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ella fitzgerald

ber of recordings with Decca, including such popular albums as Lullabies of Birdland and Sweet and Hot. She began to work with an improvisational style of singing called "scat," or "bop," singing, based on the complex, spontaneous instrumental style of Dizzy Gillespie. In 1945, Fitzgerald recorded a scat version of "Flying Home," which became one of the most influential vocal jazz records of the decade. While on tour with Gillespie’s band in 1946, Fitzgerald met and fell in love with the bassist Ray Brown, whom she married in 1947. (She had been previously married to Benjamin Kornegay, a shipyard worker, but their two-year marriage was annulled in 1943.) Fitzgerald and Brown were divorced in 1952, but they continued to perform together in Brown’s own jazz combo. Meanwhile, Fitzgerald had begun to work with Norman Granz, the impresario of a popular series called "Jazz at the Philharmonic." In 1955, she was the first artist signed to Granz’s new record label, Verve, and began recording a series of "songbook" albums. The first offering, a two-record set entitled Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook (1956) led to eight other songbooks, each devoted to the work of a particular composer or composing team: Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington, Jerome Kern, Frank Loesser, Johnny Mercer, Rodgers and Hart, and George and Ira Gershwin. The five-album Gershwin songbook is widely regarded as the finest of the collections. Through the songbook series, recorded between 1956 and 1964, Fitzgerald’s unique vocal talents reached an audience far beyond the jazz world. Fitzgerald was a tireless performer, touring between 40 and 45 weeks every year. Aside from her touring and recording efforts, she made feature film appearances, including Ride ‘Em Cowboy (1942) and Pete Kelly’s Blues (1955). In 1966, she moved from Verve (which Granz had sold to MGM) to Capitol Records, where she attempted to broaden her r...

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