Ella Fitzgerald Essay examples

Ella Fitzgerald had a difficult childhood in the 1920’s with her family’s financial struggles. While many

Ella Fitzgerald is known as the “First Lady of Song,” and for good reason. Throughout her career, Fitzgerald took jazz singing to new heights of fame and popularity, influencing the style of jazz and future generations of musicians. Today, her music remains well-known and loved, and her long and prolific career reflects her impeccable skill and style. Her influence is still strong today, with singers such as Adele, Mica Paris, Lady Gaga, and Lana Del Rey (BBC) citing Fitzgerald as a major influence on their style and their love of music. Fitzgerald is often referred to as one of the greatest jazz vocalists, along with Billie Holiday. However, Fitzgerald’s style was not dominated by the typical approach to jazz singing, instead being

Zelda Fitzgerald began life looking forward to what it could offer her. A popular debutante and success at everything she had yet to try enticed her to believe that she was infallible. It was only during her later life that she realized that life, both physically and mentally, had its breaking point. Though many things have been blamed as the cause of her mental breakdown, there is no specific root to her problem. Diagnosed as schizophrenic in 1930, Zelda would be condemned to spending the rest of her life in and out of mental health facilities, the place where she would take her final breath, killed by a fire in 1948.

The two most famous vocalists were Billie Holliday and Ella Fitzgerald. Holiday also called the “Queen of Phrasing” is the most influential singer in jazz history. She does not have some qualities that many jazz singers had, however, she had qualities of her own. For instance she was unique. Another thing was the emotion that a person could feel while listening to her. She had what is most important to jazz, that swing feeling that Louis Armstrong influenced on her and she sing it in her own way. She sang with top jazz musicians and had several songs on the

Ella Fitzgerald, aka “The First Lady of Song,” was the most popular female jazz singer in the United States for more than half a century (A Culture of Change). Jazz was the time period between the 1920’s and 1930’s. The Jazz Age has impacted the lives of Americans throughout history. To this day, people still perform and listen to modern and old jazz music. Jazz influenced the music industry in a way that altered America. As the Jazz Age evolved, the types of American music changed tremendously through the 1920’s, thus determining later music styles.

Musicians have had to compromise many traits of their identity to pursue their career to the apogee of success. They were expected to endure copious amount of challenges. Certain times such obstacles assisted them in expanding their public image, however, the 1950s leaned towards harshness and difficulties for people of different races. An artist falling under this description is Ella Fitzgerald. She was born on April 25, 1917 in Virginia, US.

Her pure talent and dedication to her work made her a legendary artist that will never be forgotten. Despite her early struggles, the joy and crisp beauty of her voice became iconic. She said herself, “It isn’t where you came from, it’s where you’re going that counts.” Along with her 13 Grammys, Ella was presented with numerous prestigious awards such as the National Medal of Arts given by President Ronald Reagan, the NAACP lifetime achievement award, and honorary doctorate degrees from Yale and several other universities. She’s been rightfully titled the First Lady of Song and Queen of Jazz. She’s set the standards for American pop vocalists of today and her music will live on throughout

Another young woman, Ella Thomas, described her pregnancy in a manner that further complicates interpreting historical pregnancy. While having a miscarriage, Ella describes herself as sick but does not appear to be bothered by the event. Despite experiencing symptoms such as fatigue, Ella does not describe her pregnancy within these terms. If anything, she finds her symptoms a nuisance (Thomas). Furthermore, her own pregnancy has led her to sympathize with other pregnant women. She mentions in the diary that if she had “sole management” of a plantation that “pregnant women would be highly favored…whether black of white” (Thomas). The distinction of “sole management” here is fascinating because it implies that her husband would not be in charge in this case, and that if he were in charge he would be less likely to show favor to pregnant women because he personally could not understand the experience (Thomas).

But yeah she influenced many artist, musicians, singers, dancers and actors all famous and known today for many things and she continues she reach out to many young ladies and little girls to give them hope toward their dreams to one day be in her place and make it out here as a woman

Ella Fitzgerald became an expert with the new modern rhythms and harmonies and her improvisation and musicianship as a singer improved drastically. Her inspirations during this era were Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie and she was able to imitate their playing style and the timbre of the saxophone and trumpet. Not only was she able to copy their playing style but also could sound just like Parker and Gillespie.

Ella didn’t have a very good childhood. It started after she was born. Her parents split right after her birth. Instead of her moving in with her father she moved in with her mom and her mom’s boyfriend to Yonkers, New York. Her mom soon found a new boyfriend, Joseph Da Silva. In 1923 it was the arrival of Ella new sister, Frances. Her family was also struggling financially. She wanted to help with that so she became a messenger for “running numbers” and she was acting as a lookout for a brothel. At first Ella didn't want to be a singer she wanted to be a dancer. In 1932 Ella had to move in with her aunt because her mother died.

She  displayed the whole range of female emotions from the fear of parental disapproval in songs like Papa Don’t Preach to the desire to take a man for his money and control a sexual relationship in songs like Material Girl.  Women like Marilyn Monroe and Madonna were trail blazers because of  their  ability to change identities and their innate confidence made their crowds go

Ella was also supported by the famous Marilyn Monroe. She and Monroe became friends one night when Fitzgerald was discriminated against and arrested. Monroe then came and sat front row at many of Ella's Jazz performances. Once people saw the famous Marilyn Monroe supported her more people began to show up and see her perform. She began to perform at bigger Jazz clubs, increasing the number of fans. People then began to discuss the amazing black singer, and this proved blacks could do anything any other race could do. Once a ton of people began to like her music, she was then able to sing almost anywhere in the USA or even internationally (The official site of the first lady). For instance, Fitzgerald performed at the London Palladium ( Notable Black American Women).

Ella McMahon or we have all better known as “Ella Eyre, the girl with the crazy hair” keeps the mood festive with her fourth single, “Good Times” lifted off of her debut album Feline. The top ten-worthy track was dropped in the middle of June. Could it finally break through the top, though?

But even if he still is the uncontested master of scat singing thanks to his talent in innovation, many very talented singers followed his paths. Annie Ross, a singer, summarized what was happening among vocalists at that time in one simple sentence: “The [scat] music was so exciting, everyone wanted to do it” (Singing Jazz: the Singers and their Styles, Crowther & Pinfold, p.130). And that is what occurred, but some artists did it with more talent than others. The main ones, in my opinion, are Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Eddie Jefferson. Ella Fitzgerald was known for her imitation of jazz instruments (of the horn especially) and for her three octaves, she had a very sturdy technique (perfect diction, phrasing, etc.) and a pure voice. She could improvise any kind of solo in a very natural and unforced manner. In opposition to that, Sarah Vaughan was a free lancer in singing, she underwent training as a musician at the beginning. But her “wondrous voice”, as the music critic Scott Yanow calls it, and her knowledge in harmony made her one of the greatest scat singers. She also has a very singular way to perform her songs, she could be sensual and funny at the same time. Concerning Eddie Jefferson, he sort of “jumped on the bandwagon”. Initially he was a pro in vocalese and a first-rate lyricist, but when scat singing was very