In 1939, not long after undergoing major surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, Webb died. Nonetheless, he forged onwards, hoping to keep his band working through the Depression. Though only in his thirties, the drummer, who had struggled with congenital spinal tuberculosis throughout his life, would purportedly collapse from exhaustion after playing a set. The band's fame grew exponentially with Fitzgerald, as they dominated at the Savoy battle of the bands, and issued a string of Decca 78s, scoring hits "A Tisket-A-Tasket," in 1938, and the B-side "T'aint What You Do (It's the Way That You Do It)," as well as "Liza," and "Undecided." As the singer's career was on the rise, Webb's health had begun to decline. She won the crowd over, and spent the next few years with the drummer, who became her legal guardian and reworked his show to feature the singer. There, she met influential drummer Chick Webb, who agreed to try her out with his orchestra at a one-nighter at Yale University. More contests followed, and in 1935 Fitzgerald won a weeklong spot singing with Tiny Bradshaw at the Harlem Opera House. In the house band that night was saxophonist Benny Carter, who took the young vocalist under his wing and encouraged her to keep developing her career. In 1934, she entered and won an amateur contest at the Apollo, singing Hoagy Carmichael's "Judy" in the style of her idol, Connee Boswell. Despite her struggles, she worked to pursue her love of performing.
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Eventually breaking free from the reformatory, she found herself on her own in New York during the height of the Great Depression.
She was subsequently sent to a reform school, where she endured abuse by her caretakers. Deeply distraught over the loss, Fitzgerald went through a difficult period that found her skipping school and getting in trouble with the police. In 1932, her mother died from injuries sustained in a car accident. She also began taking the train to see shows with friends at Harlem's Apollo Theater. Influenced by her mother, she also enjoyed singing and dancing, and spent many hours singing along to records by Bing Crosby, Connee Boswell, and the Boswell Sisters. By her teens, the self-professed tomboy was active in sports and often played in local baseball games. To help with the family's finances, Fitzgerald often worked odd jobs including, at times, running bet money for local gamblers. She also had a younger half-sister, Frances, who was born in 1923. Her parents split up soon after her birth, and she was largely raised by her mother, Temperance "Tempie" Fitzgerald, and her mother's boyfriend Joseph "Joe" Da Silva. A hugely important cultural figure, Fitzgerald made an immeasurable impact on the development of jazz and popular music, and remains a touchstone for fans and artists decades after her passing.īorn in 1917 in Newport News, Virginia, Fitzgerald grew up in a working-class family in Yonkers, New York. Over her 50-year career, she earned 13 Grammy Awards, sold over 40 million albums, and picked up numerous accolades including a National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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She came to initial popularity as a member of drummer Chick Webb's band in the 1930s, scoring a hit with a "A-Tisket, A-Tasket," before ascending to wide acclaim in the 1940s with Jazz at the Philharmonic and Dizzy Gillespie's Big Band, and issuing landmark performances like "Flying Home" and "How High the Moon." Working with producer/manager Norman Granz, she gained even more acclaim with her series of albums on Verve, recording definitive versions of the music of the Great American Songbook composers, including 1956's Sings the Cole Porter Songbook. Blessed with a highly resonant voice, wide range, and near-perfect elocution, Fitzgerald also possessed a deft sense of swing, and with her brilliant scat technique, could hold her own against any of her instrumental contemporaries. Recognized worldwide as "The First Lady of Song," Ella Fitzgerald is arguably the finest female jazz vocalist of all time.
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