Ella Fitzgerald (1917–1996)

Born:

25th April 1917 in Newport News, Virginia, USA.

Ella Fitzgerald’s grave in Inglewood

Died:

15th June 1996 in Beverly Hills, California, USA.

Buried:

Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California, USA.

Some great singles.

• A Tisket A Tasket (1938).
• Oh, Lady Be Good! (1947).
• Mac the Knife (1960).
• How High is the Moon (1960).
• Plus many more!

Some great albums:

• The Complete Recordings 1935–39.
• The Complete Songbooks (1956–1964).
• Ella at the Opera House (1957).
• Ella in Berlin (1960).
• Jazz at Santa Monica ’72 (1972).
• Ella in London (1974).
• The Best Is Yet to Come (1982).
• Nice Work If You Can Get It (1983).
• All That Jazz (1989).
• Plus many more!

Some interesting facts:

• She was one of the greatest jazz singers ever! In fact, she is often called the “First Lady of Song”.
• She also sang other types of music, such as popular music.
• She didn’t really write any of her own songs. Instead she sang songs by other people in a new and great way. The main exception to this ‘A Tisket A Tasket’ which she helped to write.
• She made some great albums with other great jazz artists such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Louis Armstrong.
• She recorded her singing over period of almost 60 years!
• Unlike a lot of jazz artists, Ella Fitzgerald was very shy.
• In the beginning she wanted to dance more than sing. In fact she entered a talent competition in 1934 and was going to dance. However when she saw some good dancers perform before her, she decided to sing instead—and won the competition! There was no thoughts of dancing after that!!
• She became very good at &#8216scat singing’ (this is a type of singing that uses nonsense syllables, instead of words).
• In her recording of ‘Mac the Knife’ on the album ‘Ella in Berlin’ she started scat singing because she had forgotten the words! This turned out to be one of her great recordings!!

Official Website