Ella Fitzgerald first struck gold with a children’s nursery rhyme (“A-Tisket, A-Tasket”) in 1938, became a master of scat singing, a mode of vocal improvisation such that the human voice takes on sounds like another musical instrument (listen to 1947’s “Flying Home”), became a giant with her recordings of the “Great American Songbook” (compositions by the likes of Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, Rodgers & Hart, Irving Berlin, and the Gershwins), and earned the nickname “First Lady of Song”.

         Blessed with a pure, clear tone and wonderful vocal control, Ella, over time, worked with all her heroes, Louis Armstrong, Ellington, Count Basie, and Frank Sinatra. A giant of jazz, swing, bebop, and pop, Fitzgerald sang 26 times at Carnegie Hall and has been honored by the Smithsonian, the Library of Congress, the U.S. Postal Service, and inclusion in the jazz and Women’s halls of fame; she is the recipient of 14 Grammy awards and a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

         -Steve Williams  (5/22/23) – Blog Post #12