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ANNCR:
Now, the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today,Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember tell about the jazz singer, EllaFitzgerald. She was known as America’s first lady of song.
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VOICE ONE:
The year was nineteen-thirty-three. The place was New York City.Ella Fitzgerald was sixteen years old. She had entered a competitionat the Apollo theater in Harlem. She was going to dance. But she hadjust watched two dancers perform. They were better dancers than she.
So, instead of dancing, she sang asong called “Judy. ” People watching the competition urged her tosing another song. She did. She won first prize – twenty-fivedollars.
That competition at the Apollo Theater changed Ella Fitzgerald’slife forever. Band leader Chick Webb was watching the competition.He hired Ella to sing with his band. He taught her about singing inpublic. He even showed her what kind of clothes to wear. In threeyears, she had her first hit record, “A-Tisket-a-Tasket”:
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VOICE TWO:
Ella Fitzgerald was born in the southern city of Newport News,Virginia in nineteen-seventeen. Her father left soon after herbirth. Her mother took Ella and moved to New York City. Ella’smother died when Ella was fifteen years old.
The next year, Ella started singing with Chick Webb’s band. Shestayed with Chick Webb until he died in nineteen-thirty-nine. Ellakept his band together after he died until World War Two started.Then most of the band members joined the armed forces. While she waswith the band, Ella recorded almost one-hundred-fifty songs.
VOICE ONE:
Ella Fitzgerald was greatly influenced by the experimental musicof Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. It was called be-bop. Sheused be-bop rhythms in her singing. In nineteen-forty-five, sherecorded the song “Flying Home,” using the be-bop method known as’scat’. In scat, the singer’s voice sounds like another instrumentin the orchestra. Critics say it was the most influential jazzrecord of the time.
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VOICE TWO:
In nineteen-forty-nine, jazzmusician Norman Granz invited her to join his band. It was with hisband in Berlin, Germany in nineteen-sixty that Ella sang a famoussong in a very different way. A man asked her if she knew the song”Mack the Knife. ” Ella said she had heard it a few times but theband did not have the music for it. She said she would try to singit anyway. This recording shows how she continued to sing “Mack theKnife” when she did not remember the words. The people listeningloved it.
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VOICE ONE:
Norman Granz later became her manager. He started a new recordingcompany just for her. It was his idea for Ella to record the nowfamous series of record albums called the “Songbooks”. On eachrecord, she sang works of a different songwriter. She recordedsongbooks of the music of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, DukeEllington, Jerome Kern, Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen. Critics saythe best songbook is Ella singing the songs of George and IraGershwin. Ira Gershwin reportedly said: “I never knew how good oursongs were until I heard Ella Fitzgerald sing them. Here, she singsthe Gershwin song, “I Got Rhythm”:
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VOICE TWO:
Ella Fitzgerald also appeared in movies and on television. Shebecame popular internationally. She performed in concerts around theworld sometimes forty weeks a year. She also recorded for differentrecord companies.
In the nineteen-sixties, she began to sing more modern songs suchas those written by the Beatles and Burt Bacharach. But she was notvery successful with that kind of popular music. She returned tojazz in nineteen-seventy-three, again with Norman Granz. She alsobegan performing with symphony orchestras.
VOICE ONE:
Ella Fitzgerald was married two times. Both marriages ended indivorce. She raised three children who were not her own.
Ella lived quietly in Beverly Hills, California. Throughout herlife she was a very private person. She wanted to be known only forher music. Her friends included members of the Duke Ellington band,Count Basie’s band, and singers like Sarah Vaughn and Peggy Lee.
Ella Fitzgerald began to have health problems during thenineteen-seventies. She had the disease diabetes which causedproblems with her eyes. She had a heart operation innineteen-eighty-six. In nineteen-ninety three, the effects ofdiabetes led to operations to remove both her legs. She died Junefifteenth, nineteen-ninety-six.
VOICE TWO:
People around the world loved Ella Fitzgerald’s joyful singing.Critics said she had raised the American popular song to the levelof art.
She won many awards. She received the National Medal of the Artsand a Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime work. The University ofMaryland named a performing arts center for her.
Ella Fitzgerald’s wonderful voice lives on in hertwo-hundred-fifty albums. She won thirteen Grammy awards given eachyear for the best recordings. Her last Grammy was for thenineteen-ninety record: “All That Jazz”:
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ANNCR:
This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Theannouncers were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. I’m Sarah Long.Listen again next week for another People in America program on theVoice of America.
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