 Verve years Edit Ella Fitzgerald at the Paul Masson Winery Saratoga California in 1986 Fitzgerald made her first tour of Australia in July 1954 for the Australian based American promoter Lee Gordon 32 This was the first of Gordon s famous Big Show promotions and the package tour also included Buddy Rich Artie Shaw and comedian Jerry Colonna Although the tour was a big hit with audiences and set a new box office record for Australia it was marred by an incident of racial discrimination that caused Fitzgerald to miss the first two concerts in Sydney and Gordon had to arrange two later free concerts to compensate ticket holders Although the four members of Fitzgerald s entourage Fitzgerald her pianist John Lewis her assistant and cousin Georgiana Henry and manager Norman Granz all had first class tickets on their scheduled Pan American Airlines flight from Honolulu to Australia they were ordered to leave the aircraft after they had already boarded and were refused permission to re board the aircraft to retrieve their luggage and clothing As a result they were stranded in Honolulu for three days before they could get another flight to Sydney Although a contemporary Australian press report 33 quoted an Australian Pan Am spokesperson who denied that the incident was racially based Fitzgerald Henry Lewis and Granz filed a civil suit for racial discrimination against Pan Am in December 1954 34 and in a 1970 television interview Fitzgerald confirmed that they had won the suit and received what she described as a nice settlement 35 Fitzgerald was still performing at Granz s Jazz at the Philharmonic JATP concerts by 1955 She left Decca and Granz now her manager created Verve Records around her She later described the period as strategically crucial saying I had gotten to the point where I was only singing be bop I thought be bop was it and that all I had to do was go some place and sing bop But it finally got to the point where I had no place to sing I realized then that there was more to music than bop Norman felt that I should do other things so he produced Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book with me It was a turning point in my life 9 On March 15 1955 Ella Fitzgerald opened her initial engagement at the Mocambo nightclub in Hollywood 36 37 after Marilyn Monroe lobbied the owner for the booking 38 The booking was instrumental in Fitzgerald s career Bonnie Greer dramatized the incident as the musical drama Marilyn and Ella in 2008 It had previously been widely reported that Fitzgerald was the first black performer to play the Mocambo following Monroe s intervention but this is not true African American singers Herb Jeffries 39 Eartha Kitt 40 and Joyce Bryant 41 all played the Mocambo in 1952 and 1953 according to stories published at the time in Jet magazine and Billboard Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book released in 1956 was the first of eight Song Book sets Fitzgerald would record for Verve at irregular intervals from 1956 to 1964 The composers and lyricists spotlighted on each set taken together represent the greatest part of the cultural canon known as the Great American Songbook Her song selections ranged from standards to rarities and represented an attempt by Fitzgerald to cross over into a non jazz audience The sets are the most well known items in her discography Fitzgerald in 1968 courtesy of the Fraser MacPherson estate Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book was the only Song Book on which the composer she interpreted played with her Duke Ellington and his longtime collaborator Billy Strayhorn both appeared on exactly half the set s 38 tracks and wrote two new pieces of music for the album The E and D Blues and a four movement musical portrait of Fitzgerald The Song Book series ended up becoming the singer s most critically acclaimed and commercially successful work and probably her most significant offering to American culture The New York Times wrote in 1996 These albums were among the first pop records to devote such serious attention to individual songwriters and they were instrumental in establishing the pop album as a vehicle for serious musical exploration 9 Days after Fitzgerald s death The New York Times columnist Frank Rich wrote that in the Song Book series Fitzgerald performed a cultural transaction as extraordinary as Elvis contemporaneous integration of white and African American soul Here was a black woman popularizing