Ella would have been 100 today
mainBorn on April 25, 1917, at Newport News, Virginia, died of diabetes complications in Beverly Hills, California, June 15, 1996.
Never to be forgotten.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSBILb1-PAc
my fav ….
Groan. Joan Sutherland. Grrrrr.
Not to worry. She’s dead too.
Amazing artist. Heard her live several times, the first singing the ‘Gershwin Songbook’ with the Chicago Symphony & Skitch Henderson in 1969, then many years later in her almost annual visits to the Hollywood Bowl. Happy birthday, Ella, and thank you for sharing your talent with the world.
The greatest American singer! (OK, maybe the greatest American female singer.)
And in that same genre, IMO, Mel Torme was the greatest male singer. The two of them; dynamite.
Worked a three-week show with her in the early ’60s – two shows a night. Wonderful singer but demanding, calling her conductor into her dressing room after every show with complaints and comments. The show band with strings consisted mostly of NY studio musicians, so not much to really complain about. Her signature song – “A tisket, a tasket, a green and yellow basket.”
Addendum – along with Sarah Vaughan, a wonderfully adept scat-singer.
Can you give some examples of the excessive complaints?
Without knowing any more than you do, I’m going to guess that her comments & complaints probably had more to do with the conductor than the musicians.
Correct. Ella was an obsessive perfectionist whose comments were laid on her conductor in her dressing room.
Just like Carlos Kleiber. Both are terribly missed!!
“Wonderful singer but demanding…”
I might replace the “but” with an “and” 🙂
Thanks for sharing that on Ms. Fitzgerald’s 100th birthday. Classy.