The Incomparable Ella Fitzgerald
The Incomparable Ella Fitzgerald
A Reason To Smile
The First Lady of Song. The Queen of Jazz. Lady Ella.
Twenty-eight years ago this week, the world lost one of the greats: Ella Fitzgerald, an artist who defined jazz. Everything about her singing, tone, diction, and timing was impeccable. And then there was her unparalleled ability to improvise vocally. She is our reason to smile.
At the 1976 Grammys, Fitzgerald, with an assist from crooner Mel Tormé, answered the question “What is jazz?” She and Tormé effortlessly launched into a scat duet. Scat is the vocal equivalent of instrumental improvisation, the heart of jazz.
Fitzgerald, who made her debut on the stage of New York’s fabled Apollo Theater in 1934, went on to win 13 Grammys and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among a multitude of awards. She sang with just about every other major jazz artist during her stunning 60-year career, including Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong.
Fortunately for all of us, Fitzgerald recorded eight albums, known collectively as the Complete Ella Fitzgerald Song Books. The set represents some of the best interpretations of the musical canon known as the Great American Songbook.
As famed lyricist Ira Gershwin once said of Fitzgerald, “I never knew how good our songs were until I heard Ella Fitzgerald sing them.”
If you are able to, please support my team, who make pieces like this possible.
No matter how you subscribe, I thank you for reading.
Stay Steady,
Dan
Oh how I love this, Mr Rather. Thank you.
Ella Fitzgerald is a page out of my childhood when my parents played her complete songbook endlessly and my dad said she was the best jazz vocalist of that era.
Happy Fathers Day to you, Mr Rather, and all of the dads out there, including mine, who passed 24-years ago.
The sheer joy on their faces and everyone in the audience is proof we need more jazz in the world. Happy Father’s Day indeed!