urban songs often written by immigrant Jews to a national audience of predominantly white Christians 12 Frank Sinatra out of respect for Fitzgerald prohibited Capitol Records from re releasing his own recordings in separate albums for individual composers in the same way citation needed Fitzgerald also recorded albums exclusively devoted to the songs of Porter and Gershwin in 1972 and 1983 the albums being respectively Ella Loves Cole and Nice Work If You Can Get It A later collection devoted to a single composer was released during her time with Pablo Records Ella Abraca Jobim featuring the songs of Antonio Carlos Jobim While recording the Song Books and the occasional studio album Fitzgerald toured 40 to 45 weeks per year in the United States and internationally under the tutelage of Norman Granz Granz helped solidify her position as one of the leading live jazz performers 9 In 1961 Fitzgerald bought a house in the Klampenborg district of Copenhagen Denmark after she began a relationship with a Danish man Though the relationship ended after a year Fitzgerald regularly returned to Denmark over the next three years and even considered buying a jazz club there The house was sold in 1963 and Fitzgerald permanently returned to the United States 42 Fitzgerald performing at the Helsinki Culture Hall in Helsinki Finland in April 1963 There are several live albums on Verve that are highly regarded by critics At the Opera House shows a typical Jazz at the Philharmonic set from Fitzgerald Ella in Rome and Twelve Nights in Hollywood display her vocal jazz canon Ella in Berlin is still one of her best selling albums it includes a Grammy winning performance of Mack the Knife in which she forgets the lyrics but improvises to compensate Verve Records was sold to MGM in 1960 for 3 million and in 1967 MGM failed to renew Fitzgerald s contract Over the next five years she flitted between Atlantic Capitol and Reprise Her material at this time represented a departure from her typical jazz repertoire For Capitol she recorded Brighten the Corner an album of hymns Ella Fitzgerald s Christmas an album of traditional Christmas carols Misty Blue a country and western influenced album and 30 by Ella a series of six medleys that fulfilled her obligations for the label During this period she had her last US chart single with a cover of Smokey Robinson s Get Ready previously a hit for the Temptations and some months later a top five hit for Rare Earth The surprise success of the 1972 album Jazz at Santa Monica Civic 72 led Granz to found Pablo Records his first record label since the sale of Verve Fitzgerald recorded some 20 albums for the label Ella in London recorded live in 1974 with pianist Tommy Flanagan guitarist Joe Pass bassist Keter Betts and drummer Bobby Durham was considered by many to be some of her best work The following year she again performed with Joe Pass on German television station NDR in Hamburg Her years with Pablo Records also documented the decline in her voice She frequently used shorter stabbing phrases and her voice was harder with a wider vibrato one biographer wrote 43 Plagued by health problems Fitzgerald made her last recording in 1991 and her last public performances in 1993 44 Film and television Edit Fitzgerald shakes hands with President Ronald Reagan after performing in the White House 1981 In her most notable screen role Fitzgerald played the part of singer Maggie Jackson in Jack Webb s 1955 jazz film Pete Kelly s Blues 45 The film costarred Janet Leigh and singer Peggy Lee 46 Even though she had already worked in the movies she sang two songs in the 1942 Abbott and Costello film Ride Em Cowboy 47 she was delighted when Norman Granz negotiated the role for her and at the time considered her role in the Warner Brothers movie the biggest thing ever to have happened to her 43 Amid The New York Times pan of the film when it opened in August 1955 the reviewer wrote About five minutes out of ninety five suggest the picture this might have been Take the ingenious prologue or take the fleeting scenes when the wonderful Ella Fitzgerald allotted a few spoken lines fills the screen and sound track with her strong mobile features and voice 48 After Pete Kelly s Blues she appeared in sporadic movie cameos in St Louis Blues 1958 49 and Let No Man Write My Epitaph 1960 50 She made numerous guest appearances on television shows singing on The Frank Sinatra Show The Carol Burnett Show The Andy Williams