Black History Month on Set List - Play it, Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Jane Fitzgerald

"Queen of Jazz"

April 25, 1917 - June 15, 1996

American singer, songwriter, and composer

Genres considered - Jazz, Swing, Bebop, Traditional Pop, Blues, Soul, Doo-wop, Post-bop

Known for purity of tone, timing, absolute pitch, and other musical attributes (including scat singing)

"Lady Ella" - Solo career, collaborative work with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and The Ink Spots

Songs from Ella's partnerships include "Dream a Little Dream of Me," "Cheek to Cheek," "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall," "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)"

Albums from Ella's partnerships include -

(3 studio albums with Louis Armstrong - Refer to his post below)

!"quintessential swing singer" best highlighted in the 1963 album, 

Ella and Basie! ... 1972 album, Jazz at Santa Monica Civic '72 ... 1979 albums - Digital III at Montreux, A Classy Pair, A Perfect Match

*Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington worked on two live albums (recorded in the French Riviera & in Sweden) and two studio albums, especially the highly acclaimed 1965 album Ella at Duke's Place.

Side note - Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald were preeminent figures in the fight to end segregation through their music and social stature.  Louis worked with the Little Rock Crisis.  Ella's performances during the Jazz at the Philharmonic tour came with stipulations - no "color" seats and no "white" seats, Ella would receive equal pay and equal accommodations and if these requirements were not met, the shows would be cancelled.  Ella herself, sadly, was not immune to racial discrimination.

Ella was awarded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Equal Justice Award & American Black Achievement Award.  She was bestowed the National Medal of Arts and Presidential Medal of Freedom (America's highest non-military honor).

Awards -

13 Grammy Awards 

Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1967)

Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award

George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement

Honors -

Kennedy Center Medal of Honor

Honorary Doctorate of Music from Yale University (1986)

Honorary Doctorate of Music from Harvard University (1990)

No. 45 on Rolling Stone's 200 Greatest Singers of All Time (2023)

Tributes -

- Ella's archival material is housed in the Archives Center at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.  

- Ella's personal musical arrangements are housed in the Library of Congress.

- Ella's cookbook collection was donated to Harvard University.

- Ella's collection of published sheet music was donated to UCLA.

Tribute albums -

To Ella With Love by Ann Hampton Callaway (1996)

Dear Ella by Dee Dee Bridgewater (1997)

For Ella by Patti Austin (2002)

We All Love Ella - Multi-collaboration tribute to Ella Fitzgerald's 90th birthday (Such artists as Michael Buble, Natalie Cole, Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight, Diana Krall, k.d. Lang, Queen Latifah, Linda Ronstadt, and more...2007)

(Wikipedia)

Full list of awards and nominations on Wikipedia.

Full albums discography on Wikipedia.

Full singles discography on Wikipedia.