In addition to her work with Webb, Fitzgerald performed and recorded with the Benny Goodman Orchestra. Later that year, Fitzgerald recorded her second hit, "I Found My Yellow Basket." 1 hit, 1938's "A-Tisket, A-Tasket," which she co-wrote. ![]() She soon met bandleader and drummer Chick Webb and eventually joined his group as a singer.įitzgerald recorded "Love and Kisses" with Webb in 1935 and found herself playing regularly at one of Harlem's hottest clubs, the Savoy. That unexpected performance at the Apollo helped set Fitzgerald's career in motion. Fitzgerald went on to win the contest's $25 first-place prize. Still harboring dreams of becoming an entertainer, she entered an amateur contest at Harlem's Apollo Theater.Īt the contest, she sang the Hoagy Carmichael tune "Judy" as well as "The Object of My Affection," wowing the audience. Fitzgerald was then sent to a special reform school but didn't stay there long.īy 1934, Fitzgerald was trying to make it on her own and living on the streets. Her first career aspiration was to become a dancer.Īfter her mother's death in 1932, Fitzgerald ended up moving in with an aunt. Struggling financially, the young Fitzgerald helped her family out by working as a messenger "running numbers" and acting as a lookout for a brothel. The family grew in 1923 with the arrival of Fitzgerald's half-sister Frances. They lived there with her mother's boyfriend, Joseph Da Silva. With her mother, Fitzgerald moved to Yonkers, New York. Fitzgerald experienced a troubled childhood that began with her parents separating shortly after her birth. Early Yearsīorn on April 25, 1917, in Newport News, Virginia, singer Fitzgerald was the product of a common-law marriage between William Fitzgerald and Temperance "Tempie" Williams Fitzgerald. Her multi-volume "songbooks" on Verve Records are among America's recording treasures. ![]() Due in no small part to her vocal quality, with lucid intonation and a broad range, the singer would go on to win 13 Grammys in total and sell more than 40 million albums. In 1958, Fitzgerald made history as the first African American woman to win a Grammy Award. Discovered in an amateur contest, she went on to become the top female jazz singer for decades. Ella Fitzgerald turned to singing after a troubled childhood and debuted at the Apollo Theater in 1934.
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