Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996) was an American singer, songwriter, and composer. She was often called the "First Lady of Song," "Queen of Jazz," and "Lady Ella." She was known for her clear voice, precise pronunciation, smooth singing style, perfect timing, and ability to sing complex melodies, especially in scat singing, which sounds like a musical instrument.

After a difficult teenage years, Fitzgerald found success in music with the Chick Webb Orchestra. She performed across the United States, but she was most closely linked to the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. Her version of the nursery rhyme "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" helped make her and Chick Webb famous nationwide. After Chick Webb died in 1939, Fitzgerald took over the band but left it in 1942 to begin her solo career. Her manager was Moe Gale, co-founder of the Savoy, until she later worked with Norman Granz, who started Verve Records to record her music. With Verve, Fitzgerald created some of her most well-known songs, including her performances of the Great American Songbook.

Fitzgerald also appeared in movies and on television shows during the second half of the twentieth century. She collaborated with other famous musicians, including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and The Ink Spots. Together, they created 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 nearly 60 years of performing, Fitzgerald gave her final public performance. She died in 1996 at age 79 after many years of poor health. Her achievements included 14 Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts, the NAACP's first President's Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Early life and family

Ella Jane Fitzgerald was born on April 25, 1917, in Newport News, Virginia. She was the daughter of William Ashland Fitzgerald, a transfer wagon driver from Blackstone, Virginia, and Temperance Fitzgerald. Both of her parents were described as mulatto in the 1920 census. Fitzgerald’s parents were not married but lived together in the East End section of Newport News 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, moved to Yonkers, New York. Her half-sister, Frances da Silva, was born in 1923. By 1925, Fitzgerald and her family had moved to nearby School Street, a poor Italian area. Fitzgerald 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.

Fitzgerald 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. The church provided Fitzgerald with her earliest experiences in music. 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.

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.”

In 1932, when Fitzgerald was 15 years old, her mother died from injuries sustained in a car accident. Fitzgerald’s stepfather took care of her until April 1933, when she moved to Harlem to live with her aunt. This sudden change in her life, along with rumors of “ill treatment” by her stepfather, led some to suggest that Joseph da Silva may have abused her.

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

Career

Ella Fitzgerald seemed to survive during 1933 and 1934 by singing on the streets of Harlem. She made her first stage appearance on November 21, 1934, at one of the earliest Amateur Nights at the Apollo Theater. Fitzgerald had planned to dance but felt nervous about performing with a local dance group called the Edwards Sisters. Instead, she sang in the style of Connee Boswell, performing "Judy" and "The Object of My Affection." She won first prize and received a chance to perform at the Apollo for a week. However, because of her untidy appearance, the theater did not give her the opportunity.

In January 1935, Fitzgerald won a chance to perform for a week with the Tiny Bradshaw band at the Harlem Opera House. Later that year, she met drummer and bandleader Chick Webb through Bardu Ali. Webb was hesitant to sign her because he thought she looked awkward and untidy, but Ali convinced him. Webb gave Fitzgerald a chance to try out with his band at a dance at Yale University.

Fitzgerald was welcomed by audiences and musicians, and she was invited to join Webb’s orchestra. She gained fame as part of the group’s performances at Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom. She recorded several popular songs, including "Love and Kisses" and "(If You Can't Sing It) You'll Have to Swing It (Mr. Paganini)." Her 1938 version of the nursery rhyme "A-Tisket, A-Tasket," which she co-wrote, became a major radio hit and one of the best-selling records of the decade.

Webb died from spinal tuberculosis on June 16, 1939, and his band was renamed Ella Fitzgerald and Her Famous Orchestra, with Fitzgerald becoming the bandleader. She and the band recorded for Decca and performed at the Roseland Ballroom, where they gained national attention on NBC radio.

Between 1935 and 1942, Fitzgerald recorded nearly 150 songs with Webb’s orchestra. She also performed and recorded with the Benny Goodman Orchestra and had her own group, Ella Fitzgerald and Her Savoy Eight.

In 1942, due to disagreements and financial issues, Fitzgerald began working as the lead singer with The Three Keys. In July, her band performed their final concert at the Earl Theatre in Philadelphia. While working with Decca Records, Fitzgerald had hits with Bill Kenny & the Ink Spots, Louis Jordan, and the Delta Rhythm Boys. Producer Norman Granz became her manager in the mid-1940s after she started singing for Jazz at the Philharmonic, a concert series he created.

