Ella Fitzgerald has won 13 Grammys and sold over 40 million records. A documentary was released last year chronicling her life’s work. Ella’s recently discovered “The Lost Berlin Tapes” have also recently been released.
The legacy of Ella Fitzgerald continues to live on in our daily culture. Through her trials and tribulations, her legacy is embedded in both Black history and New York history.
Known as the First Lady of Song, Ella was the most popular female jazz singer for a large part of the 20th century.
“I sing like I feel,” the famous songstress who would be 104 this year once said.
Her story bears repeating — again and again throughout history. It’s a story of all she once endured in order to become one of the greatest of all time.
Ella was born in Virginia in 1917 but grew up mostly in Yonkers — fleeing the racism of the south during the Great Migration. As a young girl she would take the train to Harlem with friends to see shows at the Apollo Theater, a place that would become synonymous with her name in later years.
When she was a teenager both her mother and stepfather passed away, and she entered a time in her life that was filled with struggle.
Her grades dropped, she skipped school, and got in trouble with the police. Ella was eventually sent to reform school. There, as a 15 year old girl, she suffered beatings. She escaped only to find herself alone with no money during the Great Depression. She would dance on the street corners of Harlem for nickels. It is said that she used her memories from this time to bring out emotion in her later performances.
It was during the Harlem Renaissance, and while jobs were hard to come by, art and music were alive and well, the heartbeat of the neighborhood. In 1934 Ella competed at Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater. The band played Hoagy Carmichael’s “Judy,” one of her mother’s favorites. The audience cried for an encore, to which she obliged — and the rest, as they say, is history. A shy, practically homeless girl came to light on stage.
“Once up there, I felt the acceptance and love from my audience,” Ella once said, according to the singer’s website. “I knew I wanted to sing before people the rest of my life.”
She joined drummer and bandleader Chick Webb’s band, and at the age of 21, recorded a version of the nursery rhyme, “A-Tisket, A-Tasket.” The album sold 1 million copies, propelling her to fame.
“I know I’m no glamour girl,” she once said, as she received backlash for not having a specific look. “And it’s not easy for me to get up in front of a crowd of people. It used to bother me a lot, but now I’ve got it figured out that God gave me this talent to use, so I just stand there and sing.”
In 1946 Ella fell in love with Dizzy Gillespie’s bassist Ray Brown. The two married and adopted a son, named Ray, Jr.
She later teamed with manager Norman Granz and worked with Louis Armstrong. It was around this time — late ’50s and early ’60s — she produced her infamous songbook series, recording the songs of Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, the Gershwins, Johnny Mercer, Irving Berlin, and Rodgers and Hart.
“I never knew how good our songs were until I heard Ella Fitzgerald sing them,” Ira Gershwin once said.
“Ella Fitzgerald is beyond category,” said Duke Ellington.
Itzhak Perlman, the founder of The Perlman Music Program on Shelter Island, appeared in the recently released documentary, “Ella Fitzgerald — Just One of Those Things.”
“The thing about Ella is perfection, great artistry. There is only one thing you cannot teach and that’s certain magic,” said Perlman. “You cannot teach magic. And when Ella turns a phrase, that’s magic.”
While touring, Granz refused to accept discrimination at the hotels, restaurants, or concert venues they travelled to, even in the South. Roadblocks were unfortunately still part of the journey.
Granz had to sign for Ella’s first house in Beverly Hills because the community didn’t want Black people moving in, according to the documentary.
While touring for the Philharmonic in Dallas, police barged backstage to hassle the group. They arrested everyone in Ella’s dressing room, where band members Dizzy Gillespie and Illinois Jacquet were shooting dice.
“They took us down,” Ella recalled, “and then when we got there, they had the nerve to ask for an autograph.”
Ella also received support from Marilyn Monroe, helping to break barriers in music, pushing the envelope away from segregation at nightclubs and other venues.
“I owe Marilyn Monroe a real debt,” Ella once said. “It was because of her that I played the Mocambo, a very popular nightclub in the ’50s. She personally called the owner of the Mocambo, and told him she wanted me booked immediately, and if he would do it, she would take a front table every night . . . I never had to play a small jazz club again.”
The documentary recalled a radio interview with Ella and host Fred Robins in 1963, during the Civil Rights Movement, when she spoke out about prejudice in America. The interview did not air at the time.
“It makes you feel so bad to think that we can’t go down to certain parts of the South and give a concert like we do overseas and have everyone just come to hear the music and enjoy the music,” she said.
“The diehards, they’re just going to die hard,” she said of those fighting to keep racial segregation in the South. “They’re not going to give in. You’ve got to try to convince the younger ones. They’re the ones who got to make the future and those are the ones you’ve got to worry about, not those diehards.”
“I’m just a human being,” she said.
Tony Bennett recalled something Ella once said to him: “Tony, we’re all here.” With those three words, he described how she summed up the ignorance of the world.
