You know. The need to do. To do they do. Did it. Ready do it said it did but a photo. With a big you could do. Thank you. I. 2 now. When i would hear her voice it was just something so happy thats the thing she made me feel happy she made me feel say. To you 1938 Ella Fitzgerald collaborated to make a jazz piece out of the childrens rhyming game to skid fantastic. She was a 1st hit with the chick where marcus from and marked the start of an unparalleled career spanning 5 decades. And that. Bad. Luck that then leads to did. You know was. No other voice was more influential in 20th century jazz the color fitzgeralds the queen of jan and the 1st lady of john. The 1st lady of song loves you see she had a very long career its really 3 generations that are now the 3rd generation is not speaking so they grew up with their grandparents listening on the records were in the house they grew up with their parents listening and. What your mother and your father play around you or sing around you is so deeply rooted in me. Leaving and. Yet. You. Come out here bob. Its clarity comes from her internation she hits the pitch right in the bulls eye and thats why we can understand the word so clearly we dont hear all these overtones model that muddying up the pitch so we hear this clarity and that clarity of pitch is experienced as a kind of purity of tone which reminds us of an essential aspect of the human voice and see a lot of times the Rhythm Sections make the singers sound better the singers to float on top of whatever is happening musically. And sometimes its the interpretation of vocalists has that just you know obviously sells the song but as far as this time feel we always reluctant rely on the Rhythm Section so that was one of the few singers. Contributed to the time feel to the overall groove of the music. Initially ella dreamed of becoming a dancer instead because of a last minute decision she became a singer. Your Humble Beginnings in yonkers new york ella just 15 when our mother died fled her abusive stepfather dropped out of school and lived on the streets of foreign. Intervention 34 at the age of 17 ella got her big break at the legendary apollo amateurs night talent show. Rather than dance she decided to sing big band leader and drummer chick webb became a protective figure as he fostered her exceptional talent. When she started out with chick webb the chick singer up front with the band was supposed to be. Beautiful dress and the guy sit in the chair sing her a little chorus in the middle of the song get up and sit down well from the very beginning she didnt sit down she. Got up and waved her arms and interacted with the musicians as if she were the conductor and told chick that she wanted to learn how to jam with the boys in the band. And shes lending him to speak like one of the you know instruments in the band she might jump in sing with the trombones or play in a with the sax a play and with the trumpets you know she just had that ability everything by ear. She thought he brought me in he brought me out he brought me to my audiences and without him what would have happened to me. When our mentor died in 1939 young ella took over his band and continued to lead it successfully for several more years. An astonishing accomplishment for a young woman called them at a time when jens was still generally considered disreputable. Basic in the 30s you would never take your mother to a jazz concert you would never take your wife you might take your mistress you know is that kind of thing but she would never risk but when respectable people went to see jazz at the prince of wales like jazz but he thought he was salami and that was sort of the attitude people enjoyed it but it was very much underground and even in the black community it was looked down upon in the beginning the black middle class and the black religious class looked down on jazz that had to do with gambling it had to do with. Low class low sexual morals and things like that but but you know people like ellington and really gave it a kind of respectability i mean after al i really you could take your mother to here to a jazz concert. Pete. How did you. Do it. 7 was. 7 in the mid 1940 s. He met and married bassist ray brown and was forging a new style of Music Together with Charlie Parker art tatum roiled ridge and Dizzy Gillespie a style called bebop. Shared a deep musical bond with dizzy and would become an important teacher. C me she stood next to Dizzy Gillespie in all of these create great bebop players the people that invented be about and she could hold her own you know so the people that end up scattering. Good next to her would be people like Dizzy Gillespie and wright eldridge and people that actually played horns if you learned bebop heads all the Charlie Parker tillmans and all those bebop lex you know never theres never room for sure rigid ways you know. I tell them like l. Is a great one because she used to great syllables it was just very natural for her when she and provide us you know and i think shes the greatest scat singer even today to me shes the greatest guessing. Did you really really. Show. The movie did. You. Really think it. Was because you know you didnt need. To know numbers so she invented a language you know that is actually taught you know or know you go blot out be barbara do we you do do you know and you know maybe that might work not work for you you know but people do it anyway but she did it because that worked for her that was how she could get to where she needed to get to me. 6 about that so when you get to be able. To do both i know that she could sketch she could do chorus after chorus after chorus after chorus with. Complete ease i know when i was doing her the tribute album to her my dear ella. I decided one day. That i was going to do air mail special but it really did it it let it be a little a little italy so and i wanted to do her scat do it but do not get into breeding leading you need a little late evening we really need it and i have. Only julie i spent a day trying to get her revved up. To really be able to pull this off and i couldnt do it because it was just not natural for me so i delayed that wind a bit i was like well thats a good idea that im going to be good you want to go out and i had the benefit of that that that that that the thats. In the 2nd half of the 940 s. She started working with norman grounds already you know Legendary Music manager and the founder of the Concert Series called jazz at the philharmonic. All i would just say i need someone to speak for me and ill do the song and norma on the. Curb Management Contract and 54. Contract at the end of 55. 