Ella Fitzgerald is an iconic vocalist who has gone down in jazz history forever. Over a long career of fifty years, this African American singer has recorded over 2000 songs and won 13 Grammy awards.
Difficult childhood and performance at Apollo
Ella Fitzgerald was born in April 1917 in the port city of Newport News in the eastern United States. Shortly after birth, her mother Temperance and father William separated. Together with her little daughter, Temperance moved to Yonkers, a town in the state of New York. Here the mother had a new boyfriend - an immigrant from Portugal Joseph Da Silva.
In 1932, Temperance died of sudden cardiac arrest, and Ella, unable to find a common language with her stepfather, moved to live with her aunt. Unfortunately, in the new family, no one really looked after the girl. Ella began to skip school, and then found work as a caretaker and cleaner in a brothel. Gradually, young Ella began to sink lower and lower to the social bottom. At some point, she actually became homeless.
In 1934, Ella Fitzgerald, who from an early age was fond of church chants and Connie Boswell's songs, decided to test her strength at an amateur vocal competition at the Apollo Theater. At this competition, she sang Hogi Carmichael's song "Judy" and won the main prize - $ 25. This opened up new perspectives for the seventeen-year-old girl.
Creativity and personal life from 1935 to 1955
In early 1935, Ella Fitzgerald met the talented drummer Chick Webb and got the opportunity to play with his jazz band at the Savoy, a famous jazz club in Harlem.
In 1938, Ella Fitzgerald released her debut single - the song "A-Tisket, A-Tasket", the lyrics of which are based on a children's counting-out. A year later, another hit, “I Found My Yellow Basket”, was presented to the public.
In 1939, Webb died and the singer actually began to lead the band. And soon he changed his name to "Ella and Her Famous Orchestra". Basically, this band specialized in unpretentious, uncomplicated pop songs.
In 1941, Ella Fitzgerald married a dockman Ben Kornegay. This relationship lasted about two years - when Benny was convicted of drug dealing, Ella Fitzgerald divorced.
But even before the divorce from Kornegay, in 1942, Ella's orchestra broke up. She decided to perform solo and was signed to Decca Records. During the years of cooperation with her, the singer released, for example, hits such as "Oh, Lady Be Good!" and Flying Home.
In 1947, Ella Fitzgerald married again. This time the vocalist's husband was the bass player Ray Brown. They lived together until 1953. However, after the divorce, Ray and Ella continued to communicate.
Ella Fitzgerald for Verve Records
Since 1955, Ella Fitzgerald began recording under a new brand - Verve Records. This brand was founded by producer Norman Granz especially for the talented singer. Ella's first album, created at the new studio, was called Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book (1956).
It was the time when the vocalist recorded at Verve Records that is considered the peak of her career. During this period, Fitzgerald showed herself in several genres (jazz, pop, bebop), achieved excellence in the scat technique (this is a jazz vocal technique in which the voice is used to imitate a musical instrument) and gained truly enormous popularity.
At the Grammy Awards in 1958, Ella Fitzgerald won two statuettes at once. Strictly speaking, she became the first African American woman to receive such an award.
In 1961, the Verve Records label was acquired by the large corporation MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) for three million dollars. And in 1967, the management of this corporation decided to no longer conclude an agreement with Fitzgerald.
Later creativity, health problems and death
From 1967 to 1972, the singer worked with such studios as Atlantic, Reprise and Capitol. At this time, Fitzgerald deviated to some extent from the traditions of classical jazz.
In 1972, the singer began collaborating with Pablo Records. Since this period, critics and listeners have noted a decrease in her vocal capabilities. The manner of performance has also changed - it has become more rigid than before. It is worth noting that in the later work of the singer, you can find many brilliant hits that still attract connoisseurs.
Ella Fitzgerald made her last studio recording in 1991, and her last public performance took place in San Francisco two years later. By this time, the vocalist was already seriously ill - her eyesight was severely impaired and she suffered from diabetes. In 1993, diabetes became more complicated, and as a result, surgeons were forced to amputate both legs to the knee of the singer.
Ella Fitzgerald died on June 5, 1996 in her own house in the prestigious Los Angeles area of Beverly Hills.