Show The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom and alongside other greats Nat King Cole Dean Martin Mel Torme and many others She was also frequently featured on The Ed Sullivan Show Perhaps her most unusual and intriguing performance was of the Three Little Maids song from Gilbert and Sullivan s comic operetta The Mikado alongside Joan Sutherland and Dinah Shore on Shore s weekly variety series in 1963 A performance at Ronnie Scott s Jazz Club in London was filmed and shown on the BBC Fitzgerald also made a one off appearance alongside Sarah Vaughan and Pearl Bailey on a 1979 television special honoring Bailey In 1980 she performed a medley of standards in a duet with Karen Carpenter on the Carpenters television special Music Music Music 51 Fitzgerald also appeared in TV commercials her most memorable being an ad for Memorex 52 In the commercials she sang a note that shattered a glass while being recorded on a Memorex cassette tape 53 The tape was played back and the recording also broke another glass asking Is it live or is it Memorex 53 She also appeared in a number of commercials for Kentucky Fried Chicken singing and scatting to the fast food chain s longtime slogan We do chicken right 54 Her last commercial campaign was for American Express in which she was photographed by Annie Leibovitz 55 Ella Fitzgerald Just One of Those Things is a film about her life including interviews with many famous singers and musicians who worked with her and her son It was directed by Leslie Woodhead and produced by Reggie Nadelson It was released in the UK in 2019 56 Collaborations EditThis section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed April 2020 Learn how and when to remove this template message Fitzgerald s most famous collaborations were with the vocal quartet Bill Kenny amp the Ink Spots trumpeter Louis Armstrong the guitarist Joe Pass and the bandleaders Count Basie and Duke Ellington From 1943 to 1950 Fitzgerald recorded seven songs with the Ink Spots featuring Bill Kenny Of the seven four reached the top of the pop charts including I m Making Believe and Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall which both reached No 1 Fitzgerald recorded three Verve studio albums with Louis Armstrong two albums of standards 1956 s Ella and Louis and 1957 s Ella and Louis Again and a third album featured music from the Gershwin opera Porgy and Bess Fitzgerald also recorded a number of sides with Armstrong for Decca in the early 1950s Fitzgerald is sometimes referred to as the quintessential swing singer and her meetings with Count Basie are highly regarded by critics Fitzgerald features on one track on Basie s 1957 album One O Clock Jump while her 1963 album Ella and Basie is remembered as one of her greatest recordings With the New Testament Basie band in full swing and arrangements written by a young Quincy Jones this album proved a respite from the Song Book recordings and constant touring that Fitzgerald was engaged in during this period Fitzgerald and Basie also collaborated on the 1972 album Jazz at Santa Monica Civic 72 and on the 1979 albums Digital III at Montreux A Classy Pair and A Perfect Match Fitzgerald and Joe Pass recorded four albums together toward the end of Fitzgerald s career She recorded several albums with piano accompaniment but a guitar proved the perfect melodic foil for her Fitzgerald and Pass appeared together on the albums Take Love Easy 1973 Easy Living 1986 Speak Love 1983 and Fitzgerald and Pass Again 1976 Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington recorded two live albums and two studio albums Her Duke Ellington Song Book placed Ellington firmly in the canon known as the Great American Songbook and the 1960s saw Fitzgerald and the Duke meet on the Cote d Azur for the 1966 album Ella and Duke at the Cote D Azur and in Sweden for The Stockholm Concert 1966 Their 1965 album Ella at Duke s Place is also extremely well received Fitzgerald had a number of famous jazz musicians and soloists as sidemen over her long career The trumpeters Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie the guitarist Herb Ellis and the pianists Tommy Flanagan Oscar Peterson Lou Levy Paul Smith Jimmy Rowles and Ellis Larkins all worked with Fitzgerald mostly in live small group settings Possibly Fitzgerald s greatest unrealized collaboration in terms of popular music was a studio or live album with Frank Sinatra The two appeared on the same stage