Today is the birthday of my all-time favorite singer, Ella Fitzgerald. The First Lady of Swing would be ninety-six years-old on this lovely Spring day. I can't remember the first time that I heard one of her songs but the first one that I learned beginning to end was "Baby It's Cold Outside"with the incomparable Louis Armstrong. Whether she was swinging, scatting, humming, or serenading, Ella had such a way of bringing her audiences in. In honor of the transcendent Ella, I wanted to write a little post for her.
She was born today in 1917 in Newport News, Virginia. She had a pretty happy childhood being raised by her mother, Temperance. Ella was described as a "tomboy" because she liked to play baseball but she also enjoyed dancing and singing. Things got rough in her teenage years as her mother died from injuries she recieved in a car accident and then Ella's step-father, John, died of a heart attack. She was broke and alone during the great depression, but she endured. Her rise to fame is a pretty unbelievable story. Just by luck, her name was drawn at the Apollo theater where she sang the song, "Judy". Her raw talent was so powerful that she was asked to sing an encore. From there she kept winning contests and eventually was asked to be a part of a traveling band. She went solo after a few years of touring with other bands which was when she really started to get big because her voice and style brought a new modern edge to the decreasingly popular big-band jazz/swing bands. However, even as Ella became a singing star life was not easy. As an African-American female performer, Ella faced so much discrimination in her life. There was a true story that I heard once that while she and Dizzy Gillespie were in Texas waiting to start a show, racist police officers raided their dressing rooms and arrested them because they didn't like how forward Ella's manager was with his beliefs in a racially equal society. After the police arrested Ella and set her free for her concert, the police officers still had the nerve to ask for her autograph. I have also heard that an extremely popular club called the Mocambo wouldn't let Ella Fitzgerald perform in their establishment because of her race even though she was one of the biggest talents of that era. If it weren't for a call from Marilyn Monroe, the owners of Mocambo would've never let Ella sing there. It was completely sold out every single night she performed.
What I love about Ella is that she is such a model of how to overcome incredibly steep odds. She is remembered today as not only one of the best (in my mind, the best) singers of all time but as a victorious conquerer of discrimination and source of hope and inspiration for all of us out there who are trying to follow our destinies despite the struggles we all face.
I wish you all Blue Skies from here on out-
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