Transcript Ella Fitzgerald By: Elyse Goins

Ella Fitzgerald
By: Elyse Goins
American Jazz Singer!!!!!!!!!
Beginnings
Ella Jane Fitzgerald was born April 25, 1917
She grew up in Newport News, Virginia
Ella’s mom had a second child named Frances
Her mom’s boyfriend name is Joseph Da Silva but they
call him (Joe)
Ella’s mom died in a car accident
Ella moved with her aunt
A little while after Ella’s mom died Joe died of a really
bad heart attack and
Frances moved with Ella and her aunt
Ella song the first time at the Apollo when she was only
16 years old she went to the Apollo because it was
amateur night
Recordings
Ella recorded many hits
If You Can’t Sing It You’ll Have To Swing It
Love And Kisses (which was her first
recording)
1938 Ella when she was 21 years old she
recorded a nursery rhyme
A –Tisket A-Tasket sold one million hits
and stayed #1 for 17 weeks
Marriages
1941 Ella married Benny Kornegay after
she discovered that he had a criminal
record she divorce him really fast
When Ella was on a tour with Dizzy
Gillespie’s band she met Ray Brown
Ray and Ella got married in 1947 and after
that they adopted a child born to Ella’s half
sister his name was Ray Brown Jr.\
Ella and Ray got divorced in 1958
Shows She Appeared On
Bing Crosby Show
Frank Sinatra Show
Tonight Show
Later Years
Ella continued to work even when she was
really sick
1979 Fitzgerald was in the hall of fame
In September 1986 Ella went into bypass
surgery
She was diagnosed with diabetes
Silence
June 15, 1996 Ella Fitzgerald died in her
Beverly Hills home
Her remains were in the Sunset Mission
Mausoleum at Inglewood cemetery in
Inglewood, California
Her awards
1934-won amateur night
competition at the Apollo theater
1935-won one week of performing
at Harlem opera house
1937-top female vocalist, down
beat magazine
1938-first NO. 1 song “Tisket, ATasket”
1954-best female vocalist,
metronome magazine best female
vocalist, down beat magazine
(both readers and critics poll)
1956-all star female, metronome
magazine
1958-firsy Grammy award held:
won best female vocal
performance for “the Irving Berlin
songbook (album)
1959-grammy awards, best
female vocal performance for:" but
not for me” and best individual
jazz performance for “Ella's
swings lightly”
1960-Honorary membership to
Alpha Kappa Alpha, the oldest and
largest African-American sorority
in the United States
Grammy awards, Best Female
Vocal Performance (single) for
"Mack the Knife" and Best Female
Vocal Performance (album) for
"Ella in Berlin"
1962-Grammy award, Best
Female Solo Vocal Performance
for "Ella Swings Brightly With
Nelson Riddle"
Her awards
1965
Received first ASCAP award in
recognition of an artist
1967
Grammy award, Bing Crosby
Lifetime Achievement award
Honorary chairmanship of the
newly formed Martin Luther King
Foundation
1974
University of Maryland names its
new $1.6 million, 1,200-seat theater
and concert hall the Ella Fitzgerald
Center for the Performing Arts
1976
(April 11) Ella Fitzgerald Day in Los
Angeles
Honorary Doctorate in Music from
Dartmouth College
Award of Distinction from National
Association of Sickle Cell Diseases
Women at Work organization's
Bicentennial Woman
Grammy award, Best Jazz Vocal
Performance for "Fitzgerald and
Pass…Again" (album)
1979
Grammy award, Best Jazz Vocal
Performance for "Fine and Mellow"
(album)
Kennedy Center Honors
1980
Will Rogers award from the Beverly
Hills Chamber of Commerce and
Civic Association
Honorary Doctor of Music from
Howard University
Lord & Taylor Rose award for her
outstanding contribution to music
Doctor of Human Letters from
Talladega College of Alabama
Grammy award, Best Female Jazz
Vocal Performance for "A Perfect
Match; Ella and Basie" (album)
1981
Grammy award, Best Female Jazz
Vocal Performance for "Digital III at
Montreux" (album)
1982
Hasty Pudding Club Woman of the
Year
She has more awards but to much to
put on
Her Timeline
1917 Ella Jane Fitzgerald is born on
April 25th in Newport News,
Virginia. Her parents separate
shortly after and she moves with
her mother to Yonkers, New York
1932 Her mother dies from a heart
attack and, after remaining with her
stepfather for a short time, she
goes to live with her aunt in
Harlem.Ella begins “running
numbers” and acting as a
lookout for a prostitution
house. She drops out of high
school, and is eventually picked
up by the authorities. She is
sent to the Riverdale Children’s
Association, a reform school,
where it is speculated that she
is abused.
