Biography of Ella Fitzgerald – Paragraph Area

Ella Fitzgerald

Singer (1917–1996)

Ella Fitzgerald, referred to as the “First Lady of Song” and “Lady Ella,” was an American jazz and song vocalist who interpreted much of the nice American Songbook.

Synopsis

Following a troubled childhood, the singer turned to sing and debuted at the Apollo Theater in 1934. Discovered in an amateur contest, she went on to become the highest female jazz singer for many years. In 1958, Fitzgerald made history because the first African-American woman to win a Grammy Award. Due in no small part to her vocal quality, with lucid intonation and a broad range, the singer would persist to win 13 Grammys in total and sell quite 40 million albums. Her multi-volume “songbooks” on Verve Records are among America’s recording treasures. Fitzgerald died in California in 1996.

Early Years

Born on April 25, 1917, in urban center, Virginia, singer Ella Fitzgerald was the merchandise of a spousal relationship between William Fitzgerald and Temperance “Tempie” Williams Fitzgerald. Ella experienced a troubled childhood that began along with her parents separating shortly after her birth.

With her mother, Fitzgerald moved to Yonkers, New York. They lived there along with her mother’s boyfriend, Joseph Da Silva. The family grew in 1923 with the arrival of Fitzgerald’s half-sister Frances. Struggling financially, the young Fitzgerald helped her family out by working as a messenger “running numbers” and acting as a lookout for a brothel. Her first career aspiration was to become a dancer.

After her mother died in 1932, Fitzgerald ended up occupancy with an aunt. She started skipping school. Fitzgerald was then sent to a special correctional institution but didn’t stay there long. By 1934, Ella was trying to form it on her own and living on the streets. Still harboring dreams of becoming an entertainer, she entered an amateur contest at Harlem’s Apollo Theater. She sang the Carmichael tune “Judy” further as “The Object of My Affection,” wowing the audience. Fitzgerald went on to win the contest’s $25 first-place prize.

In addition to her work with Webb, Fitzgerald performed and recorded with the Benjamin David Goodman Orchestra. She had her side project, too, referred to as Fitzgerald and Her Savoy Eight. Following Webb’s death in 1939, Ella became the leader of the band, which was renamed vocalizer and Her Famous Orchestra. (Some sources seek advice from the group as Ella Fitzgerald and Her Famous Band.) Around now, Fitzgerald was briefly married to Ben Kornegay, a convicted crook, and hustler. They wed in 1941, but she soon had their union annulled.

Rising Star

Going out on her own, Fitzgerald landed an accommodate Decca Records. She recorded some hit songs with the Ink Spots and Louis Jordan within the early 1940s. Fitzgerald also made her film debut as Ruby in 1942’s comedy western Ride ‘Em Cowboy with Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. Her career began to require off in 1946 when she started working with Norman Granz, the longer-term founding father of Verve Records. within the mid-1940s, Granz had started Jazz at the Philharmonic, a series of concerts and live records featuring most of the genre’s great performers. Fitzgerald also hired Granz to become her manager.

Around now, Fitzgerald went on the road with trumpeter and his band. She started changing her singing style, incorporating jazz during her performances. Fitzgerald also fell taken with Gillespie’s bass player Ray Brown. The pair wed in 1947, and that they adopted a toddler born to Fitzgerald’s half-sister whom they named Raymond “Ray” Brown Jr. the wedding resulted in 1952.

Queen of Jazz

The 1950s and ’60s proved to be a time of great critical and commercial success for Fitzgerald, and she or he earned the moniker “First Lady of Song” for her mainstream popularity and unparalleled vocal talents. Her unique ability to mimic instrumental sounds helped popularize the vocal improvisation of scatting, which became her signature technique.

In 1956, Fitzgerald began recording for the newly created Verve. She made a number of her preferred albums for the label, starting with 1956’s vocalizer Sings the composer Song Book. At the very first Grammy Awards in 1958, Fitzgerald picked up her first two Grammys—and made history because the first African-American woman to win the award—for best individual jazz performance and best female vocal performance for the 2 songbook projects Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book and vocalist Sing the Berlin Song Book, respectively. (She worked directly with Ellington on the previous album.)

A truly collaborative soul, Fitzgerald produced great recordings with such artists as jazz musician and Count Basie. She also performed several times with historians over the years additionally. In 1960, Fitzgerald broke into the pop charts along with her rendition of “Mack the Knife.” She was still going strong well into the ’70s, playing concerts across the world. One especially memorable concert series from now was a two-week engagement in NY City in 1974 with Sinatra and Basie.

Later Years and Death

By the 1980s, Fitzgerald experienced serious health problems. She had a surgical operation in 1986 and had been littered with diabetes. The disease left her blind, and she or he had both legs amputated in 1994. She made her last recording in 1989 and her last public performance in 1991 at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Fitzgerald died on June 15, 1996, at her range in Beverly Hills.

In all, Fitzgerald recorded over 200 albums and a few 2,000 songs in her lifetime. Her total record sales exceeded 40 million. Her many accolades included 13 Grammy Awards, the NAACP Image Award for Lifetime Achievement, and also the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

While some critics complained that her style and voice lacked the depth of a number of her more bluesy counterparts, her success and also the respect she garnered from the largest names within the music industry showed that Fitzgerald was in a very class all her own. Mel Torme described her as “the High Priestess of Song” and Pearl Bailey called her “the greatest singer of all,” in keeping with Fitzgerald’s official website. And historian once said, “Man, woman or child, Ella is that the greatest of all.”

Since her passing, Fitzgerald has been honored and remembered in many ways. Us post honored the late singer with an Ella Fitzgerald commemorative stamp celebrating the 90th anniversary of her birth. that very same year, the concept album We All Love Ella: Celebrating the primary Lady of Song featured such artists as Gladys Knight, Etta James, and Queen Latifah performing several of Fitzgerald’s classics.