WICN Artist of the Month, April 2026: Ella Fitzgerald

This National Jazz Month, we also celebrate a very special birthday, that of the Queen of Jazz. Ella Jane Fitzgerald, also known as the First Lady of Song, was born in Newport News, Virginia, on April 25, 1917. Known for her pure tone, wide vocal range, perfect timing and improvisational scat singing, Ella performed all over the world for nearly 60 years and worked with some of jazz’s most acclaimed artists. Many would say, though, that those artists had the privilege of working with her.

Ella did not have an easy upbringing, but she claimed it was those memories that brought emotion to her performances. Knowing what it was like to struggle made her more grateful for her success. Her mother, Temperance (Tempie), and father, William, divorced when Ella was a baby, and she and her mother moved to Yonkers, New York, where she was raised. In 1932, her mother died of injuries suffered during a car accident, so Ella moved in with Tempie’s boyfriend Joe, who died of a heart attack shortly after. Depressed and unmotivated, Ella started skipping school and got in trouble with the police, resulting in her being sent to a reform school where she was physically beaten by caretakers. She eventually escaped from the reformatory, but was 15 years old, alone, and surviving from singing in the streets of Harlem during the Great Depression.

In 1934, Ella was selected to compete in Amateur Night at the Apollo in Harlem, a venue she frequented with her friends from Yonkers. She went to the theater planning to dance, but decided to sing instead after watching the Edwards Sisters dance, fearing that her act could not compare. Her rendition of Hoagy Carmichael’s “Judy” and encore performance of the Boswell Sisters’ “The Object of My Affections” amazed not only the audience, but Benny Carter, the band’s saxophonist. Carter helped launch Ella’s career and they formed a lifelong friendship.

In 1935, Ella was introduced to drummer and bandleader Chick Webb, who was initially reluctant to sign her because of her disheveled appearance. Eventually, Webb was convinced and allowed Ella to test with his band, after which she was asked to join his orchestra. Webb passed away in 1939, and his band was renamed “Ella Fitzgerald and Her Famous Orchestra,” as she assumed the role of bandleader. In July 1942 the band played their last concert at Earl Theatre in Philadelphia following increasing dissent and money concerns.

During her seven years with the orchestra, Ella recorded almost 150 songs. Her first recordings were released in 1936 and met with moderate success. It wasn’t until 1938 that she rose to stardom when her recording of the nursery rhyme, “A-Tisket, A-Tasket,” launched her into the spotlight at the age of 21. The album sold 1 million copies, hit number one, and stayed on the pop charts for 17 weeks.

In addition, Ella worked with The Three Keys, Dizzy Gillespie’s big band, the Benny Goodman Orchestra, and had her own project, known as Ella Fitzgerald and Her Savoy Eight. Her work during this time reflected the shift in taste from swing big bands to a heavier focus on bebop. In many of her songs, she used her voice to take on the role of another horn in the band and experimented with scat singing. Her scat recordings of “Flying Home,” arranged by Vic Schoen, (1945) and “Oh, Lady Be Good!” (1947) became some of the most well-known jazz songs and solidified her reputation as one of jazz’s best vocalists.

While on tour with Dizzy Gillespie’s band in 1946, Ella fell in love with and married Ray Brown, one of jazz’s most renowned bassists. Ray’s manager, Norman Granz, a music impresario who launched the groundbreaking Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts, which brought groups of jazz stars together on one stage for large jam-session concerts, convinced Ella to leave Decca Records (her former label), sign with him, and join the Philharmonic tour.

In 1956, Granz founded Verve Records and made Ella the centerpiece of the label. Verve is now owned by Universal Music Group and is home to the world’s largest jazz catalogue.

Over the next three decades, Ella continued performing non-stop, explored film and television, did a series of celebrated duet albums with trumpeter-vocalist Louis Armstrong, and collaborated with various artists to release eight “Song Book” sets highlighting the Great American Songbook.

Despite surgeries, health problems, and protests from friends and families, Ella kept singing until 1991, when she performed her final concert at Carnegie Hall. She died in her home from a stroke on June 15, 1996, at age 79.

Aside from the arts, Ella cared deeply about social causes. Racial discrimination plagued the 1950s and as a Black woman, Ella faced setbacks as she carried on an active touring schedule. She was once barred from boarding a flight to one of her concerts because of racial discrimination. Along with Granz, she was a strong advocate for civil rights and equal treatment for artists, whether they were male or female, Black or white. Ella was awarded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Equal Justice Award and the American Black Achievement Award. In 1993, she established the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation which focused on grants for academic opportunities for children, music education, basic care needs for the less fortunate, and medical research revolving around diabetes, heart disease, and vision impairment. She also supported several nonprofit organizations like the American Heart Association, City of Hope, and the Retina Foundation, and made frequent donations to youth welfare organizations.

By the end of her career, Ella had recorded over 200 albums, won 13 Grammy awards, and sold over 40 million albums. In 1967, she received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 1987, United States President Ronald Reagan awarded Ella the National Medal of Arts. France presented her with their Commander of Arts and Letters award and Yale, Dartmouth, Harvard, and several other universities gave Ella honorary degrees. Other awards and honors Ella received were the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Medal of Honor Award, the National Medal of Art, and the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement.