Ella Fitzgerald

The "First Lady of Song" was born in Newport News, Virginia on April 25, 1917 and was an American jazz vocalist. She made her singing debut at the age of 17 on November 21, 1934 at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. She pulled in a weekly audience at the Apollo and won the opportunity to compete in one of the earliest of its famous "Amateur Nights". In January 1935, Fitzgerald won the chance to perform for a week with the Tiny Bradshaw band at the Harlem Opera House where her success rapidly grew. She began singing regularly with Webb's Orchestra through 1935 at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom. Fitzgerald recorded several hit songs with them, including "Love and Kisses" and "(If You Can't Sing It) You'll Have to Swing It (Mr. Paganini)." But it was her 1938 version of the nursery rhyme, "A-Tisket, A-Tasket", a song she co-wrote, that brought her wide public acclaim. In 1942, Fitzgerald left the band to begin a solo career which only gave her more success. In the mid-1950s, Fitzgerald became the first African-American to perform at the Mocambo, after Marilyn Monroe had lobbied the owner for the booking. She continued success as a jazz great throughout the years and recorded many of albums on the Verve and Pablo record labels. Fitzgerald won fourteen Grammy awards, including one for Lifetime Achievement in 1967. Other major awards and honors she received during her career were the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Medal of Honor Award, National Medal of Art, first Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award, named "Ella" in her honor, Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement, UCLA Spring Sing. Ella Fitzgerald was a quiet but ardent supporter of many charities and non-profit organizations, including the American Heart Association and the United Negro College Fund. In 1993, she established the "Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation" which continues to fund programs that perpetuate Ella's ideals. Having a long and illustrious carrer, Ella eventually became blinded by the effects of diabetes and had both her legs amputated in 1993. In 1996 she died of the disease in Beverly Hills, California at the age of 79. Undoubtedly one of the most influential women in music of all time, Lady Day continues to top the list of African American innovators of music.

Ella Fitzgerald, pioneer in music, jazz and African American philanthropy.



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