Ella Fitzgerald Timeline

Ella Fitzgerald 22

1917 Ella Fitzgerald born in Newport News, Virginia Ella Jane Fitzgerald is born on 25 April 1917 in Newport News, Virginia, to William Fitzgerald and Temperance Henry. Her parents separate when she is young and her mother moves with Ella and her stepfather Joseph Da Silva to Yonkers, New York. Her mother dies in a car accident in 1932 when Ella is 15. Her stepfather's abuse of her mother and then Ella drives her away from home; she lives with an aunt in Harlem and briefly on the streets. Her early life is marked by poverty, instability and loss -- a background she rarely discusses publicly but which shapes the emotional depth of her singing.
1934 Amateur Night at the Apollo -- debut performance Fitzgerald enters the Apollo Theatre Amateur Night competition in Harlem in November 1934, intending to dance. Backstage she loses her nerve and decides to sing instead -- performing a song in the style of Connie Boswell, her idol. She wins the competition. The Apollo Amateur Night is the most important talent showcase in Black American entertainment; winning it changes Fitzgerald's life. She is 17, living in poverty and unknown. Within a year she will be performing with one of the most celebrated bands in jazz.
1935 Joins Chick Webb Orchestra Fitzgerald comes to the attention of Chick Webb, the drummer and bandleader who leads the house band at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. Webb is initially reluctant to hire the young, unglamorous singer -- his band manager Bardu Ali has to persuade him. But when Webb hears Fitzgerald sing, he agrees immediately. She joins the band in 1935. Webb becomes her legal guardian and mentor. Playing the Savoy Ballroom, the premier Black dance venue in America, with the best band in Harlem gives Fitzgerald the musical education and public exposure that develops her extraordinary natural talent.
1938 "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" -- first Number 1 Fitzgerald records 'A-Tisket, A-Tasket' with the Chick Webb Orchestra in May 1938 -- a swinging reworking of a nursery rhyme that reaches Number 1 and stays there for 17 weeks. The song sells one million copies and makes Fitzgerald a national name at 21. It is a light novelty song very different from the sophisticated jazz and standards she will later define, but it demonstrates her rhythmic vitality and her ability to make any material irresistible. She co-wrote the arrangement. Chick Webb's band becomes the most commercially successful Black band in America on the strength of Fitzgerald's popularity.
1939 – 1942 Chick Webb dies -- Fitzgerald leads the band Chick Webb dies of tuberculosis of the spine on 16 June 1939, aged 30. At 22, Fitzgerald takes over the leadership of his orchestra -- an almost unprecedented responsibility for a young female singer. She leads Chick Webb and His Orchestra (renamed Ella Fitzgerald and Her Famous Orchestra) for three years, recording and touring. The experience gives her musical authority and organizational confidence that shapes her entire subsequent career. She dissolves the band in 1942 and begins her solo career.
1942 – 1948 Solo career -- Decca Records and bebop Fitzgerald records for Decca Records as a solo artist from 1942 onwards, producing a series of hits including 'Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall' (with Ink Spots, 1944) and 'Stone Cold Dead in the Market' (1946). She also encounters the bebop revolution: performing and recording with Dizzy Gillespie and developing her scat singing in the new, more complex harmonic language of bebop. Her scatting -- improvising wordless vocal lines in the manner of a jazz instrumentalist -- becomes her most celebrated technical achievement.
1945 – 1946 How High the Moon -- the scat breakthrough Fitzgerald's live recording of 'How High the Moon' -- first documented in a 1947 Carnegie Hall concert with Dizzy Gillespie -- becomes one of the most celebrated examples of scat singing in jazz history. She takes the song's melody apart and reassembles it as a pure improvisation, quoting other melodies ('Ornithology,' 'Idaho'), modulating through distant keys and demonstrating a harmonic sophistication equal to the greatest instrumental soloists. Her 1955 studio recording of the same song for Decca is the canonical version. It wins the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Performance in 1958.
