Fitzgerald, Ella 197write many of her own novelty songs—with such names
as “Gotta Pebble in My Shoe” and “Chew, Chew, Chew, Chew
Your Bubble Gum”—and in 1940 became one of the young-
est members of the American Society of Composers, Au-
thors and Publishers (ASCAP). In 1939, Chick Webb, whose
growth had been stunted and back hunched from a child-
hood disease, died of spinal tuberculosis at age 30. Fitzgerald
became the leader of her own big band, an astounding feat
for a female or for a vocalist, though trumpeter Taft Jordan
took over most of the traditional duties. Th e band split up in
1942 as the big band heyday drew to a close.
Fitzgerald became interested in the emerging bop
sound exemplifi ed by Dizzy Gillespie, and indeed, biogra-
pher Stuart Nicholson calls her the only musician to suc-
cessfully cross over from swing to bop. Her record “Flying
Home” (1945) combined scat singing—popularized by
Louis Armstrong—with bop sensibilities and became a
landmark of scat, and her records “Smooth Sailing” and
“How High the Moon” also exemplifi ed bop. Such record-
ings also demonstrate why musicians praised the hornlike
quality of her voice.Amateur Night in 1934 to her fi nal concert in 1992. She
lent her voice, characterized by impeccable pitch, superb
diction, and a sweet and clear quality, to a range of musical
styles that appealed to a variety of audiences. By one count,
she recorded 1,117 diff erent songs.
Fitzgerald was born April 25, 1917, to the unwed cou-
ple of William Fitzgerald and Tempie Williams Fitzgerald in
Newport News City, Virginia. By the time she was four, her
father had left , and her mother was living with Portuguese
immigrant Joseph Da Silva. Th e family moved to Yonkers,
New York, where Fitzgerald grew up listening to popular
music and especially adored Louis Armstrong and Connee
Boswell, an early and innovative white jazz singer whom
Fitzgerald strove to emulate at her fi rst Apollo appearance.
Fitzgerald’s mother died in 1932. Her mother’s sister,
Virginia, soon removed her from her stepfather’s home,
fearing she was being mistreated. Her half-sister soon
joined them when Da Silva died as well. Fitzgerald found
work running numbers and alerting a prostitution house to
police presence. Th e authorities caught her and sent her to
a reform school, where at the time black girls were placed in
the worst housing, beaten, held in basements, and perhaps
even tortured, according to a 1936 government report and
a 1990s journalistic investigation. Fitzgerald later became
known for her work on behalf of children and helped es-
tablish the Ella Fitzgerald Child Care Center in Watts, Los
Angeles, in 1977.
In the fall of 1934, Fitzgerald escaped from the re-
form school and lived homeless in New York City to evade
the authorities. By November 21 of that year, she was on
stage at the Apollo, where, as the story goes, she planned
to dance but decided at the Monday screening to sing. Her
top prize of a week’s worth of singing engagements was not
honored, possibly because of her appearance from living
on the streets. Her unkempt condition later reportedly put
off bandleader Fletcher Henderson. It also put off band-
leader Chick Webb when he fi rst met her. His male singer,
Charles Linton, persuaded him to try her out in front of an
audience.
Webb quickly came to see Fitzgerald as key to his as-
pirations to greater commercial success. In 1935, Fitzger-
ald and his band made her fi rst record, “Love and Kisses,”
and aft er that, Webb barely recorded without her. In 1938,
Fitzgerald had her fi rst big hit with “A-Tisket, A-Tasket,”
a nursery rhyme she wanted to record against the judg-
ment of Decca recording executives. She continued to Jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald in 19 40. (Library of Congress)