Taking the full measure of Ella Fitzgerald
Famous but underrated, widely imitated but never equaled, Ella Fitzgerald has proved a surprisingly elusive figure in American culture.
Even though practically everyone admires the brilliance of Fitzgerald’s technique and the sensuality of her instrument, she has routinely been described as “girlish,” “innocent,” “light” and other terms of subtle condescension.
With the ongoing celebration of Fitzgerald’s centennial this year — including a recent tribute concert at the Hollywood Bowl — it’s worth noting that for all the singer’s celebrity as “The First Lady of Song,” we have yet to take the full measure of her achievements.
Consider that Fitzgerald, who was virtually selftaught, mastered swing, bebop, standards, blues, ballads, Broadway, Hollywood and practically every other facet of American popular music of her day.
The openness, warmth and simplicity of Fitzgerald’s singing felt like a balm in troubled times. Still, unless you already know that’s Fitzgerald singing, you might not connect her straightforward early work with the brilliant vocal flights to come. It wasn’t until Fitzgerald toured with Dizzy Gillespie’s bebop big band in the 1940s that she developed the high-flying technical wizardry for which she eventually would be best known.
Fitzgerald, of course, wasn’t the first to apply instrumental techniques to jazz vocals, Louis Armstrong essentially having launched the idiom in the 1920s with his recording of “Heebie Jeebies,” and Cab Calloway taking it to new heights in the 1930s and after.
But no one before or since matched the velocity, pitch accuracy, vocal range or sheer creativity of Fitzgerald’s scat singing, which ultimately transcended what any horn could do. Listen to her vocal invention on compositions such as “Flying Home” (1945) and “Oh, Lady Be Good” (1947), and you’re hearing technical feats that astonish the ear to this day.