[52] In the commercials, she sang a note that shattered a glass while being recorded on a Memorex cassette tape. The pair wed in 1947, and they adopted a child born to Fitzgerald's half-sister whom they named Raymond "Ray" Brown Jr. [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. [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. The purity of her range and intonation, along with her peerless sense of pitch, made her a signature singer. [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. When she got into the band, she was dedicated to her musicShe was a lonely girl around New York, just kept herself to herself, for the gig. After her heart surgery and a diabetes diagnosis in 1986, Fitzgerald exceeded expectations by continuing to perform. Ella Fitzgerald, known as The First Lady of Song, was a revolutionary American jazz singer who performed all over the world. 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". Around this time, Fitzgerald was briefly married to Ben Kornegay, a convicted drug dealer and hustler. Fitzgerald experienced a troubled childhood that began with her parents separating shortly after her birth. Fitzgeralds grades declined and she got into trouble with the law when she became affiliated with mafia related activities. Updated April 25, 2019 - Christopher Loudon Ella Fitzgerald (c/o Universal) Apologies to James Brown, but Ella Fitzgerald, who would have turned 100 on April 25, was the hardest working singer in show business. Verve Records was sold to MGM in 1960 for $3 million and in 1967 MGM failed to renew Fitzgerald's contract. [66], Fitzgerald was notoriously shy. She was an unusual woman a little ahead of her times. On stage, however, Ella was surprised to find she had no fear. [11], Fitzgerald began skipping school, and her grades suffered. But it finally got to the point where I had no place to sing. 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 her solo career. Fitzgerald also hired Granz to become her manager. She was an excellent ballad singer, conveying a winsome, ingenuous quality. She escaped the reform school and found herself alone during the Great Depression. Best Known For: Ella Fitzgerald, known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an immensely popular American jazz and song vocalist who interpreted much of the Great American Songbook. NPR. Ella Fitzgerald Academy. Fitzgerald also had celebrity supporters, such a Marilyn Monroe, who personally called venues to make sure they booked her for performances. In tribute, the marquee read: "Ella We Will Miss You. "[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. Fitzgerald recorded "Love and Kisses" with Webb in 1935 and found herself playing regularly at one of Harlem's hottest clubs, the Savoy. On Nov. 21, 1934, Ella Jane Fitzgerald appeared at the Apollo. Norman refused to accept any type of discrimination at hotels, restaurants or concert halls, even when they traveled to the Deep South. In 1987, United States President Ronald Reagan awarded Ella the National Medal of Arts. Her multi-volume "songbooks" on Verve Records are among America's recording treasures. A progressive social reformer and activist, Jane Addams was on the frontline of the settlement house movement and was the first American woman to wina Nobel Peace Prize. Fitzgeralds clear tone and wide vocal range were complemented by her mastery of rhythm, harmony, intonation, and diction. Ann Hampton Callaway, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Patti Austin have all recorded albums in tribute to Fitzgerald. The United States Postal Service honored the late singer with a commemorative stamp celebrating the 90th anniversary of her birth. "She frequently used shorter, stabbing phrases, and her voice was harder, with a wider vibrato", one biographer wrote. She could sing very high notes and very low notes. Phone: 914-376-8420 Fax: 914-376-8423. Her manager, Norman Granz, was adamant about protecting his colleagues from discrimination, but it did not stop it from happening. Doctors also replaced a valve in her heart and diagnosed her with diabetes, which they blamed for her failing eyesight. [15] Fitzgerald recorded several hit songs, including "Love and Kisses" and "(If You Can't Sing It) You'll Have to Swing It (Mr. She started skipping school. 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. Professional Development for New Teachers, Labor Day: Schools & Central Office Closed, First Day of School for All Students PreK-12, September 11 Day of Service and Remembrance, 4:30 PM [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. [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 Torm, and many others. On the touring circuit it was well-known that Ellas manager felt very strongly about civil rights and required equal treatment for his musicians, regardless of their color. [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. She was famous for her scat singing. [8] Starting in third grade, Fitzgerald loved dancing and admired Earl Snakehips Tucker. Her first career aspiration was to become a dancer. In the band that night was saxophonist and arranger Benny Carter. We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right,contact us! She started skipping school. the learning standards that guide classroom instruction and help to ensure that students are on track to graduate from high school with the critical thinking, problem solving, and reasoning skills needed for . While on tour with Dizzy Gillespies band in 1946, Ella fell in love with bassist Ray Brown. I know I'm no glamour girl, and it's not easy for me to get up in front of a crowd of people. 