1913 Earl Bostic*
1917 Ella Jane Fitzgerald*
1923 Albert King*
1949 Watermelon Slim*
1950 Roxy Perry*
1950 The Original Snakeboy*
1965 Paul Lassey*
Chris Whiteley*
Fast Eddy Wilkinson
Happy Birthday
Albert King *25.4.1923
Albert King (* 25. April 1923 in Indianola, Mississippi; † 21. Dezember 1992 in Memphis, Tennessee) war ein US-amerikanischer Blues-Musiker und neben B. B. King und Freddie King einer der „drei Kings des elektrischen Blues“.
Leben
Albert King wurde als eines von 13 Kindern unter den Namen Albert Nelson in Indianola geboren. In derselben Region kam auch B. B. King 1925 zur Welt. Albert King brachte sich das Gitarrespielen auf selbstgebauten „Gitarren“ bei, indem er versuchte, Stücke von Lonnie Johnson und Blind Lemon Jefferson nachzuspielen.Erst 1942 begann er, auf einer richtigen Gitarre zu spielen. Diese hatte er als Linkshänder wie eine Rechtshänder-Gitarre bespannt, also mit der höchsten Saite oben. In dieser Zeit beeinflussten ihn vor allem Robert Nighthawk und Elmore James. Während der 1940er-Jahre versuchte er in St. Louis sein Glück als Musiker. Später spielte er in Gary, Indiana mit den bekannten Gitarristen Jimmy Reed und John Brim zusammen, allerdings als Schlagzeuger.
Erste Aufnahmen
Seine erste Aufnahme spielte er in Chicago beim Label Parrot ein. 1953 erschien seine erste Single mit den Stücken Bad Luck Blues und Be On Your Merry Way, die zwar einigermaßen erfolgreich war, ihm aber kaum Geld einbrachte, so dass er 1956 wieder in die lebhafte Blues-Szene nach St. Louis zurückkehrte. Sein Bekanntheitsgrad ließ sich damals bereits mit dem von Ike Turner oder Little Milton Campbell vergleichen. In St. Louis erstand er seine Gibson Flying V E-Gitarre, die er „Lucy“ nannte und die sein Markenzeichen wurde. 1961 fand seine Single mit Don’t Throw Your Love On Me So Strong amerikaweite Beachtung und erreichte Platz 14 der Rhythm and Blues Charts.
Musikalischer Durchbruch
Nach weiteren lokalen Erfolgen in Missouri und Chicago unter dem Coun-Tree Label zog er 1966 nach Memphis und spielte beim aufstrebenden Soul-Label Stax Records mehrere erfolgreiche Singles ein, darunter Laundromat Blues und 1967 Cover-Versionen von Crosscut Saw und Born Under a Bad Sign (Tommy McClennan). Als LP mit dem Titel Born Under a Bad Sign erschien 1967 eine Zusammenstellung dieser Singles, die auch As The Years Go Passing By und The Hunter enthielt. Sie wurde zu einer der einflussreichsten Aufnahmen der Bluesgeschichte, mit welcher der Blues erstmals auch das weiße Publikum erreichte und Albert King selbst aus den einfachen Tanzlokalen und Clubs in die größeren Rock'n'Roll Veranstaltungsorte brachte.
Am 1. Februar 1968 spielte er zusammen mit Janis Joplin, John Mayall und Jimi Hendrix beim Eröffnungskonzert für das Fillmore-West-Auditorium in San Francisco, das ihm später zur zweiten Heimat wurde. Die kurz darauf aufgenommenen Alben Live Wire – Blues Power (in Fillmore West) und Years Gone By wurden zu den bis dahin meistverkauften Bluesplatten.
Ab den 1970er-Jahren tourte er unter anderem mit dem St. Louis Symphony Orchestra als 87-köpfige Band durch die Welt, konnte aber an seine Erfolge in den 1960ern nicht mehr anschließen. Trotz des wieder recht erfolgreichen Albums San Francisco ‘83 hatte er ab Mitte der 1980er-Jahre nur mehr sporadische Gastauftritte auf Alben aufstrebender Bluesmusiker wie Chris Cain (Cuttin’ Loose) und Gary Moore (Still Got The Blues). Bei Blues-Festivals rund um die Welt trat er jedoch nach wie vor auf und gab sein letztes Konzert am 19. Dezember 1992 in Los Angeles.