1948 Norman Granz and Jazz at the Philharmonic Fitzgerald begins touring with Norman Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic concert series in 1948 -- a touring all-star jazz concert that plays major concert halls and reaches audiences that do not typically attend jazz clubs. Granz, who will become the most important figure in her career, insists on non-segregated audiences and first-class travel for his artists -- a significant advancement of Black musicians' professional dignity in an era of routine discrimination. The JATP tours give Fitzgerald national and international exposure and a professional relationship with Granz that eventually transforms her career.
1955 – 1956 Signs with Verve Records -- the Songbook project begins Norman Granz founds Verve Records in 1956 specifically to record Fitzgerald under ideal conditions. His vision: a series of albums in which Fitzgerald devotes an entire record to the songs of a single major American composer -- Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern and Johnny Mercer. The Songbook series, produced with first-rate arrangers (Nelson Riddle, Billy May, Paul Weston), is the most ambitious project in jazz vocal history and the definitive documentation of the American Popular Song tradition.
1956 Cole Porter Songbook -- the series begins The Cole Porter Songbook (1956) -- two albums, 32 songs, arranged by Buddy Bregman -- is the first of the eight Songbook sets. Porter himself pronounces Fitzgerald's versions definitive. The album reaches Number 15 on the Billboard chart -- remarkable for a jazz vocal album. It establishes the Songbook's commercial viability and artistic ambition. Fitzgerald's voice in 1956 is at its absolute peak: the three-octave range is fully controlled, the intonation is flawless, and the interpretive depth -- her ability to inhabit a lyric without sentimentality -- is unmatched.
1956 Ella and Louis -- with Armstrong Fitzgerald records 'Ella and Louis' (1956) and 'Ella and Louis Again' (1957) with Louis Armstrong for Verve -- two of the most beloved albums in jazz. The interplay between Fitzgerald's crystalline precision and Armstrong's earthy warmth is ideally complementary. The albums, arranged by Oscar Peterson's quartet, represent the summit of classic jazz vocal collaboration. Armstrong's trumpet solos and Fitzgerald's scatting on 'How High the Moon' are particularly celebrated. The albums reach audiences who know only one of the two artists and expand both their followings.
1958 – 1959 Irving Berlin and Ellington Songbooks The Irving Berlin Songbook (1958), arranged by Paul Weston, and the Duke Ellington Songbook (1957-58), with Ellington himself participating as arranger and pianist, are two of the strongest entries in the series. The Ellington collaboration is particularly significant: Ellington, one of the greatest composers in American music, brings his own orchestra to the sessions and his personal knowledge of his compositions' inner life. Fitzgerald's interpretation of Ellington's songs -- 'In a Mellow Tone,' 'Sophisticated Lady,' 'Lush Life' -- is definitive.
1959 Gershwin Songbook -- the masterpiece The George and Ira Gershwin Songbook (1959) -- five albums, 59 songs, arranged by Nelson Riddle -- is the crowning achievement of the Songbook series. The Gershwin canon, with its combination of melodic inventiveness, harmonic sophistication and literary lyric writing, suits Fitzgerald's voice and interpretive gifts perfectly. 'Someone to Watch Over Me,' 'But Not for Me,' 'A Foggy Day,' 'The Man I Love' -- each is treated with both technical precision and emotional depth. The album wins the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album. It is the greatest single achievement in jazz vocal recording.
1960 – 1968 Norman Granz -- the man behind the music Norman Granz's role in Fitzgerald's career is second only to Chick Webb's. As her manager and record producer from the late 1940s until her death, Granz insists on conditions that protect her dignity: non-segregated audiences, first-class hotel rooms (he books her into hotels and then challenges their refusal to honour the reservation, sometimes with the police present), equal billing with white artists. When Fitzgerald is arrested in Houston in 1955 for shooting dice backstage, Granz bails her out and sues the police. His protection allows Fitzgerald to perform at the highest level without the indignities that compromise many Black artists' careers.