As the swing era ended and big bands declined, jazz music changed. The rise of bebop influenced Fitzgerald’s vocal style, especially after working with Dizzy Gillespie’s band. During this time, she began using scat singing, a technique where she imitated musical instruments with her voice. Fitzgerald recalled: "I just tried to do [with my voice] what I heard the horns in the band doing."

Her 1945 scat recording of "Flying Home," arranged by Vic Schoen, was later called "one of the most influential vocal jazz records of the decade" by The New York Times. Her bebop recording of "Oh, Lady Be Good!" (1947) also gained popularity and increased her reputation as a top jazz vocalist.

In July 1954, Fitzgerald made her first tour of Australia for Lee Gordon, an Australian promoter. This was the first of Gordon’s famous "Big Show" tours, which also included Buddy Rich, Artie Shaw, and comedian Jerry Colonna. The tour was successful but faced racial discrimination. Fitzgerald and her team were forced to leave a Pan-American Airlines flight in Honolulu and were stranded for three days before getting another flight to Sydney. They later won a lawsuit against Pan-Am for racial discrimination.

Fitzgerald continued performing at Granz’s Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts by 1955. She left Decca, and Granz, now her manager, created Verve Records around her. Fitzgerald later described this time as important, saying: "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."

On March 15, 1955, Fitzgerald began performing at the Mocambo nightclub in Hollywood, after Marilyn Monroe lobbied the owner for the booking. This opportunity helped Fitzgerald’s career. However, it was not true that she was the first Black performer at the Mocambo, as African-American singers had performed there earlier.

Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book, released in 1956, was the first of eight "Song Book" sets Fitzgerald recorded for Verve between 1956 and 1964. These sets focused on songs from the Great American Songbook, a collection of classic music. Her recordings were widely recognized, and by 1956, her work was included in the RCA Thesaurus transcription library.

Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book was the only Song Book where Duke Ellington and his collaborator Billy Strayhorn participated. They wrote two new songs for the album. The Song Book series became Fitzgerald’s most critically acclaimed and commercially successful work. 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."

Film and television

Ella Fitzgerald played the role of singer Maggie Jackson in Jack Webb’s 1955 jazz film Pete Kelly’s Blues. The film also included Janet Leigh and singer Peggy Lee. Although Fitzgerald had already appeared in movies before (she sang two songs in the 1942 film Ride 'Em Cowboy), she was happy when Norman Granz helped her get the role. At the time, she said this role in the Warner Brothers movie was the most important thing that had ever happened to her. When Pete Kelly’s Blues opened in August 1955, The New York Times reviewed the film and wrote, “About five minutes (out of ninety-five) suggest the picture this might have been. Take the clever prologue … [or] take the brief scenes when the talented Ella Fitzgerald, who had only a few spoken lines, fills the screen and soundtrack with her strong, expressive features and voice.”

After Pete Kelly’s Blues, Fitzgerald made occasional appearances in movies, including St. Louis Blues (1958) and Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960). She also sang on many television shows, such as The Frank Sinatra Show, The Carol Burnett Show, The Andy Williams Show, The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, and alongside performers like Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, and Mel Tormé. She was also a frequent guest on The Ed Sullivan Show. One of her most unusual performances was singing the “Three Little Maids” song from Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado with Joan Sutherland and Dinah Shore on Shore’s variety series in 1963. A performance at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London was filmed and shown on the BBC. Fitzgerald also appeared with Sarah Vaughan and Pearl Bailey on a 1979 television special honoring Bailey. In 1980, she performed a medley of classic songs in a duet with Karen Carpenter on the Carpenters’ television special Music, Music, Music.

Fitzgerald also appeared in television commercials, including an advertisement for Memorex. In the ad, she sang a note that broke a glass while being recorded on a Memorex cassette tape. The tape was played back, and the recording also broke another glass, asking: “Is it live, or is it Memorex?” She also appeared in commercials for Kentucky Fried Chicken, singing and scatting to the chain’s slogan: “We do chicken right!” Her final commercial campaign was for American Express, where she was photographed by Annie Leibovitz.

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

Collaborations

Fitzgerald worked with many famous musicians throughout her career. These included the vocal group Bill Kenny & the Ink Spots, the 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. Four of these songs reached the top of the pop charts. These included "I'm Making Believe" and "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall," both of which reached No. 1.