only periodically over the years in television specials in 1958 and 1959 and again on 1967 s A Man and His Music Ella Jobim a show that also featured Antonio Carlos Jobim Pianist Paul Smith has said Ella loved working with Frank Sinatra gave her his dressing room on A Man and His Music and couldn t do enough for her When asked Norman Granz would cite complex contractual reasons for the fact that the two artists never recorded together 43 57 Fitzgerald s appearance with Sinatra and Count Basie in June 1974 for a series of concerts at Caesars Palace Las Vegas was seen as an important incentive for Sinatra to return from his self imposed retirement of the early 1970s The shows were a great success and September 1975 saw them gross 1 000 000 in two weeks on Broadway in a triumvirate with the Count Basie Orchestra 58 Illness and death EditFitzgerald suffered from diabetes for several years of her later life which had led to numerous complications 9 In 1985 Fitzgerald was hospitalized briefly for respiratory problems 59 in 1986 for congestive heart failure 60 and in 1990 for exhaustion 61 In March 1990 she appeared at the Royal Albert Hall in London England with the Count Basie Orchestra for the launch of Jazz FM plus a gala dinner at the Grosvenor House Hotel at which she performed 62 In 1993 she had to have both of her legs amputated below the knee due to the effects of diabetes 63 Her eyesight was affected as well 9 She died in her home from a stroke on June 15 1996 at the age of 79 9 A few hours after her death the Playboy Jazz Festival was launched at the Hollywood Bowl In tribute the marquee read Ella We Will Miss You 64 Her funeral was private 64 and she was buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood California Personal life EditFitzgerald married at least twice and there is evidence that suggests that she may have married a third time Her first marriage was in 1941 to Benny Kornegay a convicted drug dealer and local dockworker The marriage was annulled in 1942 65 Her second marriage was in December 1947 to the famous bass player Ray Brown whom she had met while on tour with Dizzy Gillespie s band a year earlier Together they adopted a child born to Fitzgerald s half sister Frances whom they christened Ray Brown Jr With Fitzgerald and Brown often busy touring and recording the child was largely raised by his mother s aunt Virginia Fitzgerald and Brown divorced in 1953 due to the various career pressures both were experiencing at the time though they would continue to perform together 9 In July 1957 Reuters reported that Fitzgerald had secretly married Thor Einar Larsen a young Norwegian in Oslo She had even gone as far as furnishing an apartment in Oslo but the affair was quickly forgotten when Larsen was sentenced to five months hard labor in Sweden for stealing money from a young woman to whom he had previously been engaged 66 Fitzgerald was notoriously shy Trumpet player Mario Bauza who played behind Fitzgerald in her early years with Chick Webb remembered that she didn t hang out much When she got into the band she was dedicated to her music She was a lonely girl around New York just kept herself to herself for the gig 43 When later in her career the Society of Singers named an award after her Fitzgerald explained I don t want to say the wrong thing which I always do but I think I do better when I sing 18 From 1949 to 1956 Fitzgerald resided in St Albans New York an enclave of prosperous African Americans where she counted among her neighbors Illinois Jacquet Count Basie Lena Horne and other jazz luminaries 67 Fitzgerald was a civil rights activist using her talent to break racial barriers across the nation She was awarded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Equal Justice Award and the American Black Achievement Award 68 In 1949 Norman Granz recruited Fitzgerald for the Jazz at the Philharmonic tour 69 The Jazz at the Philharmonic tour would specifically target segregated venues Granz required promoters to ensure that there was no colored or white seating He ensured Fitzgerald was to receive equal pay and accommodations regardless of her sex and race If the conditions were not met shows were cancelled 70 Bill Reed author of Hot from Harlem Twelve African American Entertainers referred to Fitzgerald as the Civil Rights Crusader facing discrimination throughout her career 71 In 1954 on her way to one of her concerts in Australia she was unable to board the Pan