Today in history: Ella Fitzgerald Debuts

[Callalily]

One of my favorite singers, and certainly a person to admire.



Ella Fitzgerald Debuts

November 21, 1934

With a split-second decision 87 years ago today, teenage Ella Fitzgerald altered the course of her life — and music history. By age 17, Fitzgerald was orphaned and homeless, having recently fled a grim reform school in New York’s Hudson Valley. Back in her adopted hometown, Harlem, she tap-danced for change on street corners, harboring dreams of dancing professionally. When Harlem’s iconic, 1,500-seat Apollo Theatre debuted its Amateur Night, Fitzgerald attended with two friends, and each put their name in the hat of possible performers. But when Fitzgerald’s name was called, she was on deck to follow an impressive tap-dancing duo, and so for her first stage appearance, she resorted to a back-up plan: singing.

Before a raucous crowd, the future “First Lady of Song” began warbling one of her mother’s favorite tunes, the Boswell Sisters’ rendition of “Judy.” Host Ralph Cooper encouraged her to try again. Fitzgerald then astonished the audience with her three-octave range, claiming the $25 prize after singing another Boswell Sisters tune as an encore. Within months, the state paroled her to the care of Chick Webb’s band, and she was on her way to selling 40 million jazz albums. In 1958, the “Queen of Jazz” became the first Black artist to win a Grammy — ultimately collecting 12 more.

[Zorro]

1. She had a sweet, remarkable voice

To me she always sounded much younger than her age.