"Where there are dreams, love and inspiration,
you can't go wrong."
Ella Fitzgerald was born on April 25, 1917 in Newport News, Virginia. She will grow up in the small town of Yonkers, near New York.
Nicknamed the First Lady of Song, Ella is one of the most influential jazz singers in musical history.
With a musical career that spanned more than five dec
ades, and her skills as an interpreter and improviser, she left us a wonderful musical legacy.
A troubled childhood
Ella was only 15 when her mother died in a car accident. To escape the mistreatment of a violent stepfather, she will move a year later to her aunt in Harlem.
These terrible events will change the shy little girl. She plays truant, goes to frequent small strikes and will work as a lookout in a brothel.
The authorities will place her in the orphanage, and she will stay at the New York Training School for Girls, the local reformatory.
Tap dancer
Little Ella dreams of success and the musical bustle that bubbles up in Manhattan's northern neighborhood, Harlem. His family does not have the means to pay him music lessons but they encourage him in his vocation as an artist.
Many advise her to sing but the young Ella prefers tap dancing and ragtime. She dances all the time and everywhere. She may listen to the recordings of Louis Armstrong and Bing Crosby, she wants to be a dancer.
The decisive encounters
Ella Fitzgerald will grow up in the midst of an economic crisis, the Great Depression.
The entertainment industry becomes the alternative to unemployment and the dream of success. Clubs and theaters regularly organize competitions for amateurs.
When Ella Fitzgerald went on stage for the very first time, it was at the Harlem Opera House. She wanted to present herself in the dancers category but the competition is fierce. She will change her mind at the last moment, and the master of ceremonies welcomes her, making fun of her clothes.
Persevering, Ella ignores the boos on the first two verses. She sings The object of my affection. She will win the first prize of 25 dollars and decides to be a singer.
She performs in all the stages of the Harlem competitions, winning many first prizes, until the day she is noticed by Bardu Ali. He works at the Savoy Ballroom, the most prominent dance club in Harlem where the orchestra of Chick Webb, conductor and emblematic drummer, plays.
He is impressed by her vocal power and engages Ella. Her status as an orphan does not allow her to work. Chick Webb and his wife decide to adopt Ella Fitzgerald.
Together, they will record more than 150 titles including several hits.
A nursery rhyme for first success
Ella's first hit is "A-Tisket, A-Tasket". We are in 1938 and this song ranks at the top of the charts. It is an adaptation of a nursery rhyme that accompanies a well-known schoolyard game in the United States. Our variation is called the “postman game”.
A brief acting career
This success will open the doors of Hollywood to him. She will be in the credits of several films, for singing roles such as the comedy Deux nigauds cowboy (Ride 'Em Cowboy), by Arthur Lubin.
But Ella prefers the stage.
Marilyn Monroe, her biggest fan
In 1941, Ella Fitzgerald began her solo career.
Indispensable, admired, she is nevertheless the victim of racial discrimination. In the 1950s, the owner of the Mocambo club in Los Angeles refused to hire Ella Fitzgerald.
Marilyn Monroe, a big fan of Ella, personally called the owner to hire his favorite singer and in exchange, she would take a table in his club in the front row at each of her friend's performances.
“After that, I never had to play in a small jazz club again. »
– Interview with Ella Fitzgerald in 1972
Despite everything, she will continue to suffer this discrimination on a daily basis, in particular the obligation to give way to a “white” person in an airport.
The scat and three octaves…
With Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald will popularize the scat, this vocal technique which consists of singing without words and imitating the sound of instruments.
Ella Fitzgerald is the Queen of Jazz, queen of improvisation, she also has a recognizable timbre. She covers three octaves, going from her chest voice for the lower notes to her head voice for the higher ones.
The first African American to win a Grammy
In 1958, at the first Grammy Awards ceremony, she won three Grammys on the same night.
The first, she won it for her improvisational performance as a jazz soloist with the album "Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook". The second is for her vocal performance as a pop singer with the album "Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Songbook." The last concerns his performance for the song “But not for me”.
She will be the first African-American woman to win this award, paving the way for Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin, Dinah Washington.
Ella Fitzgerald is awarded an honorary doctorate in music from Harvard University and inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
To know more
Ella Fitzgerald official website
Jazz and cinema : Ella Fitzgerald - Blow Up - ARTE
Club Jazzafip : All here for Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald (1/4) : du swing au bop (1935-1949)