Ella
Fitzgerald is among the finest female singers in the history of jazz music. She
was the first female singer to make use of scat singing, a wordless form of
vocalization which Louis Armstrong had introduced with his Hot Five recordings in
the Twenties.
Fitzgerald
was born in Newport News, Virginia, in 1918. She got her first big break when a
friend recommended her to New York bandleader, Chick Webb. Webb was reluctant
to hire Fitzgerald due to her appearance, which he considered homely. However,
he relented and hired her and Fitzgerald became a big hit in the role of
vocalist. She recorded her first single, “Love and Kisses,” with Webb, in 1935.
Several more singles followed until she scored a massive hit with the song, “A
Tisket, A Tasket,” in 1938 with the Webb Orchestra. That song would turn her
into a star.
After
Webb’s death in 1939, his band was renamed “Ella Fitzgerald and Her Famous
Orchestra”, with Ella taking the role of bandleader until the band finally
broke up in 1942.
In the Fifties,
Fitzgerald started to record her own full-length solo albums, among them, several
classics which are highly-recommended such as, “Ella Sings Gershwin” (1950),
“Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook” (1956), “Ella Fitzgerald Sings
the Rogers and Hart Song Book” (1956), “Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin
Song Book” (1958), and “Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Song
Book” (1959).