American flight due to racial discrimination 72 Although she faced several obstacles and racial barriers she was recognized as a cultural ambassador receiving the National Medal of Arts in 1987 and America s highest non military honor the Presidential Medal of Freedom 70 73 In 1993 Fitzgerald established the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation focusing on charitable grants for four major categories academic opportunities for children music education basic care needs for the less fortunate medical research revolving around diabetes heart disease and vision impairment 74 Her goals were to give back and provide opportunities for those at risk and less fortunate In addition she supported several nonprofit organizations like the American Heart Association City of Hope and the Retina Foundation 75 76 77 Discography and collections EditFurther information Ella Fitzgerald discography The primary collections of Fitzgerald s media and memorabilia reside at and are shared between the Smithsonian Institution and the US Library of Congress 78 Awards citations and honors Edit Further information List of awards received by Ella Fitzgerald Fitzgerald won 13 Grammy Awards 79 and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1967 79 In 1958 Fitzgerald became the first African American female to win at the inaugural show 79 Other major awards and honors she received during her career were the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Medal of Honor Award National Medal of Art first Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award named Ella in her honor Presidential Medal of Freedom and the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement UCLA Spring Sing and the UCLA Medal 1987 80 Across town at the University of Southern California she received the USC Magnum Opus Award which hangs in the office of the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation In 1986 she received an honorary doctorate of Music from Yale University 81 In 1990 she received an honorary doctorate of Music from Harvard University 82 Tributes and legacy Edit Fitzgerald in 1960 by Erling Mandelmann The career history and archival material from Fitzgerald s long career are housed in the Archives Center at the Smithsonian s National Museum of American History while her personal music arrangements are at the Library of Congress Her extensive cookbook collection was donated to the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University and her extensive collection of published sheet music was donated to UCLA Harvard gave her an honorary degree in music in 1990 In 1997 Newport News Virginia created a week long music festival with Christopher Newport University to honor Fitzgerald in her birth city Ann Hampton Callaway Dee Dee Bridgewater and Patti Austin have all recorded albums in tribute to Fitzgerald Callaway s album To Ella with Love 1996 features 14 jazz standards made popular by Fitzgerald and the album also features the trumpeter Wynton Marsalis Bridgewater s album Dear Ella 1997 featured many musicians that were closely associated with Fitzgerald during her career including the pianist Lou Levy the trumpeter Benny Powell and Fitzgerald s second husband double bassist Ray Brown Bridgewater s following album Live at Yoshi s was recorded live on April 25 1998 what would have been Fitzgerald s 81st birthday Austin s album For Ella 2002 features 11 songs most immediately associated with Fitzgerald and a twelfth song Hearing Ella Sing is Austin s tribute to Fitzgerald The album was nominated for a Grammy In 2007 We All Love Ella was released a tribute album recorded for Fitzgerald s 90th birthday It featured artists such as Michael Buble Natalie Cole Chaka Khan Gladys Knight Diana Krall k d lang Queen Latifah Ledisi Dianne Reeves Linda Ronstadt and Lizz Wright collating songs most readily associated with the First Lady of Song Folk singer Odetta s album To Ella 1998 is dedicated to Fitzgerald but features no songs associated with her Her accompanist Tommy Flanagan affectionately remembered Fitzgerald on his album Lady be Good For Ella 1994 Ella elle l a a tribute to Fitzgerald written by Michel Berger and performed by French singer France Gall was a hit in Europe in 1987 and 1988 83 Fitzgerald is also referred to in the 1976 Stevie Wonder hit Sir Duke from his album Songs in the Key of Life and the song I Love Being Here With You written by Peggy Lee and Bill Schluger Sinatra s 