Ella Fitzgerald: The Sound of Joy
This year is the centenary of Ella Fitzgerald’s birth—April 25, 1917 in Newport News, Virginia—and there are musical celebrations planned across the country and around the world. And with good reason. She is a singer’s singer, a voice like crystal with a purity of range and intonation and a peerless sense of pitch. She remains one of the best scat singers, ever. Using her voice like an instrument, she is simply a tremendous jazz improviser. She moved effortlessly from swing to bop, and no one could sing a ballad like Ella. In fact, she could sing anything and because of her enormous artistry she elevated everything she sang. To end Women’s History Month on a high note and kick off Jazz Appreciation Month, we celebrate the first vocalist named a NEA Jazz Master, Ella Fitzgerald with her friend and executive director of the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, Fran Morris Rosman.
Fran Morris Rosman: Ella was, on her birth certificate, born in Newport News, Virginia, where her parents lived at that time. But because of the segregation in the South, she was actually born over the state line in North Carolina. Her family wasn’t allowed in any of the white hospitals, so she was delivered by a black midwife in North Carolina.
Jo Reed: What do we know about her family? Were they musical? Did they love music?
Fran Morris Rosman: <laughs> Not much, really. Her dad-- I don’t think she ever even met him. He took off. Her mom liked to sing. Ella used to say that her mom had a beautiful, beautiful voice and sang quite often.
Jo Reed: And when did the family leave Virginia and move to New York?
Fran Morris Rosman: Ella was pretty young. Her mom started dating a Portuguese immigrant. I can’t remember his name. And that was not really allowed in Virginia. So they had to move North, and they moved to Yonkers.
Jo Reed: I know things were kind of rough for her and the family had to struggle.
Fran Morris Rosman: Oh, yes. It was tough. Her mother was killed. Her stepfather really couldn’t take care of her or her little half-sister Frances. So they moved in with an aunt in Harlem, who probably wasn’t the best person to raise children. So Ella was left alone a lot.
- Reed: Ella’s mother died in 1932—for two years, the young girl was essentially uncared for—but she loved to sing and she loved to dance…and then in 1934, the world changed for the 16 year-old--She competed on amateur night at famed Apollo Theater.
Fran Morris Rosman: Yeah. You’d put in your name and that you wanted to perform and you wanted to sing, you wanted to dance. And if you were lucky they picked your name. And two of Ella’s girlfriends made a bet with her. “We dare you to put your name in. We just dare you.” And so she put her name in and she got chosen. So she was going to dance, because she was a great dancer. But the act that went on just before was a professional dance act, so she didn’t want to go on. She was skinny, gawky, young teen. And the stage manager just looked at her and said, “You got to get out there. Is there anything else you can do?” And her famous response was, “Well, I can sing a little.” She went out; she sang. She won.
Jo Reed: And suddenly she had the beginning of a career—particularly when bandleader and drummer Chick Webb came into the picture. He hired Ella—which was a stroke of luck for both of them… Chick Webb’s band included Johnny Hodges, Benny Carter, Louis Jordan and it was the house band for famed Savoy Ballroom- Morris Rosman: the Savoy Ballroom opened on Lenox Avenue. The Apollo Theater was already there and in business, but that was the theater. People wanted to dance to this new swing music. And the Savoy ballroom was so big they could have two bands, one at each end. So the music never had to stop. And it was open to everybody. It wasn’t just white or just black. It was open to everybody. And that’s-- that kind of changed things for Ella. Big. Big time.
Jo Reed: Ella became the star attraction and recorded her first and biggest hit “A-Tisket A Tasket” which she wrote for Chick Webb
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Fran Morris Rosman: Chick had health problems. He was not a well man. And he was in the hospital and Ella wanted to do something to cheer him up. So she decided to take this little nursery rhyme and make it into a swingy jazz kind of song. So she worked it out in her head and she sang it. But then she realized she didn’t know how to write music. So she asked this skinny kid named Al Feldman who used to hang around with the band when he could get away from his mom’s classical piano. He’d hang up in Harlem and Ella said, “Al, can you help me write this down?” So yeah. On the original Robin sheet music is “A-Tisket, A-Tasket,” by Ella Fitzgerald and Al Feldman. And it went number one. Every band leader in the country recorded it. In Ella’s archives, we have, we must have 40 versions of the sheet music with 40 different band leaders on the cover. And not one with Ella’s picture on the cover. Because Robin’s music didn’t put black women on the cover in those days.
Jo Reed: Tragically, Chick Webb died in 1939Fran Morris Rosman: Ella’s very young, without much experience. But the band loved her. She loved the guys in the band. And they decided to stay together as Ella Fitzgerald and her famous orchestra.And they did very well. Made a huge change in her life.
Jo Reed: During her time with Webb’s band, Ella had recorded with a number of other musicians, So by the time she began her solo career in the mid-1940s, she was well-known, well-liked, and deeply admired as one of the best singers around. She made a smooth transition from swing to bop when she went on tour with Dizzy Gillespie and his band and started incorporating scat singing into her performances—becoming one of the first and one of the great scat singers…
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And then Ella Fitzgerald began to work with Norman Grantz --- a partnership between that has been called “one of the most important in the history of jazz.”
Fran Morris Rosman: Norman Granz. Oh, my God. I love Norman Granz.