1934 She runs away from reform
school in the fall and lives on the
streets. On November 21st she wins
$25 at Apollo’s Amateur Night. She
sang Hoagy Carmichael’s song
“Judy,” and performed three
encores. The band’s saxophonist
Benny Carter is so impressed with
her performance he takes her under
his wing and introduces her to
important people in the industry
1935 She wins first prize at the
Harlem Opera House’s amateur
night in January, winning the
chance to perform for a week
with the Tiny Bradshaw band in
February. A few months later
she joins the Chick Webb band,
and by June she is making her
first recording, “Love and
Kisses.”
1938 In May she records a jazzy
playful version of the nursery
rhyme “A-Tisket, A-Tasket.” It
enters the charts at No. 10 on June
18th and climbs to No. 2 several
weeks later, making her famous. In
November, the follow-up song “I
Found My Yellow Basket” rises to
No. 3 on the charts.
1939 After drummer Chick Webb
dies in June, the band is renamed
“Ella Fitzgerald and her Famous
Orchestra.”
1941 She weds Benny Kornegay
on December 26th in St. Louis,
Missouri. The marriage is
annulled the following year,
citing Kornegay’s criminal past
as grounds for the split.
1942 In March she begins
performing with the smaller
instrumental/vocal group Three
Keys. In July, she performs for the
last time with her orchestra and
embarks on a solo career.
1945 She applies her innovative
“scat” technique to the recording
“Flying Home” and the New York
Times describes it as “one the most
influential vocal jazz records of the
decade”.
1947 Weds bass player Ray
Brown on December 10th, in
Chicago. Together they adopt a
son from Fitzgerald’s half-sister.
They name him Ray Brown
Jr.She gets involved with the
Foster Parents Plan, thus
beginning a lifelong tradition of
supporting children’s charities.
1948 Travels to Europe for the first
time to perform in England.The
following year she performs for
Norman Granz’s show, Jazz At The
Philharmonic, at Carnegie Hall. She
continues to tour with the show
over the next 40 years. Granz
guides her to international fame as
she tours and records with him
tirelessly month after month.
1952 She divorces Ray Brown.
1954 Early in the year she is
hospitalized with a node on her
throat. It takes her six weeks to
recover, but by March 24th she
is back in the studio recording
“I Need.”
1956 She releases a series of eight
“Songbooks” in eight years with
Norman Granz. The albums serve
as a tribute to great composers
such as Gershwin and Duke
Ellington.
1957 On July 9th, Reuters
reports that Fitzgerald secretly
wed Norwegian Thor Einar
Larsen in Oslo, Norway. She
even moves to Norway for a
brief time. Afterward it is
reported that Larsen was jailed
for theft, and the relationship is
soon forgotten.She performs at
the Copacabana, becoming the
first African-American to do so.
1971In July she undergoes an
operation to remove cataracts on
her right eye and treat a
hemorrhage in her left eye caused
by diabetes.
1977 She establishes the Ella
Fitzgerald Child Care Center in Los
Angeles.
1986 She undergoes five–way
heart bypass surgery after
having a heart attack in August.
Nevertheless, Ella continues to
perform.
1991 She performs for the last
time at Carnegie Music Hall—
her 26th performance at the
famed venue.
1993 Her legs are amputated as
a side effect of diabetes.
1996 Ella Fitzgerald dies from
diabetes complications on June
15th, in Beverly Hills, California, at
the age of 79.
THE END!!!!!!!!
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