Black History Month---- 1st Lady Of Jazz

I really enjoyed this last year and I'll be showcasing it again. Highlighting the accomplishments of past African-American men and woman who paved the way and open doors for young people like me today. My mother came up in a era of segregation so it's not as though it happened that long ago. In school it was a huge rite of passage to be educated on people like Martin Luther King, Harriet Tubman, Fredrick Douglas, Mae Jemison, and countless others.


I remember in 12th grade taking up African-American studies an elective thats very absent from classrooms today. So in continuing on with tradition I present to you...

Ella Fitzgerald

A performance at the Apollo Theater’s famed Amateur Night in 1934 set Fitzgerald’s career in motion. Over the next seven decades, she worked with some of the most important artists in the music industry including Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie and Frank Sinatra.

She was dubbed “The First Lady of Jazz” for her mainstream popularity and unparalleled vocal talents—even though her less–than–svelte appearance and upbeat singing style was in contrast to the sultry and bluesy female singers of her day. Her unique ability for mimicking instrumental sounds helped popularize the vocal improvisation of “scatting,” which became her signature technique.

Ella recorded over 200 albums and around 2,000 songs in her lifetime, singing the works of some of the most popular composers such as Cole Porter, Gershwin and Irving Berlin.

Ella Fitzgerald died in 1996 at the age of 79, and is remembered as one of the most influential jazz artists of the 20th century.