Ella Fitzgerald sings "How High the Moon" Stockholm 1966
Ella Fitzgerald is one of the premier Jazz vocalists of the twentieth century. She is perhaps the foremost interpreter of the Great American Songbook a collection of songs most easily defined as songs Ella sang.
The version of "How High The Moon" in this video is interesting because of her extensive scat solo and because in the middle of her improvisation she breaks into The Beatles.
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Ella did not sing topical music. It was her presence, dignity and originality that changed the world. She was an inspiration to African Americans, women, and musicians everywhere. It is impossible not to be moved by her performances.
A few days after Fitzgerald's death, New York Times columnist Frank Rich wrote that in the Songbook series Fitzgerald "performed a cultural transaction as extraordinary as Elvis's contemporaneous integration of white and African-American soul. Here was a black woman popularizing urban songs often written by immigrant Jews to a national audience of predominantly white Christians."
- wikipedia
In doing what she did she created American culture. Not Black culture, Jazz culture, or Jewish culture but American culture. Listen to her here, singing the Gershwin classic, "Summertime" with Louis Armstrong on trumpet.
Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong - Summertime
I bet a lot of you thought this was a Janis Joplin song. By covering "Summertime" Janis was paying tribute to Ella and she was smart to bring herself to it. No one could ever do it like Ella.
Buddy Guy also paid trubute to Ella Fitzgerald with his song "Mary Had A Little Lamb". Ella originated the nursery rhyme genre with a song she cowrote with Al Feldman "A-Tisket A-Tasket". Buddy Guy even included the title of Ella's song in his lyric.
Ella Fitzgerald - A-Tisket, A-Tasket
In case you're wondering about all the cowboy hats this video is from the 1942 Abbot and Costello film, "Ride 'Em Cowboy".
I'm going to close this diary with a swinging number sung by Ella in Allemagne, France in 1974. The band is incredible. Joe Pass (g), Tommy Flanagan (p), Keeter Betts (b), Bobby Durham (dr), Roy Eldridge (tp), Eddie Lockjaw Davis (ts), Peter Herbolzheimer Rhythm Combination & Brass (Herb Geller, Art Farmer, ...)
Her intro is not to be missed.
Ella Fitzgerald - It Don't Mean a thing - 1974
Asking you to post your favorite Ella songs is awfully close to asking you to post your favorite songs so please do it. If Ella sang it and you love it I want to hear it.
Thanks,
Hairy Larry