Fitzgerald recorded three Verve studio albums with Louis Armstrong. Two of these albums featured classic songs: Ella and Louis (1956) and Ella and Louis Again (1957). A third album included music from the Gershwin opera Porgy and Bess. She also recorded several songs with Armstrong for Decca Records in the early 1950s.

Fitzgerald is often called the most famous swing singer. Her work with Count Basie is highly respected. She appears on one track of Basie's 1957 album One O'Clock Jump. Her 1963 album Ella and Basie! is considered one of her best recordings. This album featured the "New Testament" Basie band and music arranged by Quincy Jones. It gave Fitzgerald a break from recording the "Song Book" series and from frequent tours. She also recorded with Basie on Jazz at Santa Monica Civic '72 (1972) and on Digital III at Montreux, A Classy Pair, and A Perfect Match (1979).

Fitzgerald and Joe Pass recorded four albums together near the end of her career. She often performed with pianists, but the guitar provided a perfect musical match for her voice. These albums include 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 helped place Ellington's music in the Great American Songbook. In the 1960s, Fitzgerald and Ellington performed together in France on the 1966 album Ella and Duke at the Cote D'Azur and in Sweden on The Stockholm Concert, 1966. Their 1965 album Ella at Duke's Place is also highly praised.

Over her long career, Fitzgerald worked with many famous jazz musicians and soloists. These included trumpeters Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie, guitarist Herb Ellis, and pianists Tommy Flanagan, Oscar Peterson, Lou Levy, Paul Smith, Jimmy Rowles, and Ellis Larkins. These musicians often performed with Fitzgerald in small live groups.

Personal life

Ella Fitzgerald married at least twice, and there is evidence that she may have married a third time. Her first marriage was in 1941 to Benny Kornegay, a man who was convicted of selling drugs and worked as a dockworker. The marriage was annulled in 1942. Her second marriage was in December 1947 to Ray Brown, a famous bass player. Fitzgerald met Ray Brown while performing with Dizzy Gillespie’s band a year earlier. Together, they adopted a child born to Fitzgerald’s half-sister, Frances. The child was named Ray Brown Jr. Because Fitzgerald and Brown were often traveling and recording music, the child was mostly raised by his mother’s aunt, Virginia. Fitzgerald and Brown divorced in 1953 because both were busy with their careers, though they continued to perform together.

In July 1957, Reuters reported that Fitzgerald secretly married Thor Einar Larsen, a young man from Norway, in Oslo. She even moved into an apartment in Oslo. However, the marriage became known when Larsen was sentenced to five months in prison in Sweden for stealing money from a woman he had once been engaged to.

Fitzgerald was known for being very shy. Mario Bauzá, a trumpet player who performed with Fitzgerald early in her career, said she avoided socializing and focused on her music. He described her as a quiet and dedicated person who kept to herself. Later in her career, when an award was named after her, Fitzgerald said, “I don’t want to say the wrong thing, which I always do, but I think I do better when I sing.”

From 1949 to 1956, Fitzgerald lived in the St. Albans neighborhood of Queens, New York. This area was home to many successful African Americans, including musicians like Illinois Jacquet, Count Basie, and Lena Horne.

Fitzgerald supported civil rights. She received awards from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the American Black Achievement Award. In 1949, Norman Granz invited Fitzgerald to join the Jazz at the Philharmonic tour. This tour aimed to perform in places where people were separated by race. Granz required that all venues allow equal treatment for everyone, regardless of race or gender. If these rules were not followed, the performances were canceled.

Bill Reed, the author of Hot from Harlem: Twelve African American Entertainers, called Fitzgerald a “Civil Rights Crusader” because she faced discrimination throughout her career. In 1954, Fitzgerald was unable to board a flight to Australia because of racial discrimination. Despite these challenges, she was recognized as a “cultural ambassador” and received the National Medal of Arts in 1987 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the highest non-military honor in the United States.

In 1993, Fitzgerald created the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation. The foundation provided money to help children with education, support music programs, assist people in need, and fund research on diabetes, heart disease, and vision loss. Fitzgerald wanted to help those who were less fortunate. She also supported organizations like the American Heart Association, City of Hope, and the Retina Foundation.

Illness and death

Fitzgerald had diabetes for many years in her later life, which caused several health problems. She was hospitalized in 1985 for a short time because of breathing issues, in 1986 for heart problems, and in 1990 because she was very tired. In March 1990, she performed at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England, with the Count Basie Orchestra for the start of Jazz FM. She also sang at a special dinner at the Grosvenor House Hotel. In 1993, both of her legs were amputated below the knee because of diabetes, which also harmed her eyesight.