1986 recording of Mack the Knife from his album L A Is My Lady 1984 includes a homage to some of the song s previous performers including Lady Ella herself She is also honored in the song First Lady by Canadian artist Nikki Yanofsky In 2008 the Downing Gross Cultural Arts Center in Newport News named its new 276 seat theater the Ella Fitzgerald Theater The theater is located several blocks away from her birthplace on Marshall Avenue The Grand Opening performers October 11 and 12 2008 were Roberta Flack and Queen Esther Marrow In 2012 Rod Stewart performed a virtual duet with Ella Fitzgerald on his Christmas album Merry Christmas Baby and his television special of the same name 84 There is a bronze sculpture of Fitzgerald in Yonkers the city in which she grew up created by American artist Vinnie Bagwell It is located southeast of the main entrance to the Amtrak Metro North Railroad station in front of the city s old trolley barn The statue s location is one of 14 tour stops on the African American Heritage Trail of Westchester County A bust of Fitzgerald is on the campus of Chapman University in Orange California Ed Dwight created a series of over 70 bronze sculptures at the St Louis Arch Museum at the request of the National Park Service the series Jazz An American Art Form depicts the evolution of jazz and features various jazz performers including Fitzgerald 85 On January 9 2007 the United States Postal Service announced that Fitzgerald would be honored with her own postage stamp 52 The stamp was released in April 2007 as part of the Postal Service s Black Heritage series 86 In April 2013 she was featured in Google Doodle depicting her performing on stage It celebrated what would have been her 96th birthday 87 88 On April 25 2017 the centenary of her birth UK s BBC Radio 2 broadcast three programmes as part of an Ella at 100 celebration Ella Fitzgerald Night introduced by Jamie Cullum Remembering Ella introduced by Leo Green and Ella Fitzgerald the First Lady of Song introduced by Petula Clark 89 In 2019 Ella Fitzgerald Just One of Those Things a documentary by Leslie Woodhead was released in the UK It featured rare footage radio broadcasts and interviews with Jamie Cullum Andre Previn Johnny Mathis and other musicians plus a long interview with Fitzgerald s son Ray Brown Jr 56 References Edit The Savoy Ballroom opens African American Registry Retrieved October 29 2016 Biography Ella Fitzgerald March 11 2015 Retrieved December 21 2018 a b c Nicholson 1996 p 4 Whitaker Matthew 2011 Icons of Black America Breaking Barriers and Crossing Boundaries Vol v 1 Santa Barbara CA US Greenwood p 302 ISBN 978 0 313 37643 6 OCLC 781709336 a b Nicholson 1996 p 5 Nicholson 1996 p 7 13 a b Nicholson 1996 p 6 Nicholson 1996 p 7 a b c d e f g h i j Holden Stephen June 16 1996 Ella Fitzgerald the Voice of Jazz Dies at 79 The New York Times Retrieved March 23 2015 Biography EllaFitzgerald com Official website March 11 2015 Retrieved February 7 2018 a b Nicholson 1996 p 14 a b Rich Frank June 19 1996 Journal How High the Moon The New York Times Retrieved February 22 2014 Ella Fitzgerald is born History Retrieved February 7 2018 a b Bernstein Nina June 23 1996 Ward of the State The Gap in Ella Fitzgerald s Life The New York Times Retrieved February 22 2014 a b c d e Fritts Ron Vail Ken 2003 Ella Fitzgerald The Chick Webb Years amp Beyond Scarecrow Press pp 4 6 ISBN 978 0 8108 4881 8 Retrieved February 23 2014 a b Horton James Oliver 2005 Landmarks of African American History Oxford University Press p 143 ISBN 978 0 19 514118 4 Retrieved February 23 2014 a b Hemming amp Hajdu 1991 p 97 a b c Moret Jim June 15 1996 First Lady of Song passes peacefully surrounded by family CNN Archived from the original on November 29 2006 Retrieved January 30 2007 Nicholson 1996 p 19 Ella Fitzgerald and Chick Webb Jazz s Odd Couple April 25 2020 Buck Ram Platters Mentor Wrote String of 1950s Hits Los Angeles Times January 3 1991 Robinson Louie November 1961 First Lady of Jazz Ebony Vol 17 no 1 pp 131 132 139 ISSN 0012 9011 Retrieved October 10 2014 Otfinoski Steven 2010 African Americans in the Performing Arts Infobase Publishing p 251 ISBN 978 1 4381 2855 9 Retrieved February 23 2014 James Edward T James Janet Wilson Boyer Paul S 2004 Notable American Women A Biographical Dictionary Harvard University Press p 210 ISBN 978 0 674 01488 6 Retrieved February 23 2014 Nicholson 2004 p 44 Stuart Nicholson 2014 Ella Fitzgerald A Biography of