Jazz Concert Report: A Research Paper on Ella Fitzgerald

A Research Paper on Ella Fitzgerald
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A Research Paper on Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald is a well-known music icon in the world of Jazz who gave an interpretation to most of the Great American Songbooks. She was born on April 25, 2017 in Newport News, Virginia, USA and passed away on June 15, 1996.
She had a troubled childhood which inspired to start a music career and her first public performance was in 1934 at the Apollo Theater. Her discovery happened when she joined an amateur concert and that is where it all started. In the next decades that came, she was the top female jazz performer. She made history when she became the first African-American to be awarded with a Grammy in 1958. This was not her first Grammy because she won 12 more and sold 40 million albums in total throughout her career (Biography, 2017).
Ella Fitzgerald started to sing with the Webb orchestra at Savoy Ballroom and recorded a number of hits with them. When Chick Webb died in 1936, Ella was appointed as the new leader of the band. Furthermore, the band’s name was changed to “Ella Fitzgerald and her Famous Band.”
When she was young, her dream was originally to become a dancer, but she already loved listening to the music of Louis Armstrong, The Boswell Sisters and Bing Cosby. One of her inspirations was Connee Boswell who was the lead singer of the Boswell Sisters (Just the Swing, 2004).
Ella Fitzgerald was diagnosed with diabetes and the complications were inevitable so she needed to have one toe removed and then her leg got amputated after that (The Telegraph, 2017). During this time, she stayed for 4 months in her Beverly Hills home and this is where she found out that her 2nd leg had to be amputated. In addition to this, she spent her remaining years in her home. A lot of her supporters sent messages to sympathize with her and even from those in the music industry. Those who visited her said that her memories were vague, but she was still lucid and articulate. When she passed away at the age of 79, none of the obituaries had something negative to say about her.
She impacted the society by becoming a symbol of an independent woman. Her hair was short, wore a skit or short dress, had makeup, loved to smoke, and picke...