1960 – 1961 Mack the Knife -- live Berlin recording Fitzgerald's live recording at the Deutschlandhalle in Berlin in February 1960 -- released as 'Ella in Berlin: Mack the Knife' -- captures one of jazz's most celebrated unrehearsed moments. Performing 'Mack the Knife,' she forgets the words after the first chorus and improvises entirely new lyrics, narrating her own memory lapse with brilliant wit and rhythmic invention. The recording wins the Grammy for Best Female Vocal Performance. It is the most famous demonstration of Fitzgerald's improvisational genius and her ability to transform a mistake into a triumph.
1962 – 1964 Jerome Kern and Johnny Mercer Songbooks -- series complete The Jerome Kern Songbook (1963) and Johnny Mercer Songbook (1964) complete the eight-album Songbook series. The series as a whole -- 250 songs, 19 albums, recorded over eight years -- is the most sustained artistic achievement in jazz vocal history. Each songwriter's distinctive voice is illuminated by Fitzgerald's unfailing taste and technical command. The Songbooks give the American Popular Song tradition its definitive recorded documentation. Every subsequent singer who approaches this repertoire -- from Tony Bennett to Diana Krall -- does so in the knowledge that Fitzgerald has been there first.
1966 – 1972 Late Verve recordings -- changing with the times Through the late 1960s Fitzgerald records for Verve and then Capitol, attempting to engage with the changing popular music landscape. Albums of Beatles songs ('Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Beatles') and bossa nova ('Bossa Nova') are commercially reasonable but critically undistinguished. Fitzgerald's voice is not diminished but her interpretive gifts are best suited to the American Songbook tradition rather than rock-era pop. She navigates the transition with characteristic professionalism if not with the inspired engagement of the Songbook years.
1972 – 1986 Pablo Records -- late career recordings with Granz Norman Granz founds Pablo Records in 1972 specifically to continue recording Fitzgerald in ideal conditions. The Pablo recordings -- live albums from Montreux, Nice and Carnegie Hall, studio albums with Oscar Peterson, Joe Pass and Count Basie -- document Fitzgerald's late career with honesty and affection. Her voice changes with age -- the upper register narrows, the lower register deepens -- but her musicianship is undiminished. The Pablo recordings are among the most honest documents of a great artist's aging in any musical tradition.
1986 – 1993 Diabetes and heart surgery -- the long decline Fitzgerald's health deteriorates significantly through the late 1980s and early 1990s. She undergoes open-heart surgery in 1986, and diabetes causes progressive deterioration of her circulation. Both legs are amputated below the knee in 1993 due to diabetic complications. She gives her final concert in 1991 at Carnegie Hall -- still singing with remarkable beauty despite her physical difficulties. She withdraws from public life after the amputations, spending her final years at her home in Beverly Hills.
1987 Presidential Medal of Freedom Fitzgerald receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Reagan in 1987 -- the highest civilian honour in the United States. She has already received the National Medal of Arts (1987), the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1967) and honorary doctorates from Yale, Dartmouth and the University of Maryland. The accumulation of honours reflects a rare cultural consensus: Fitzgerald is acknowledged as a national treasure across political, racial and generational lines. Her combination of technical perfection and emotional warmth has made her universally beloved in a way few artists achieve.
1996 – present Legacy -- the First Lady of Song Ella Fitzgerald's legacy rests on two foundations: the Songbook series -- the definitive recordings of the American Popular Song tradition -- and her scat singing, which remains the highest achievement in jazz vocal improvisation. Her 13 Grammy Awards, 40 million records sold and the near-universal critical consensus on her primacy among jazz vocalists reflect an achievement without parallel. She is the standard against which every subsequent female jazz singer is measured. Her voice -- the range, the precision, the warmth, the wit -- is jazz's most perfect vocal instrument.
1996 Ella Fitzgerald dies in Beverly Hills Ella Fitzgerald dies at her home in Beverly Hills on 15 June 1996, aged 79, from complications of diabetes. She is buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California. President Clinton says: 'Ella Fitzgerald was blessed with a gift that allowed her to speak to our hearts.' Tony Bennett says: 'The greatest jazz singer who ever lived.' Rosemary Clooney says: 'She was so great, she made everything look easy.' The First Lady of Song is gone. The American popular song tradition she embodied and documented in the Songbook series remains her incomparable gift to the world.