00 and started for records on my part of it is a have a vision terms of her tolerance work ethic the integrity of her work the genius of her. Entire approach to signing jav. To do it. Was. The. Only. Eat. To live became a fixture of jazz at the. Back with the touring band that brought together the biggest names in the genre in the mid 1950 s. She accompanied the show around the world including to the Southern United States where the performers faced intense discrimination her manager norman grants forcefully opposed racial segregation. Asked mason while being on the road he certainly and countersigned work and was said no he didnt encounter and he purposely set out to confront and every year i come here with jazz a bit of every year i think the thing this is the greatest thing in jazz most elephants i remember hearing norman grants constantly introducing his one and only as mrs gerald the great Ella Fitzgerald rarely does he ever just use her 1st name because he was so clued in to the racist climate in the united states. And 1st lady in a period when we werent supposed to call a black woman mrs is a very important racialized statement as well its a statement of stature of prestige. Of entitlement to dignity. Ready but the 1st lady of jazz faced the same discrimination that all black jazz musicians suffered at the time in 1955 she and other band members were arrested on a trumped up charge after a concert in houston texas. Ringback for years earlier on a stopover in honolulu on route to Sydney Australia she was forced off the plane to allow like passengers on board. Fitzgerald had to wait 3 days for another connecting flight norman grants subsequently sued pan am which lost and was forced to pay damages. The case made headlines just like another incident in 1900 to find. Marilyn monroe stepped in when her favorite nightclub the mocambo in los angeles refused to let fitzgerald play due to the color band. When rowe contacted the manager and promised shed sit in the front row for a week if he let fitzgerald perform. Later Ella Fitzgerald said of monroe she was an unusual woman and ahead of her time she just did not. Deliver his child and Louis Armstrong only collaborator done 2 albums today those are world famous. It said the pair cracked so many jokes during the recording session that they often had to stop working because they were laughing so hard. To run this time norman grants persuaded elektra begin a series of recordings exploring the Great American songbook she was skeptical afraid of losing her loyal jazz audience my sense is that it was a surprise in some level because he had tried the idea of a song work out earlier with Oscar Peterson for example and that didnt really work he just had the experience of watching Ella Fitzgerald with the jazz at the philharmonic his touring group that she could sing standards and reach an audience and he banked on that. As a premise to do this experiment she tried the spec to reel in front of an audience she told them she needed to try it out before she would agree to do this and after she did a concert primarily with standards i think primarily with cole porter said we can go ahead i saw their faces itll be fine. Be. There are a lot of the most classic songs that these riders row but also playings. And norman grabs sifted through and just which of these do you want to set in for example that great balance every time we say goodbye thats an example for songs became important because shes sighing and that they were on the song. The cool porter song book recorded in 1956 was the 1st of her famous songbook series. The Duke Ellington songbook from the following year was most important to her personally. Ringback want also want to. But. You know. One. There are millions are great examples of al as a ballad singer and to me this is one of them she really really put you know her heart and soul into Something Like this you can tell that shes really feeling it. Would. There be. No. And especially in the song as i say sometimes its done people to swing it or they you know do it its for reverie you know they just do it flip and do nothing till you hear from me and but. That its really a love song. And the message is. No matter what you hear or who you hear it from i will always love you. And she brings that out better i think than almost almost any other singer its a very unique and special performance and. Then my mom. Was. And thats an area of her canon as it were that really doesnt get enough attention people always talk about what a great scat singer she was what a great swinger she was what a great band singer she was what a great jazz singer she wasnt all of that is entirely true but she was a wonderful balance as well. She was a gifted improvisers. At that than that but i know but that was the the lion because when you see that you know all she everybody is like sweet and that it is but not not at those times you know she was ready to take you back and you know that i mean she was monsters slightly edited out. That that was. That. And musicians were afraid of her. Instrumentalists i was that shes a musician instrumentalists yeah because shes going to come up there and shes going to go back and forth with you shes always got something to say you better have something to say or shell run you off