2014. Ella Fitzgerald. National Womens History Museum. In 1958, Fitzgerald made history as the first African American woman to win a Grammy Award. Her song selections ranged from standards to rarities and represented an attempt by Fitzgerald to cross over into a non-jazz audience. [citation needed]. Granz helped solidify her position as one of the leading live jazz performers. Abrams is now one of the most prominent African American female politicians in the United States. The world responded with memorials and gratitude for the revolutionary gifts she gave to the world. Ella Fitzgerald was born on April 25, 1917, in Newport News, Virginia to mother, Temperance (Tempie) Henry and father, William Fitzgerald. Date Accessed. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Her unique ability to mimic instrumental sounds helped popularize the vocal improvisation of scatting, which became her signature technique. The house was sold in 1963, and Fitzgerald permanently returned to the United States.[42]. The press went overboard. January 26, 2022. In Spring 2023, the National Women's History Museum partnered with a class at Miss Hall's School, an independent high school for girls in Massachusetts, to create a discussion guide for select sites featured in "We Who Believe in Freedom.". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing. Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor: Culinary Anthropologist, Dr. Wangari Maathai: The story of a leader in social, environmental, and political activism and first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, Chronicles of American Women: Your History Makers, Women Writing History: A Coronavirus Journaling Project, We Who Believe in Freedom: Black Feminist DC, Learning Resources on Women's Political Participation. She recorded some hit songs with the Ink Spots and Louis Jordan in the early 1940s. Although her intention was to dance, she decided to sing instead after seeing the dance competitors. Ella Fitzgerald, in full Ella Jane Fitzgerald, (born April 25, 1917, Newport News, Virginia, U.S.died June 15, 1996, Beverly Hills, California), American jazz singer who became world famous for the wide range and rare sweetness of her voice. Ella Fitzgerald became the first African American woman to win a Grammy Award in 1958. A performance at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London was filmed and shown on the BBC. It was the Harlem theater's first amateur night, and Fitzgerald was just 17. Once on stage, faced with boos and murmurs of Whats she going to do? from the rowdy crowd, a scared and disheveled Ella made the last minute decision to sing. By the time Ella was almost three years old, her parents, William and Tempie (an abbreviation of Temperance), were living in New York City. [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. Ella Fitzgerald. Accessed March 19, 2022. https://www.npr.org/2019/09/05/749021799/the-joy-of-ella-fitzgeralds-accessible-elegance. Biography.com Editors. In 1990, Verve put out an archival LP of Fitzgerald playing Berlin in '61, under the name "Ella Returns to Berlin." That was a fine album, but the newest recording has a number of advantages. Perhaps in search of stability and protection, Ella married Benny Kornegay, a local dockworker who had been pursuing her. Bio. The following year Fitzgerald joined the Chick Webb orchestra; Webb became the teenaged Fitzgeralds guardian when her mother died. 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. The two divorced in 1952, but remained good friends for the rest of their lives. "[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). The adopted son of Ray Brown and Ella Fitzgerald, he was born in New York City, to Fitzgerald's half-sister Frances. They lived there with her mother's boyfriend, Joseph Da Silva. 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. Ella went to the theater that night planning to dance, but when the frenzied Edwards Sisters closed the main show, Ella changed her mind. The two women remained close for the rest of Fitzgeralds life. She escaped the reform school and found herself alone during the Great Depression. [43] Plagued by health problems, Fitzgerald made her last recording in 1991 and her last public performances in 1993. I thought be-bop was 'it', and that all I had to do was go some place and sing bop. Under Normans management, Ella joined the Philharmonic tour, worked with Louis Armstrong on several albums and began producing her infamous songbook series. She felt at home in the spotlight. Harvard gave her an honorary degree in music in 1990. Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong. In the process he and Ella became lifelong friends, often working together. Ella Fitzgerald. National Womens History Museum. Paganini)". 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. 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. The family grew in 1923 with the arrival of Fitzgerald's half-sister Frances. She drew inspiration from Connee Boswell of The Boswell Sisters, one of her mothers favorite groups, and sang the song Judy by Hoagy Carmichael. View Untitled presentation (6).pptx from HISTORY 4399 at Stranahan High School. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Granz required promoters to ensure that there was no "colored" or "white" seating. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Her rendition of the nursery rhyme "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" helped boost both her and Webb to national fame.
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