- Born
- Died
- Birth nameElla Jane Fitzgerald
- Nicknames
- The First Lady of Song
- The First Lady of Jazz
- The Queen of Jazz
- Lady Ella
- Height1.64 m
- On Saturday, June 15th, 1996, an era in jazz singing came to an end, with the death of Ella Fitzgerald at her home in California. She was the last of four great female jazz singers (including Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, and Carmen McRae) who defined one of the most prolific eras in jazz vocal style. Ella had extraordinary vocal skills from the time she was a teenager, and joined the Chick Webb Orchestra in 1935 when she was 16 years old. With an output of more than 200 albums, she was at her sophisticated best with the songs of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, of George Gershwin, and of Cole Porter. Her 13 Grammy awards are more than any other jazz performer, and she won the Best Female Vocalist award three years in a row. Completely at home with up-tempo songs, her scat singing placed her jazz vocals with the finest jazz instrumentalists, and it was this magnificent voice that she brought to her film appearances. Her last few years, during which she had a bout with congestive heart failure and suffered bilateral amputation of her legs from complications of diabetes, were spent in seclusion.- IMDb mini biography by: Bruce Cameron <dumarest@midcoast.com>
- SpousesRay Brown(December 10, 1947 - August 28, 1953) (divorced, 1 child)Benjamin Kornegay(December 26, 1941 - 1942) (annulled)
- Children
- ParentsTemperace 'Tempie' HenryWilliam Ashland Fitzgerald
- RelativesFrances Da Silva(Half Sibling)Janice Gilmore(Niece or Nephew)Eloise Young(Niece or Nephew)Michael Williams(Niece or Nephew)Alice Brown(Grandchild)Haylee(Grandchild)Karen Gilmore(Niece or Nephew)
- Scat singing
- Mezzo-soprano vocals
- Was close friends with Marilyn Monroe, who helped Fitzgerald in her musical career by arranging for her to sing in upscale nightclubs that were segregated at the time of their friendship.
- She had an adopted son, Raymond Matthew Brown Jr. (born October 13, 1949). He was in fact her nephew, the child of her younger half-sister Frances Da Silva.
- Was the first artist to chart in the United Kingdom with a cover of the John Lennon / Paul McCartney song, "Can't Buy Me Love" (1964). George Martin, The Beatles' long-time producer, said that this was one of his favorites of all the songs he produced.
- She was a victim in an early attempt to integrate the classical music audience in Houston, Texas. In 1955, she, Dizzy Gillespie and Illinois Jacquet were arrested by the vice squad before a Jazz at the Philharmonic concert at Music Hall, charged with gambling backstage. They were released in time to perform, on a payment of a $50 bail. Also arrested, promoter Norman Granz indicated that the raid was a set-up in response to his insistence that the concert not be segregated.
- I sing with my eyes closed, and my whole mind is concentrated on what I want to do. Any little noise can throw me.
- [To music conductor André Previn, who she had been encouraging to relax, when he mentioned that her cue was about to come up] Honey, get the hell back in that pit!
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