the First Lady of Jazz Routledge p 74 ISBN 978 1 136 78814 7 Humphrey Harold April 4 1942 New Notes The Billboard Vol 54 no 14 p 67 ISSN 0006 2510 Retrieved October 10 2014 Goldberg Marv 1998 More Than Words Can Say The Ink Spots and Their Music Scarecrow Press p 125 ISBN 978 1 4616 6972 2 Tyler Don 2007 Hit Songs 1900 1955 American Popular Music of the Pre Rock Era McFarland p 304 ISBN 978 0 7864 2946 2 Coming Up The Billboard December 7 1946 p 27 Gioia Ted 2012 The Jazz Standards A Guide to the Repertoire Oxford University Press p 307 ISBN 978 0 19 993739 4 Retrieved October 11 2014 Stratton Jon September 2007 All Rock and Rhythm and Jazz Rock n Roll Origin Stories and Race in Australia Continuum 21 3 379 392 doi 10 1080 10304310701460730 hdl 20 500 11937 39207 S2CID 143360217 Stop the music said Artie Shaw The Argus July 24 1954 p 3 Retrieved February 7 2018 via National Library of Australia Complaint Ella Fitzgerald et al v Pan American December 23 1954 National Archives and Records Administration Retrieved February 7 2018 Ella Fitzgerald Sues Airline for Discrimination 1970 CBC News Archived from the original on December 11 2021 Retrieved February 7 2018 Talent topics The Billboard March 12 1955 p 24 ISSN 0006 2510 Retrieved February 8 2018 Ella Fitzgerald a big hit Jet Vol 7 no 22 April 7 1955 p 60 ISSN 0021 5996 Retrieved February 8 2018 Nicholson 2004 p 149 Jet Jet August 13 1953 p 60 ISSN 0021 5996 Retrieved August 16 2013 Jet Jet December 10 1953 ISSN 0021 5996 Retrieved August 16 2013 Jet Jet November 12 1953 ISSN 0021 5996 Retrieved August 16 2013 Nicholson 1996 p 198 a b c d Nicholson 2004 For many years Fitzgerald s birthdate was thought to be on the same date one year later in 1918 and it is still listed as such in some sources but research by Nicholson and another biographer Tanya Lee Stone established 1917 as the correct year of birth Davies Hugh December 31 2005 Sir Johnny up there with the Count and the Duke The Daily Telegraph London Archived from the original on January 11 2022 Retrieved March 16 2007 Movie of the week Pete Kelly s Blues Jet August 25 1955 p 62 ISSN 0021 5996 Retrieved February 23 2014 Capua Michelangelo March 8 2013 Janet Leigh A Biography McFarland p 176 ISBN 978 0 7864 7022 8 Retrieved February 23 2014 Furia Philip Patterson Laurie March 10 2010 The Songs of Hollywood Oxford University Press p 174 ISBN 978 0 19 979266 5 Retrieved February 23 2014 Manohla Dargis August 10 1955 Webb Plays the Blues The New York Times Retrieved July 24 2018 Storb Ilse 2000 Jazz Meets the World The World Meets Jazz in German LIT Verlag Munster p 61 ISBN 978 3 8258 3748 8 Retrieved February 23 2014 Croix St Sukie de la July 11 2012 Chicago Whispers A History of LGBT Chicago before Stonewall University of Wisconsin Press p 213 ISBN 978 0 299 28693 4 Retrieved February 23 2014 Ella on Special 1980 Duet with Karen Carpenter YouTube December 25 2008 Archived from the original on December 11 2021 Retrieved December 28 2012 a b New stamp honors first lady of song USA Today AP January 9 2007 Retrieved February 23 2014 a b Rosen Larry July 18 2013 Is It Live or Is It Memorex Psychology Today Retrieved February 23 2014 Ella Fitzgerald For Kentucky Fried Chicken Rerojunk com Retrieved December 28 2012 She puts the famous in focus St Petersburg Times November 22 2005 Retrieved February 23 2014 a b Evans Darby Sally March 21 2019 Ella Fitzgerald Just One of Those Things Jazz Journal On Frank Sinatra s Hair Swarthmore edu Retrieved April 26 2017 Ella Fitzgerald The Vogue Retrieved September 12 2022 Ella Fitzgerald Hospitalized The Lewiston Journal AP August 13 1985 Retrieved February 22 2014 Ella Fitzgerald Hospitalized AP News Archive AP July 27 1986 Retrieved February 22 2014 Ella Fitzgerald Hospitalized Los Angeles Times July 10 1990 Retrieved February 22 2014 25 years of Jazz FM Jazz FM Retrieved April 19 2017 Ella Fitzgerald Had Both Legs Amputated Daily News Kingsport Tennessee Reuters April 13 1994 Retrieved February 22 2014 a b Weinstein Henry Brazil Jeff June 16 1996 Ella Fitzgerald Jazz s First Lady of Song Dies Los Angeles Times pp 1 3 Retrieved February 22 2014 Nicholson 2004 pp 67 68 Nicholson 2004 pp 173 175 This Green and Pleasant Land by Bryan Greene in Poverty and Race p 3 Awards Ella Fitzgerald April 7 2017 Retrieved October 10 2017 Hershorn Tad 2011 Norman Granz The Man Who Used Jazz for Justice University of California Press ISBN 978 0 520 26782 4 a b Jessica Bissett Perea