198 Culture, Identity, and Community: From Slavery to the PresentDavid, Norman. Th e Ella Fitzgerald Companion. Companions to
Celebrated Musicians. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004.
Nicholson, Stuart. Ella Fitzgerald: Th e Complete Biography. New
York: Routledge, 2004.Flying African Stories
Flying African stories were tales shared among enslaved
people on plantations that drew on African spiritual beliefs
to give the enslaved people hope that they could escape
bondage and return to their African homeland.
Numerous stories collected in Drums & Shadows, a
compilation of tales collected by the Georgia Writers’ Proj-
ect (a branch of the Works Progress Administration) in
1940, describe instances of extreme suff ering on the slaves’
part, or the immediacy of tragic outcome, when some in-
stances of mystic relief unexpectedly prevent the tragedy to
occur. A ghost or a spirit suddenly provides the slave with
wings, and the latter thus fl ies immediately back to his na-
tive soil. In another example, a legend told of an old man
who would come to the plantations and would support the
slaves with their unbearable pains. To do so, he would come
close to them and blow magic words to them. Right aft er
that, the slaves would be transformed into winged creatures
and would fl y back to Africa.
Signifi cantly, fl ying African stories have oft en been
linked to African spiritual beliefs, particularly the notion
of transmigration, the idea that one’s soul would return to
Africa aft er physical death. Perhaps the most compelling
connection between concepts of death, transmigration,
and fl ying African stories came in the story of Ebo Land-
ing, an event in which a group of Africans, aft er getting
a vicious beating from their masters, marched into the
ocean and drowned themselves. From then on, the story
was told that they had “fl own” back to Africa. Scholars
now believe that folktales involving fl ying Africans are ac-
tually stories about transmigration and a soul-return to
Africa.
Beyond the connection to transmigration, however,
the fl ying African stories have other signifi cant recurring
elements—such as spirits’ power of invisibility; power
of clear-sightedness; power to blind and to restore sight;
power to cure; and power to cast magic charms, spells, and
evil charms—but we also fi nd the symbol of taboo food laidIn the 1950s, Norman Granz, upset with Fitzgerald’s
treatment at Decca, got her out of her contract a year early
through a trade and began recording her on Verve. Th is
led to the 19-volume Song Book series, in which Fitzgerald
recorded songs by such composers as Cole Porter, George
Gershwin, Duke Ellington, and Johnny Mercer. She also
became a prominent draw at Granz’s Jazz at the Philhar-
monic concert tours. During this period she recorded three
albums of duets with Louis Armstrong, which are charac-
terized by the singers’ playfulness and the contrast between
their voices.
Fitzgerald dated a series of musicians. In 1941, she
married Ben Kornegay but followed her managers’ advice
in seeking an annulment when they became convinced
Kornegay was aft er her money. In 1947, she married bass-
ist Ray Brown. Together they adopted her sister’s newborn,
whom they named Ray Brown Jr. When the marriage
broke up in 1953, Ray Jr. lived with Ella but eff ectively was
raised by her Ella’s aunt Virginia while his adoptive parents
toured.
Perhaps one of the most enduring contrasts in jazz is
between Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, who, only two years
Fitzgerald’s senior, was already making a name for herself
when Fitzgerald arrived in Harlem. Holiday fans appreci-
ate her method of internalizing the emotions of a song and
creating a subjective experience for the listener. By con-
trast, Fitzgerald fans oft en applaud her focus on melody
and technique over feeling. Many have commented that
Holiday acted out her songs, living and dying tragically. Yet
Fitzgerald also lived her more detached musical style, mak-
ing few close friendships over the years.
In the Down Beat readers poll for top vocalist, Fitzger-
ald placed fi rst from 1937 to 1939 and again from 1953
to 1970. In the magazine’s critics poll, instituted later, she
placed fi rst from 1953 to 1971 and again in 1974. In 1974,
the University of Maryland Eastern Shore named its per-
forming arts center aft er her, and in 1979, she received a
Kennedy Center Honors Medal. She won 14 Grammys, and
in 1989, the Society of Singers named its lifetime achieve-
ment award the “Ella.”
See also: Black Folk Culture; Jazz
Brooke SherrardBibliography
Colin, Sid. Ella: Th e Life and Times of Ella Fitzgerald. London: Elm
Tree Books, 1987.