Tod
Zwei Tage nach seinem Konzert am 19. Dezember 1992 starb er an einem Herzinfarkt kurz vor einer geplanten großen Europatournee. Er fand auf dem Paradise Gardens Cemetery in Edmondson, Arkansas seine letzte Ruhe, der in der Nähe des Ortes liegt, an dem er seine Kindheit verbrachte.
Albert King war ein großer Mann von 1,93 m und gut 120 kg, der in jüngeren Jahren als launisch galt und dafür bekannt war, dass er immer eine .45er im Hosenbund trug.
Wahrnehmung
Albert King hat mehrere Generationen von bedeutenden Musikern stark beeinflusst, darunter Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan (der ihn „Daddy“ nannte) und Robert Cray. Er war ein Lieblingsgitarrist von John Lee Hooker, und B. B. King schrieb in seiner Autobiographie: “He wasn’t my brother in blood, but he sure was my brother in Blues.” Albert King wurde 1983 in die Blues Hall of Fame der Blues Foundation aufgenommen.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_King
King moved to Gary, Indiana in the early 1950s, then to Chicago in 1953 where he cut his first single for Parrot Records, but it was only a minor regional success.[1] He then went back to St. Louis in 1956 and formed a new band. During this period, he settled on using the Flying V as his primary guitar.[1] He resumed recording in 1959 with his first minor hit, "I'm a Lonely Man," written by Little Milton, who was Bobbin Records A&R man, a fellow guitar hero, and responsible for King's signing with the label.
It was not until his 1961 release "Don't Throw Your Love on Me So Strong" that King had a major hit,[1] reaching number fourteen on the US Billboard R&B chart. The song was included on his first album The Big Blues, released in 1962. He next signed with jazz artist Leo Gooden's Coun-Tree label.
In 1966, King moved to Memphis, where he signed with the Stax record label.[1] Produced by Al Jackson, Jr., King with Booker T. & the MGs recorded dozens of influential sides, such as "Crosscut Saw" and "As The Years Go Passing By". In 1967 Stax released the album Born Under a Bad Sign, which was not technically a studio album, but a collection of all the singles King recorded at Stax.[1] The title track of that album (written by Booker T. Jones and William Bell) became King's best-known song and has been covered by many artists (from British rock group Cream, Paul Rodgers, Canadian guitarist Pat Travers, American rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix to cartoon character Homer Simpson). The production of the songs was sparse, clean, and maintained a traditional blues sound while also sounding fresh and thoroughly contemporary. Almost as important as King himself was the "menacing" bass of Donald Dunn, which at some points approached an early metal feel.
Another landmark album followed with Live Wire/Blues Power, from one of many dates King played at promoter Bill Graham's Fillmore Auditorium. The album influenced musicians Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Robbie Robertson, Gary Moore and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
In 1969, King performed live with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. That same year, he released a follow-up album to Born Under a Bad Sign, Years Gone By. During the early 1970s, he recorded an album Lovejoy with a group of white rock singers, an Elvis Presley tribute album, Albert King Does The King's Things, and a cameo on an Albert Brooks comedy album A Star is Bought. The above-mentioned album was a collection of Elvis's 1950s hits reworked and re-imagined in Albert King's musical sound, although critics felt the results of it were mixed. Lovejoy introduced no really new musical innovations over King's previous two Stax albums, although it notably includes a cover of the Rolling Stones' hit "Honky Tonk Women".
According to Bill Graham, "Albert was one of the artists I used many times for various reasons. He wasn't just a good guitar player; he had a wonderful stage presence, he was very congenial and warm, he was relaxed on stage, and he related to the public. Also he never became a shuck-and-jiver. One of the things that happened in the '60s – it's not a very nice thing to say, but it happens to be true – was that blues musicians began to realize that white America would accept anything they did on stage. And so many of them became jive. But Albert remained a guy who just went on stage and said 'Let's play.'"[citation needed]
On June 6, 1970, King joined The Doors on stage at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver, Canada. He lent his distinctive guitar to blues cuts such as "Little Red Rooster," “Money," “Rock Me" and "Who Do You Love." (Released on Rhino records as "The Doors Live in Vancouver 1970" in 2010.)
