This is FRESH AIR. Jazz and pop singer Ella Fitzgerald was born 100 years ago today. She started out winning Harlem talent shows as a teenager. She had her first hits with Chick Webb's big band before ...
A new biography sheds light on her humble beginnings and prolific, genre-defining career. By Dwight Garner When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate ...
Like Charlie Parker on the saxophone or Jimi Hendrix on the guitar, Ella Fitzgerald redefined what could be done with her instrument — which, in her case, was her singular voice — with a mix of ...
I was introduced to Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996) through my mother’s album “Ella Sings the Cole Porter Songbook.” That album, the first of Fitzgerald’s eight classic Verve songbooks, became the ...
Fitzgerald, who died in 1996, had her first hits with Chick Webb's big band before going out on her own in the 1940s. Critic Kevin Whitehead says Fitzgerald at her best is as good as it gets. This is ...