Ella Fitzgerald was born 100 years ago today and she died on June 15, 1996. By any measure, she was the most important jazz-pop singer of the 20th century. By the time she was 21 in 1938, she had completely transformed pop singing, dragging the vocal into the Swing Era by giving it a more relaxed, jazz-influenced, finger-popping feel. In the 1940s, following the death of drummer and bandleader Chick Webb in 1939, she took over his band and became the Swing Era's first important female big-band leader. By the early 1950s, she was considered the first lady of jazz-pop, on par with Louis Armstrong. In the 12-inch album era beginning mid-decade, Ella worked harder than any other singer, male or female, undertaking a massive songbook album series, recording many other LPs and touring worldwide relentlessly. In the 1960s and beyond, she was a larger-than-life figure on TV variety shows and considered a legend by black and white audiences in awe of her vocal skills. No other jazz artist held this elevated mass-market status except Armstrong and Duke Ellington.
On Ella Fitzgerald's centenary, I've selected nine video clips—all of them duets—to show off her singing style, note choices, playful competitive nature and warm power:
Here's Ella with Nat King Cole in 1957...
Here's Ella in 1958 with Frank Sinatra, who, to my ear (and Ella's expressions), was a little flat...
Here's Ella with Dinah Shore and Andy Williams in 1960...
Here's Ella with Jo Stafford in 1961...
Here's Ella with Sammy Davis Jr. on Feb. 2, 1964—a week before the Beatles appeared for the first time on the variety show...
Here's Ella with Dean Martin (and Gordon MacRae) in December 1965...
Here's Ella with Tom Jones in 1970...
Here's Ella with Sarah Vaughan and Pearl Bailey in 1979...
And here's Ella with Karen Carpenter in 1980...
JazzWax note: More at the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation here.
