Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996), "The First Lady of Song" with a Sixty-Year Career (1934-1994) - Born in Newport News, Virginia

[The Hersch]

While I love Ella Fitzgerald, and have mentioned elsewhere the pleasure I had in hearing her in concert long ago at Symphony Hall in Boston, she has never been one of my favorite singers, and I've never been a devotee of her cult. I think my biggest problem with Ella's singing is that in so many recordings, she seems to sing songs as if the words had no particular meaning. Not always, but often. There's no denying her mostly flawless vocal technique. My favorite album of hers is "Pure Ella", which you can find on YouTube. It's just Ella's voice and Ellis Larkins's piano; it was released in 1994, but was a combination of two LPs from the early 50s. Here is Ella from that album singing "I've Got a Crush on You."