Fitzgerald, who died in 1996, had her first hits with Chick Webb's big band before going out on her own in the 1940s. Critic Kevin Whitehead says Fitzgerald at her best is as good as it gets. This is ...

The 1940s were a tumultuous time and, by extension, an exciting time in America. World War II loomed and eventually took hold of the globe. Soldiers fought the Nazis abroad, eventually victorious. But ...

She was the greatest female singer in the history of jazz, and for sheer technical acuity she probably never will be matched, let alone topped. So any effort to cast a spotlight on the work of Ella ...

Ella Fitzgerald's scat singing — a form of spontaneous musical invention — was as dazzling as her simplest melodic statements. She started as a band singer, then spent the next two decades as a ...

I was introduced to Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996) through my mother’s album “Ella Sings the Cole Porter Songbook.” That album, the first of Fitzgerald’s eight classic Verve songbooks, became the ...

Van Alexander, the 1940s bandleader who co-wrote “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” with Ella Fitzgerald and went on to score dozens of films and TV shows in the 1950s and ’60s, died of heart failure Sunday ...

There’s no more joyous sound in this world than the vocal flights of Ella Fitzgerald – except, of course, for Fitzgerald singing Christmas. So imagine the challenge of taking on one of the pre-eminent ...

In the 1940s and ’50s, jazz stars Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald combined their exceptional talents for duo recordings. Released by the Decca and Verve labels, the collaborations include the ...

The jazz singer's 1960s concert career is amply documented on record, with live albums from Berlin, LA, Tokyo and the French Riviera. Now comes a newly released concert of Fitzgerald in Oakland, Calif ...

Boundary-breaking swing drummer Viola Smith, who worked with legendary jazz entertainers Ella Fitzgerald and Chick Webb, has died at the age of 107. Smith reportedly passed away Wednesday in Costa ...

This is FRESH AIR. Jazz and pop singer Ella Fitzgerald was born 100 years ago today. She started out winning Harlem talent shows as a teenager. She had her first hits with Chick Webb's big band before ...