“Ella Fitzgerald”
By: Keyannia Whitlow
I chose Ella Fitzgerald because I love jazz and she sang jazz.
Ella Fitzgerald was born in 1918 in Newport News, Virginia. In those days, music was very popular in parts of the nation. When Ella was just a young girl, her mother and Ella moved to Yonkers, New York. In the 1920s, Harlem, a neighborhood in New York, was important for African Americans. Ella’s mother encouraged her to take dancing and singing lessons so she could compete in many amateur contests.
When she was 16 years old, she went to an audition for a job with the Chick Webb Band. She got the job and in a few years she became the lead singer. In 1938 she had her first hit record. Girls started to imitate her unique voice. Ella was one of the first singers to popularize “scat” singing. She had dozens of hit records.
She changed the music we know forever as jazz. Ella Fitzgerald died in 1996.