The First Lady of Song!
Ella Fitzgerald started out in the mid-30s, releasing duets with male singers.
Her first hit came with drummer and bandleader Chick Webb and their song A-Tisket, A-Tasket. It became one of the biggest-selling records of the 30s and brought them nationwide success.
After Chick passed away, Ella continued with the band, now renamed Ella and Her Famous Orchestra. They recorded 150 songs until 1942 when Ella decided to go solo.
Most recordings in the 30s were novelty stuff, as the 40s rolled in with Bebop, Fitzgerald took to this style and started performing her famed scat-singing solos. Most successfully so in collaboration with Dizzy Gillespie’s band.
She described it as “I just tried to do (with my voice) what I heard the horns in the band doing.”
Lost in Bebop until 1954, Ella reached a breaking point, she said:
“I had gotten to the point where I was only singing be-bop. I thought be-bop was ‘it’, and that all I had to do was go someplace and sing bop. But it finally got to the point where I had no place to sing. I realized then that there was more to music than bop. Norman Granz felt that I should do other things, so he produced Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book with me. It was a turning point in my life.”
Indeed it was, it was the starting point of a concept she would keep up for almost a decade.
The name of each album says it all: Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter (56), Rodgers & Hart (56), Duke Ellington (57), Irving Berlin (58), George and Ira Gershwin (59), Harold Arlen (61), Jerome Kern (63), and Johnny Mercer (64) Song Book.
In many ways, Ella’s versions made these songs. Most music journalists love to praise this body of work when they talk about the great American songbook and how it’s a gift to American culture.
One thing is certain, if you want to play jazz, you have to look into the songs Ella Fitzgerald performed as she pretty much sang them all!
Between 1950 and 1988, Ella Fitzgerald released 61 studio albums and 25 live albums. She really is The First Lady Of Song!
Ella Fitzgerald tunes | Related pages
Angel Eyes
| Am Am/G Am/F# Am/F | Am/E Am/Eb |
Try to think that love’s not around,
| Am Am/G Am/F# | Bm7 E7 |
but it’s uncomfortably near.
Baby Won’t You Please Come Home
| D7 | B7 | Em7 | A7 |
Baby won’t you please come home, ’cause your mama’s all alone.
| D7 | B7 | Em7 | A7 |
I have cried in vain, never no more to call your name.
Baby Won’t You Please Come Home chords.
Dream A Little Dream Of Me
| C Gbdim7 | Ab6 G |
Stars shining bright above you,
| C C/B C/Bb | A7 |
night breezes seem to whisper, “I love you”.
Dream A Little Dream Of Me chords.
Get Ready
| F5 | Bb | G5 | C |
And I’m bringing you a love that’s true so get ready, so get ready.
| F | Bb7omit3 | Gm | C |
I’m gonna try to make you love me too so get ready, so get ready, here I come.
My Funny Valentine
| Cm | Cmmaj7 | Cm7 | Cm6 |
My funny valentine, sweet comic valentine.
| Abmaj7 | Fm7 | Dm7b5 | G7b9 |
You make me smile with my heart.
Summertime
| Bbm7 F7b9/C | Db6 F7b9/C | Bbm7 F7b9/C | Db6 F7b9/C |
Summertime, and the living is easy.
| Ebm7 Gb | Ebm7 Ebm7/Db | F7b9/C Gb7 | F7 |
Fish are jumping, and the cotton is high.
Sunshine Of Your Love
| D blues scale riff | D blues scale riff |
It’s getting near dawn,
| D blues scale riff | D blues scale riff |
when lights close their tired eyes.
Ella Fitzgerald on the web
