Chick Webb & His Orchestra feat. Ella Fitzgerald
Chick Webb & His Orchestra feat. Ella Fitzgerald
Genres: swing, jazz, 1930s, harlem
Mezz Mezzrow And His Swing Band
About Chick Webb & His Orchestra feat. Ella Fitzgerald
In the 1930’s Chick Webb & His Orchestra were the mainstay at the Savoy, a popular and prominent Harlem night club at the time. He was involved in numerous “Battle of the Bands” contests, which he won handily by means of the dancers’ votes. As a result he came to be known as the “King of Swing.” Ella Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996) was an American jazz vocalist with a vocal range spanning three octaves (D♭3 to D♭6). Often referred to as the “First Lady of Song” and the “Queen of Jazz,” she was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing and intonation, and a “horn-like” improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing. Fitzgerald was a notable interpreter of the Great American Songbook. Over the course of her 60-year recording career, she sold 40 million copies of her 70-plus albums, won 14 Grammy Awards and received during her career many other major awards and honors. Fitzgerald was born in Newport News, Virginia, the daughter of William Fitzgerald and Temperance “Tempie” Fitzgerald. Her parents were unmarried, and they had separated within a year of her birth. She made her singing debut at 17 on November 21, 1934, at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. She pulled in a weekly audience at the Apollo and won the opportunity to compete in one of the earliest of its famous “Amateur Nights”. She had originally intended to go on stage and dance, but, intimidated by the Edwards Sisters, a local dance duo, she opted to sing instead in the style of Connee Boswell. She sang Boswell’s “Judy” and “The Object of My Affection,” a song recorded by the Boswell Sisters, and won the first prize of US$25.00. In January 1935, Fitzgerald won the chance to perform for a week with the Tiny Bradshaw band at the Harlem Opera House. She met drummer and band leader Chick Webb there. Webb had already hired singer Charlie Linton to work with the band and was, The New York Times later wrote, “reluctant to sign her…because she was gawky and unkempt, a diamond in the rough.” Webb offered her the opportunity to test with his band when they played a dance at Yale University. She began singing regularly with Webb’s Orchestra through 1935 at Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom. Fitzgerald recorded several hit songs with them, including “Love and Kisses” and “(If You Can’t Sing It) You’ll Have to Swing It (Mr. Paganini)”. But it was her 1938 version of the nursery rhyme, “A-Tisket, A-Tasket”, a song she co-wrote, that brought her wide public acclaim. Chick Webb died on June 16, 1939, and his band was renamed Ella and her Famous Orchestra with Ella taking on the role of nominal band leader. Fitzgerald recorded nearly 150 songs with the orchestra before it broke up in 1942, “the majority of them novelties and disposable pop fluff”. In 1942, Fitzgerald left the band to begin a solo career.
Taken from Last.fm
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