Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Fitzgerald (born the April 25th 1917 in Newport News - died the June 15th 1996 with Beverly Hills) is one of the most important singers of Jazz.

Known under the nickname of “ The First Lady off Song ” (literally “ The First Lady of the chanson ”, but translated more readily by “ The Great lady of Jazz ”), it gained many rewards, including 13 Grammy Awards.

With a Tessiture of voices of three octave S, it is remarkable for the purity of its voice and its capacity of improvisation, particularly in Scat.

One of its most famous improvisations is that which it did in concert on Mack the Knife (extracted from the Opera of quat' under ) at the time of a concert with Berlin in 1960, piece during which it had a lapse of memory and which it continued without hesitation by alternating scat and impromptu words.

This version of Mack the Knife is certainly, with Mr. Paganini and How High the Moon , one of the most known successes of Ella Fitzgerald.

Another of its famous improvisations took place during a concert with Antibes/Juan-the-Pines at the summer 1964, whereas it occurred in the Gould Pine forest at the time of the Festival Jazz in Juan, when it paid homage to the cicada S which accompanied it ( The Cricket Song ).

Biography

Ella Jane Fitzgerald is born on April 25th, 1917 with Newport News in Virginia, and grew close to New York. His/her mother worked in a laundry, and his/her father had given up the marital home little time after his birth. She then dreamed to be a dancer.

She starts to sing at 16 years in 1934 with the theater Apollo of Harlem to New York in one of the first Amateurs Nights which she gains, contributing as much to the glory of Apollo that to his. She is noticed by Bardu Ali orchestra of Chick Webb, which convainquit Webb to engage it.

CBS was about to sign a contract with it, when his/her mother died, leaving it orphan. It had to be satisfied to take part in contests.

Having gained in 1935 a hearing for one week, it starts to play with the orchestra of Webb to the Savoy of Harlem in 1935. It records some tubes with him, whose If You Can' T Sing It celebrates it, You' L Cuts to Swing It , Love and Kisses , but it is its version of the lullaby has Tisket, has Tasket which made known it.

When Chick Webb dies in 1939, the orchestra continues under the name of “ Ella Fitzgerald and Her Famous Orchestra ”.

It begins a career solo in 1941. At the beginning, singer of swing, it approaches also the Bebop, it is the queen of the Scat, and it played of the Blues, the samba, the Gospel etc, and even of the Christmas carols. Its concerts are often enriched by imitations by other singers; she imitates in particular to perfection the voices and the gestures as well of Pink Murphy as of Louis Armstrong.

She leaves Decca in 1955. The company Verve was created at the beginning for it by its manager Norman Granz.

Its most known pieces are a series produced by Norman Granz on songs written by the largest American type-setters of the moment like George Gershwin (with the orchestra of Nelson Riddle), Cole Porter, Duke Ellington…

With the orchestra of Duke Ellington, it makes rounds in Europe and North America. It opened the concert with the piece of Duke Ellington Take the “has” Train ; it was one of rare to sing words on this piece.

She played in concert with the most important groups and soloists. Its true role was “instrumentalist of the voice”. She sings with many instrumental partners like Oscar Peterson, Count Basie ( One the Sunny Side off the Street ), Roy Eldridge Joe Pass ( Speak Love ), Dizzy Gillespie, and the trio of Tommy Flanagan. She also sang with other voices of the jazz like Nat King Cole or large interpreters of varieties, though near to the jazz, like Frank Sinatra.

Porgy and Bess is its most known recording with the legend of the jazz which was Louis Armstrong, but it also recorded with him the famous album Ella and Louis which had such a success that Granz required of them to record a Ella and Louis Again , which was also a success.

Ella also appears with Peggy Lee as actress and singer in film of Jack Webb, Pete Kelly' S Blues . She also appears in the films Ride 'EM Cowboy , St Louis Blues , and Let No Man Write My Epitaph .

She married twice, first once with Benny Kornegay, but the marriage was cancelled, and second once with famous the Bassiste Ray Brown.

Already become blind by his diabetes, one had to cut down it by the legs in 1993 and she died in Beverly Hills in 1996.

The singer France Gall sang a song in her homage Ella, it has it in the Années 1980.

Discography

Extract

by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong

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