Fitzgerald died at her home from a stroke on June 15, 1996, when she was 79 years old. A few hours after her death, the Playboy Jazz Festival began at the Hollywood Bowl. A sign at the event said, "Ella We Will Miss You." Her funeral was private, and she was buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.

Discography and collections

The main collections of Fitzgerald's items and materials are kept and shared between the Smithsonian Institution and the US Library of Congress.

Awards, citations and honors

Fitzgerald received 13 Grammy Awards and was honored with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1967.

In 1959, Fitzgerald became the first African-American woman to win at the inaugural ceremony.

Other major awards and honors Fitzgerald received during her career included the Kennedy Center Medal of Honor Award, the National Medal of Art, the first Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award (named "Ella" in her honor), the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement. She also received the UCLA Spring Sing Award and the UCLA Medal in 1987. At the University of Southern California, Fitzgerald was given the USC "Magnum Opus" Award, which is displayed in the office of the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation. In 1986, she received an honorary doctorate of music from Yale University. In 1990, Fitzgerald received an honorary doctorate of Music from Harvard University.

Tributes and legacy

Ella Fitzgerald's career history and materials from her long career are kept in the Archives Center at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. Her personal music arrangements are stored at the Library of Congress. Her large collection of cookbooks was donated to the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University, and her collection of published sheet music was donated to UCLA. Harvard University 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 birthplace.

Ann Hampton Callaway, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Patti Austin have all recorded tribute albums for Fitzgerald. Callaway's album To Ella with Love (1996) includes 14 jazz songs made famous by Fitzgerald and features trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. Bridgewater's album Dear Ella (1997) includes musicians who worked with Fitzgerald, such as pianist Lou Levy, trumpeter Benny Powell, and Fitzgerald's second husband, double bassist Ray Brown. Bridgewater's next album, Live at Yoshi's, was recorded live on April 25, 1998, which would have been Fitzgerald's 81st birthday.

Austin's album For Ella (2002) includes 11 songs closely linked to Fitzgerald and a 12th song, "Hearing Ella Sing," which is a tribute to her. The album was nominated for a Grammy. In 2007, We All Love Ella, a tribute album for Fitzgerald's 90th birthday, was released. It included 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, who performed songs most associated with Fitzgerald. Folk singer Odetta's album To Ella (1998) honors Fitzgerald but does not include songs she performed. Fitzgerald's accompanist, Tommy Flanagan, paid tribute to her on his album Lady Be Good… For Ella (1994).

A tribute to Fitzgerald, "Ella, elle l'a," written by Michel Berger and performed by French singer France Gall, was a hit in Europe in 1987 and 1988. Fitzgerald is also mentioned in the 1976 Stevie Wonder song "Sir Duke" from his album Songs in the Key of Life and in the song "I Love Being Here With You," written by Peggy Lee and Bill Schluger. Frank Sinatra's 1986 recording of "Mack the Knife" from his album L.A. Is My Lady (1984) includes a tribute to previous performers, including Fitzgerald. 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 near her birthplace on Marshall Avenue. The Grand Opening performances on October 11 and 12, 2008, were by 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.

A bronze statue of Fitzgerald was created by American artist Vinnie Bagwell and is located in Yonkers, the city where she grew up. It is placed near the Amtrak/Metro-North Railroad station in front of the city's old trolley barn. The statue is one of 17 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 more than 70 bronze sculptures at the St. Louis Arch Museum for the National Park Service. The series, "Jazz: An American Art Form," includes depictions of Fitzgerald and other jazz performers.

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

On April 25, 2013, Fitzgerald was featured in a Google Doodle celebrating what would have been her 96th birthday.

On April 25, 2017, the UK's BBC Radio 2 broadcast three programs 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).

In 2019, a documentary titled Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things, directed by Leslie Woodhead, was released in the UK. It included rare footage, radio broadcasts, and interviews with Jamie Cullum, Andre Previn, Johnny Mathis, and others, as well as a long interview with Fitzgerald's son, Ray Brown Jr.

In 2020, the Valatie Community Theater in Valatie, New York, staged Ella The Ungovernable, a play by David McDonald that tells a fictional story about 15-year-old Fitzgerald's incarceration and escape from the New York Training School for Girls in Hudson, New York, in 1933.

In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Fitzgerald at No. 45 on their list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.