Ella Fitzgerald

Karissa Fults P.0 11/29/09 Ella Fitzgerald Extra credit essay

Ella Fitzgerald was born on April 25, 1917 in Newport News, Virginia. Her parents, William and Temperance, split up a little while after she was born, and she went with her mother to Yonkers, New York. They moved in with Joseph Da Silva, and with him her mother had a girl named Frances. Her mother, stepfather, and sometimes she worked to support the family. She was a runner for gamblers, picking up bets and delivering money. She made a lot of friends in her neighborhood and enjoyed both tomboy-ish activities such as playing baseball, and more feminine hobbies, such as dancing and singing. Around age fifteen, her mother died from injuries due to a car accident. Ella was emotionally struck by this, and soon went to live with her aunt. Frances also came to live with her at their aunt’s after Joseph had a heart attack and passed. Ella’s behavior reflected her difficulties adapting to her new situation, and she started doing poorly in school, skipping class frequently. Once she got in trouble with the law, she went to a reform school, where she suffered beatings from caretakers. She ended up escaping, and found herself helpless and lonely in the midst of the Great Depression. Later in her life, Ella claimed that she was grateful for the hard times she went through because they caused her to mature. She often used the memory of those tough times to add emotion to her performances. In 1934, her name was chosen in a drawing to compete in amateur night at the Apollo Theater. She had planned on dancing for the show, but after watching the Edwards sisters, she figured her dancing would pale in compare. At the last second, she decided to sing one of her mother’s favorite songs, “Judy” by Connee Boswell. Immediately after her song, the audience was begging for more. She was surprised by how comfortable she felt onstage, and had a feeling that this was her life’s calling. After that, she began entering and winning many talent shows and eventually found herself in the Harlem Opera House. Chick Webb, drummer and bandleader, hired her to travel with his band after seeing her perform and the audience’s reaction to her. In 1936, Ella recorded her first song, “Love and Kisses”, and soon after a rendition of the song “(If You Can’t Sing It) You Have To Swing it”. At the time, music was shifting more to the be-bop style, so Ella tried scatting in the sing. Audiences were entranced by her talent, and after her version of “A-tisket, A-tasket” that she recorded two years later, she was suddenly famous. In 1936, Chick Webb passed away, which left Ella the responsibility of taking on the band as her own (now called “Ella Fitzgerald and Her Famous Band”). Possibly out of uncertainty and fright, she married Benny Kornegay. Shortly after, she learned that he had a criminal background, and divorced him, knowing that it had all been a big mistake. While on tour with Dizzy Gillespie's band in 1946, Ella fell for their bassist, Ray Brown. The two married and eventually adopted a son, whom they named Ray, Jr. Ray had been working with Norman Granz, and Norman saw Ella’s incredibla talent and convinced her to sign with him so he could make her even better known. She went on to work with Louie Armstrong on several albums, as well as record many covers from various famous artists, such as Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, and Johnny Mercer. She also appeared on several television shows, like “the Bing Crosby Show”, “the Frank Sinatra Show”, and “the Nat King Cole Show”. Ray and Ella ended up divorcing in 1952, because their schedules were too busy to spend much time together, but they remained good friends. Ella felt very strongly about racist discrimination, and Norman made sure that it wouldn’t be tolerated anywhere they traveled. They once got arrested because they were irritated by Norman’s request of unwanted prejudice. Also, Marilyn Monroe helped Ella get into big, popular Jazz clubs to sing all the time by sitting in the front row and drawing a lot of attention from the press. Ella kept performing strong and in 1979, she was inducted into the Down Beat magazine Hall of Fame, and received Kennedy Center Honors for her non-stop contributions to the arts. She gave generously to charities and took care of her sister’s family when she died. In 1987, President Reagan presented Ella with the National Medal of Arts. She received several other well-deserved awards from all over. In 1986, Ella underwent quintuple coronary bypass surgery. Doctors replaced a valve in her heart and claimed she had diabetes, thinking that she would not likely perform again. She proved them wrong by continuing with her hectic schedule of performances, until 1991 when she gave her final performance at Carnegie Hall. At age 76, she experienced circulatory problems and had to have both legs amputated from the knee down. After this, she mostly spent time at home with her son and granddaughter, Alice. On June 15, 1996, she passed away at her home in Beverly Hills. Ella Fitzgerald will always be known as “the First Lady of Song”. Over her lifetime, she received thirteen Grammy Awards, recorded over two hundred albums, and sold over 40 million albums. Her beautiful, smooth voice was unbelievably flexible and wide-ranged and could imitate about any instrument in an orchestra. She was inspirational, both musically and personally, and she will always have a big place in the evolution of Jazz music.