Popular song - Jazz: Ella Fitzgerald (OCR) p122-125 Flashcards
What was her first recording?
1935, “I’ll chase the blues away” with Chick Webb and his orchestra
Where was she brought up?
In Yonkers, New York (15 when her mother died)
Where did she learn to sing?
From performing gospel music in church and from popular artists of the day
What was regularly heard on the radio?
Louis Armstrong’s jazz solos on trumpet and vocals, and the hard driven swing of the Boswell Sisters (often in partnership with Bing Crosby) on record and radio
What contest did she enter?
She modelled her singing in Connee Boswell, won a talent contest at Apollo Theatre in Harlem at 17
What followed when winning the contest?
Work with the Chick Webb orchestra
Why was she so important to the band?
Her vocal contributions became important to the band’s success. While the instrumental swing numbers were popular with dancers, there were plenty of similar bands in a competitive market, it was her singing which made the band stand out and gave it more than a local profile
Recordings with vocals sold… than instrumental recordings
More
At a young age she became….
A leading figure in popular music
How long did she stay with the band for?
6 years and became leader when Webb died
What was her stand-out hit with Chick Webb?
A Tisket, A Tasket (1938), a hard swinging arrangement of a nursery rhyme from her childhood
Why was A Tisket A Tasket so popular to the public?
It sold successfully to both black and white audiences, who responded to its combination of child-like simplicity and emotional depth
Why was A Tisket A Tasket so popular to vocalists?
It set a trend for other female vocalists to look for simple melodies in order to top charts, and perhaps signalled a move away from the sophisticated artistry of the successful song composers of the 1920s and 1930s
What if she often referred to as?
The First Lady of Song
After a Tisket A Tasket did she top the charts?
Not often make the Top Ten singles charts, but her recordings always sold reliably
In 1954, Decca claimed that their recordings of her had sold…
22 million copies