Jo Reed: Now he was, what, an impresario, a producer?
Fran Morris Rosman: What he was was a nice Jewish boy from Boyle Heights, California, the suburb of Los Angeles. Very tall. Very, very, very smart. And he wouldn’t take bad things from anybody. He loved jazz, but he also loved democracy and freedom. And he used music to kind of open up the world for these jazz musicians.
Jo Reed: I was going to ask you about that, because Ella toured a lot… At a time when touring, throughout the United States, was very, very challenging and difficult for African-Americans.
Fran Morris Rosman: It was very tough. I don’t know what it was, her touring was like before Norman. But Norman had come across a lot of hate in his young life and he wasn’t about to let it happen to his people. So he would send a road manager ahead to the next town to register at the hotel and get the keys. And the road manager, who was Pete Cavello, sweet, sweet man, was white. So he’d get the keys and then the next day the band would walk in. And they were every color you could be. And the hotel would go, “I’m sorry. We’re full.” Pete would smile and hold up the keys.
Jo Reed: Granz also started Verve Records.
Fran Morris Rosman: He started it for Ella. And then he told her, “Ella,” You’re going to do a ‘Cole Porter Songbook’.” And Norman, thank heavens, was a stickler for technology and perfection. So they recorded the Cole Porter Songbook. That was the very first one
Jo Reed: Seven more would follow--Ella interpreted the songs of Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen, Duke Ellington, the Gershwins, Johnny Mercer, Rodgers and Hart and Jerome Kern… The songbooks were more than a success—they became a touchstone of American musical history and a perfect expression for Ella
(music up)Jo Reed: it was a monumental task—but Ella was a work horse—also touring 40-45 weeks a year….and increasingly involved with humanitarian work……
- Morris Rosman: Like most performers, Ella would often be asked to do a benefit. Where, you know, “The American Heart Association wants to honor you,” and, “Juvenile Diabetes wants to honor you,” and, “Alpha Kappa Alpha wants to honor you.” She never said, “No.” She did more benefit concerts than anybody else that I know of. And she’d help them raise tons of money. <laughs> And later on, she had a little tiny office in Beverly Hills. She lived in Beverly Hills and she had a little tiny office with two wonderful women there. And Ella would sit in the morning, read the paper. Read about something sad. Call up the office and go, “Mary Jane, Margaret, write a check to these people.” My husband, who was her attorney for many years, finally said, “Would you please,” you know, “Please find out if they’re legitimate, if they’re real.” And so he helped put together the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation. It officially began in 1993.
Jo Reed: And what were the goals of the foundation, Fran?
Fran Morris Rosman: We’re a small foundation. We do not accept unsolicited grant requests. We are simply carrying on Ella’s charitable legacy.
Jo Reed: And she loved music and she loved reading. And the foundation is really instrumental in making both available, especially to kids.
- Morris Rosman: That’s what we do. We spend a lot of time working with organizations that deal with very at-risk and sadly disadvantaged children, giving them books, giving their parents books. Ella had books everywhere in her house, everywhere. They were piled on the coffee tables, piled on the, by the fireplace. On all the shelves. One day just after her passing, I went in the kitchen to look for a glass to get a drink of water. I opened a kitchen cupboard. Books fell out. Went in the dining room to, you know, inventory the China. Books fell out. <laughs> She loved books. Music education. One thing we do is scholarships. Both in community college and universities. In her name. We have Ella Fitzgerald Memorial Scholars up and down California and in Virginia, where she was born.
Jo Reed: She also understood that kids needed to eat, to have access to healthcare, in order to realize any dreams they might have.
Fran Morris Rosman: I think one of the first grants we ever made was to, it was then called Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. Ella died of complications of diabetes. And we’ve been working in that field ever since. Both in research and care, especially for the at-risk population. We do a lot of work with the healthcare clinics in the Los Angeles area that provide for your low-cost service to families in need. Medical and dental. Ella had to have a really great smile. So we work with USC’s mobile dental clinic to provide dental care for hundreds of children.
Jo Reed: Fran, how do you think she would like to be remembered?
Fran Morris Rosman: As a wonderful singer and as a humanitarian. Ella wanted her charitable legacy to live on. I think she was probably pretty certain her musical legacy would live on. But she assigned the royalties from her singing to her charitable foundation. So when you go out and buy a CD, you’re helping other people. Just the way Ella wanted.
(music up) Fran Morris Rosman is the executive director at the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation. Celebrations of Ella Fitzgerald’s Centenary will take place throughout the country—including the April 3 concert honoring our 2017 NEA Jazz Masters—Join the party! The festivities start at 7:30 and it’s streaming live at arts.gov. I’m Josephine Reed, thanks for listening. Music Credits: “How High Is the Moon,” composed by Morgan Lewis, from the album, Ella in Berlin. “A-Tisket-A-Tasket,” composed by Ella Fitzgerald and Al Feldman from the album, Priceless Jazz Collection: Voices of the Century. “What is There to Say,” composer Vernon Duke and lyricist Yip Harburg, from the album, Pure Ella. “Just One of Those Things” composed by Cole Porter, from The Cole Porter Songbook “Misty,” composed by Erroll Garner, from the album, Ella in Berlin All songs performed by Ella Fitzgerald.