Fitzgerald Ella Grove Music Online Oxford Music Online Oxford University Press Web October 10 2017 1 permanent dead link Bill Reed 2010 Hot from Harlem Twelve African American Entertainers 1890 1960 McFarland amp Co ISBN 978 0 7864 5726 7 Post Civil War Freedmen and Civil Rights National Archives August 15 2016 Archived from the original on October 10 2017 Retrieved October 10 2017 Bush George December 11 1992 Remarks on Presenting the Presidential Medals of Freedom The American Presidency Project www presidency ucsb edu Retrieved June 22 2020 The Foundation Ella Fitzgerald Universal Music Enterprises www ellafitzgerald com foundation Wilson John S A Tribute to Fitzgerald With Heart and Soul The New York Times The New York Times February 11 1990 2 Easterling Michael Celebrating 100 Years of Song Breakthroughs City of Hope April 24 2017 www cityofhope org celebrating ella fitzgerald Bishop Elizabeth and Robert Giroux One Art Letters Pimlico 1996 Wong Hannah First Lady of Song LC Collection Tells Ella Fitzgerald Story LOC Retrieved March 19 2013 a b c Ella Fitzgerald grammy com The Recording Academy Retrieved March 12 2022 Calendar amp Events Spring Sing Gershwin Award UCLA Archived from the original on August 17 2011 Rockwell John June 15 1986 Half a Century of Song with the Great Ella The New York Times Retrieved July 4 2019 Partial List of Harvard Honorary Degrees Harvard University Archived from the original on August 5 2015 Retrieved May 30 2013 France Gall Radio Swizz Jazz Archived from the original on April 7 2016 Retrieved March 25 2015 Graff Gary October 30 2012 Rod Stewart I Thought Christmas Album Was Beneath Me Billboard Retrieved February 23 2014 Behind the Scenes eddwight com Ed Dwight Studios Inc Archived from the original on August 9 2015 Retrieved July 25 2015 New Stamp Honors First Lady of Song WHSV News 3 January 9 2007 Archived from the original on September 5 2013 Retrieved December 2 2009 Batty David April 25 2013 Google celebrates Ella Fitzgerald with doodle on 96th birthday Guardian Retrieved September 9 2017 Smith Patrick April 25 2013 Ella Fitzgerald celebrated in Google Doodle The Queen of Jazz Ella Fitzgearld is commemorated with a Google Doodle on what would have been her 96th birthday The Telegraph Online Archived from the original on January 11 2022 Retrieved September 9 2017 Ella at 100 Ella Fitzgerald The First Lady of Song BBC Radio 2 Bbc co uk April 25 2017 Retrieved April 25 2017 Sources EditGourse Leslie 1998 The Ella Fitzgerald Companion London Omnibus Press ISBN 0 7119 6916 7 Hemming Roy Hajdu David 1991 Discovering great singers of classic pop a new listener s guide to the sounds and lives of the top performers and their recordings movies and videos New York Newmarket Press ISBN 978 1 55704 148 7 OCLC 1033645473 Johnson J Wilfred 2001 Ella Fitzgerald An Annotated Discography McFarland ISBN 0 7864 0906 1 Nicholson Stuart 1996 Ella Fitzgerald 1917 1996 London Indigo ISBN 978 0 575 40032 0 Nicholson Stuart 2004 Ella Fitzgerald the complete biography New York Routledge ISBN 978 1 136 78813 0 OCLC 884745086 OCLC 1033559908 884645602 Further reading EditGourse Leslie 1998 The Ella Fitzgerald Companion Seven Decades of Commentary Music Sales Ltd ISBN 0 02 864625 8 Yazza Houria 2000 Ella and Marilyn the perfect friendship NY 2000 Johnson J Wilfred 2001 Ella Fitzgerald A Complete Annotated Discography McFarland amp Co Inc ISBN 0 7864 0906 1External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ella Fitzgerald Wikiquote has quotations related to Ella Fitzgerald United States portal Biography portal Music portalElla Fitzgerald official site Ella Fitzgerald discography at Discogs Ella Fitzgerald recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings Ella Fitzgerald at IMDb Ella Fitzgerald at the Internet Broadway Database Ella Fitzgerald at Find a Grave Ella Fitzgerald at the Library of Congress Remembering Ella by Phillip D Atteberry originally published in The Mississippi Rag April 1996 Listen to Big Band Serenade podcast episode 6 Includes complete NBC remote broadcast of Ella Fitzgerald amp her Orchestra from the Roseland Ballroom or download Ella Fitzgerald at the Institute of Jazz Studies Rutgers University Ella Fitzgerald Just One of Those Things documentary Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Ella Fitzgerald amp oldid 1142858766, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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