the stage. Like that jazz was a means of reaching people and a song the best musicians today it can be that as well but its sort of you know got the stigma attached to it that compared to say rock and roll music jazz is much more intellectual whereas thats not what its supposed to be at all jazz is a means of communication jazz is primarily a means of making people dance and primarily a means of making people smile its not supposed to be this and similar thing and ella was the greatest of that that. Was effective. If. You think if were going i dont i would. Fly. For a while they could tune their instruments say allah do and i but even more importantly they were spotted her musicianship when a lot of times musicians caught a whole sangers as as as riot all the the extra model s. Are still predominant with with with. The she was as good or better than the run of the mill or. Always on the road most of the year singing was all she wanted to do it was her life. The stages of the world in an audience were all she needed. People clamored to hear her voice and she never disappointed. On her travels or look fitzgerald commanded tremendous respect as a black singer. As the greatest ever great. Read on. The radio. At home in the us the struggle against racial segregation and oppression in the 1960 s. Was marked by escalating violence. Is the Civil Rights Movement gained momentum under the leadership of Martin Luther king jr the queen of jazz to see more confident and more resolute before. Plan. Oh yes but you know School Teachers just let the spirit flow into them then thats a person in there. That can have the spirit takes over it. Really has surely shes going to put a few quotes in from the american pop star. How sensual this ng you know. You know. There was silence. Oh maybe. I dont think they saw a black woman standing there on stage i think the music her music you just were in the presence of something very special you were in the presence you were you were in this other space i guess. I can stand up i can stun. Gun is not against the stuff none of that was yes i was like yes i was. Good. But. She didnt really understand the. The affection that people had towards her she did and she didnt i mean she would come out after a concert and say that was a that was a good audience you know nothing about her singing but before hand should be a rock. Very nervous she didnt want to talk to or one time we had a concert that was about 60 miles away when i was road managing her and not one word was spoken in the limo on the way up on the way back you could show her up. In the final years of Ella Fitzgerald in life jim blackman was one of the few people allowed into her inner circle. I always said that its a good thing ella was as universally acclaimed as she was because i dont think she could have taken any criticism because it would hurt her feelings. What is. It with you i. Didnt know. She she had this ability to make people want to protect her there was something about her that you didnt want any harm to come to or you didnt want her to have any bad situations in life because she. She felt deeply about things and extremely private you know. Extremely private so you know thats why and with think you know see let you see what it was that she needed to have and needed to be the sinus becomes. A defense for how little she wishes to share her what she thinks of it then days answering questions that are invasions of privacy. And war or someone might go to hell and cite paul could you do this or do that she says yester as she said there are a lot because she could not remember many peoples and i am just there. So then i would be like i asked Norman Potter to call and speak to norman. Norman browns represented Ella Fitzgerald for more than 40 years their professional and personal relationship was the most stable bond in fitzgeralds life. In the course of her long career she was showered with accolades like in paris in 1990. Bridgewater met her there after an awards ceremony. When i went to the u. S. Embassy i mean there were some in about 200 people there were at the embassy and there was a big spread and of course champagne and all kinds of drinks and all of these people were talking in this room and there was no Ella Fitzgerald little bit whereas. I went over and i sit down with her and i said miss fitzgerald and shes d. D. On the ellen saying. Why why are you here you know this reception is for you and she said to me something that i have never forgotten she said a few things on that occasion. And she said you know didi i hate these kinds of behaviors i hate perceptions i hate those meeting in crete and she said because people just come to those things so they can get together interested in me you see no one has missed me youre the 1st person to come and look for. The other thing that ella told me was she said i hope that you will take the time to be a mother to your children she said that that was her biggest regret is that she did not spend more time with ray jr and she said that was the thing that she wished she could have turned back time. Eleanor adopted ray brown jr while she was married to bassist ray brown. When the marriage ended in 1953 she raised their son alone though she. Remained a lifelong friend. Was. Her singing was in escape from anything that was not good in her life you know and you can tell that her escape was and her desire obviously was to find pure joy because thats what you hear in in her sound that was her that was her heir that was her water that was she loves she lived and loved to sing. In the late 19th sixtys and early seventys fitzgerald increasingly performed a contemporary soul or pop songs including ones with a political message. Offstage she took a political stance in her own way singing at president john f. Kennedys inauguration and supporting Robert Kennedys campaign in 1968. Following the assassination of dr Martin Luther king jr in april 19th 68 Ella Fitzgerald composed the song its up t