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MUSIC WEEK II
Word of the Day - Monday, June 6th |
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Word of the Day
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Ella (EL-uh) · Common clues: Ms. Fitzgerald, Scat queen; Jazzy first name · Crossword puzzle frequency: 20 times a year · Frequency in English language: 15343 / 86800 [Related Crosswordese: “Scat” appears in crossword puzzles approximately 6 times a year.] Ella Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 - June 15, 1996), also known as Lady Ella, was one of the most important jazz singers, and the winner of thirteen Grammy Awards. Gifted with a three-octave vocal range, she is noted for her purity of tone and "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.
She was born in Newport News, Virginia, USA and raised in Yonkers, New York. She was left on her own as an orphan at age 14. Her singing debut was at age 16 in 1934 at the Harlem Apollo Theater, New York, in one of the earliest of its famous "Amateur Nights", which she won, adding fame to both the Apollo and herself. She was noticed by Bardu Ali of Chick Webb's band, who persuaded Webb to hire her. She started singing with Webb's Orchestra in 1935, in Harlem's Savoy Ballroom. She recorded several hit songs with them, including "(If You Can't Sing It), You'll Have to Swing It", but it was her version of the nursery rhyme, "A Tisket A Tasket" that launched her to stardom. She began her solo career in 1941. Started as a swing singer, she encompassed bebop, scat, and performed blues, bossa nova, samba, gospel, calypso, and Christmas songs. Ella's later concerts were often enriched by some hilarious imitations of other singers: in particular, she was able to render quite perfectly Marilyn Monroe's voice and typical gestures, as well as Louis Armstrong's. Porgy and Bess is the most notable of her many recordings with jazz legend Louis Armstrong, but the couple also recorded the very popular "Ella and Louis" which was so successful that Granz's Verve records asked them for the equally successful "Ella and Louis again". She married twice. In 1941 she married Benny Kornegay, but the marriage was later annulled. Her second husband was the famous bass player Ray Brown. Together they adopted a child, Ray Brown, Jr. Already blinded because suffering from diabetes, she lost her legs in 1993, and in 1996 she died in Beverly Hills, California, after having made some sad last TV appearances. She is interred in the Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California. Samples
Quotations
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ella Fitzgerald".
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