Ella toured well into her 70s. In 1974, she had a legendary two weeks of New York performances with Frank Sinatra and Count Basie. It wasn’t until ’91, when she held her final concert New York’s Carnegie Hall, her 26th performance at the venue.
Career honors include being inducted into the Down Beat magazine Hall of Fame and receiving Kennedy Center Honors for her continuing contributions to the arts. President Ronald Reagan awarded Ella the National Medal of Arts. France followed, presenting her with the Commander of Arts and Letters award.
Throughout her career, Ella recorded over 200 albums. On June 15, 1996, Ella Fitzgerald passed away in her Beverly Hills home.
Throughout her life she made many donations to organizations for disadvantaged youths. Along with her music legacy, Ella left a legacy of philanthropic work through The Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, which provides literacy, music education, and access to housing, healthcare, and related support services to at-risk communities.
Ella established the Foundation back in 1993. When the pandemic hit, the organization expanded its “A Book Just For Me!” program and has donated over 20,000 new books as well as school supplies to those in need.
According to its website, the foundation was formed to “help people of all races, cultures and beliefs. Ella hoped to make their lives more rewarding, and she wanted to foster a love of reading, as well as a love of music.”
In 2007 she was commemorated on the US Postal Service’s postal stamp as the 30th inductee in its Black Heritage series. The image used for the stamp came from a photograph taken in the 1950s by Sag Harbor artist Paul Davis. A dedication ceremony was held in New York City at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Last month, Neighbouring Rights, the Downtown Music Holdings subsidiary, announced they now represent the Estate of Ella Fitzgerald for global performance royalty collections outside of the U.S. The deal covers the vocalist’s entire repertoire, including “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).”
“We are so pleased to have Downtown Neighbouring Rights represent the Estate of Ella Fitzgerald. Her legacy as one of the most popular jazz vocalists of all time lives on and we are very excited to have it in such good hands,” said Richard Rosman, the president of The Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, which owns the rights to the catalog.
A few months ago a never before heard album, recorded at a live concert in Berlin in 1962 was released. “The Lost Berlin Tapes,” released on Verve Records, provides an iconic performance from Ella and her band at the time.
Throughout her career Ella performed all over New York, not only in Manhattan venues like The Apollo, The Savoy Ballroom, Minton’s, and Carnegie Hall, but also on Long Island, at spots like the Theater at Westbury.
In an article for Newsday remembering Ella Fitzgerald at 100, Martin Schram of Tribune News Service recalled a time at Long Island’s Westbury Music Fair.
During a rendition of Duke Ellington’s band’s “Cotton Tail,” “[Paul] Gonsalves put his sax to his lips; his cheeks puffed, fingers flew, body swayed — but nothing came out of the business end of the sax! Not one note!” he wrote, explaining that Gonsalves had an addiction problem and wasn’t able to play that evening.
“But Ella saved the day! With a giggle, she grasped Gonsalves’ microphone, exaggeratedly tilted it toward her — and performed a magnificent scat-singing version of his solo, down in the low raspy timbre of a tenor sax. Next she grabbed her own mic and sang another scalding, soaring high-pitched solo. Then poor Gonsalves tried again, flailing but failing. No problem: Ella delivered another kickass sax solo. And the band, fully recovered, kicked their ‘Cotton Tail’ home to a roaring finish. Ellington’s band actually beat the audience to their feet for a standing ovation tribute to Ella. The Duke kissed her cheek.”
Ella Fitzgerald continues to live on in the hearts of many, through her song and her legacy.
In the words of Bing Crosby, “Man, woman or child, Ella is the greatest of them all.”
In the words of Ella Fitzgerald, “The only thing better than singing is more singing.”
Playlist: First Lady of Song
It’s a Sunday kind of playlist. The kind you put on while making breakfast and your entire day is instantly better. As we profile Ella Fitzgerald on the following page we wanted to pay tribute with a “First Lady of Song” Spotify playlist.
Cheek To Cheek – w/Louis Armstrong
Someone to Watch Over Me
Manhattan
A Fine Romance – w/Nelson Riddle
You Make Me Feel So Young
Just One Of Those Things
But Not For Me
A Sunday Kind Of Love – w/Andy Love Quintet
I’ve Got A Crush On You
Stompin’ At The Savoy – w/Louis Armstrong
A-Tisket, A-Tasket
I Get A Kick Out Of You
It’s A Lovely Day Today – w/Paul Weston
Autumn In New York – w/Louis Armstrong
Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall In Love) – w/Louis Armstrong
The Lady Is A Tramp
Too Marvelous For Words – w/Nelson Riddle
I Only Have Eyes For You
Mack The Knife – w/The Paul Smith Quartet
Stormy Weather
April In Paris – w/Louis Armstrong
Take The “A” Train – w/Duke Ellington