Like many older artists, King wanted to remain relevant and on the charts, and so he eagerly embraced the new sound of funk. King was teamed with members of The Bar-Kays and The Movement (Isaac Hayes's backing group), including bassist James Alexander and drummer Willie Hall adding strong funk elements to his music. Adding strings and multiple rhythm guitarists, producers Allen Jones and Henry Bush created a wall of sound that contrasted with the sparse, punchy records King made with Booker T. & the MGs. Among these was another of King's signature tunes "I'll Play the Blues For You" in 1972. The new instrumental arrangements added a renewed freshness to King's guitar licks; in addition it worked well for The Bar-Kays since funk was still a young genre and most such groups had yet to work with a competent guitarist.
After I'll Play The Blues For You, King recorded another album with the Bar-Kays, I Wanna Get Funky (1974). The record skillfully mixed standard blues licks with the latest in hot funk (although a few traditional-style blues tracks were also included) and it is considered his last strong album.
In 1975, King's career took a turn downward when Stax Records filed for bankruptcy, after which he moved to the small Utopia label. His next two albums, Albert and Truckload of Lovin' (1976), devolved into generic 1970s pop music and the third album with Utopia, King Albert (1977), while somewhat more subdued, still lacked any standout material and King's guitar took a backseat to the background instruments.
The last recording King did with Utopia was Live Blues in 1977, performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. As the audience here were knowledgeable jazz and blues fans who disliked experimentation, he played it safe and conservative, although As The Years Go Passing By is noteworthy for his duet (and even dueling) with Irish guitarist Rory Gallagher.
In 1978, King moved to a new label, Tomato Records, where he recorded the studio album New Orleans Heat. The label paired him up with R&B producer Allen Toussaint, who had been responsible for scores of 1960s–1970s hits in that genre, but was a novice at working with blues artists. The album was a mix of new songs (including Toussaint's own "Get Out of My Life, Woman") and re-recordings of old material such as "Born Under A Bad Sign".
King took a four-year break from recording after the disappointing results of his late 1970s efforts. During this period, he fully re-embraced his roots as a blues artist and abandoned any arrangements except straight 12-bar guitar, bass, drums, and piano. In 1983, he finally cut a new live album with Fantasy Records, Crosscut Saw: Albert King In San Francisco.
In 1984, King recorded I'm In A Phone Booth, Baby, which turned out to be his last studio album. The recording included a redo of "Truckload Of Lovin'" and two ancient Elmore James tunes, "Dust My Broom" and "The Sky Is Crying". Fantasy Records tried to recreate the sparse instrumentals of King's Stax years and not drown him out.
King influenced others such as Mick Taylor, Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes, Mike Bloomfield and Joe Walsh (the James Gang guitarist spoke at King's funeral). He also had an impact on contemporaries Albert Collins and Otis Rush. He was often cited by Stevie Ray Vaughan as having been his greatest influence. Clapton has said that his work on the 1967 Cream hit "Strange Brew" and throughout the album Disraeli Gears was inspired by King.
King's health problems led him to consider retirement in the 1980s, but he continued regular tours and appearances at blues festivals, using a customized Greyhound tour bus with "I'll Play The Blues For You" painted on the side.[1] Shortly before his death, he was planning an overseas tour.[1] His final album, Red House – named after the Jimi Hendrix song – was recorded in 1992. The album was largely ignored because of bad production quality, and original copies of it are scarce.
King died on December 21, 1992, from a heart attack in his Memphis, Tennessee home. His final concert had been in Los Angeles two days earlier. He was given a funeral procession with the Memphis Horns playing "When The Saints Go Marching In" and buried in Paradise Gardens Cemetery in Edmondson, Arkansas near his childhood home. B.B. King eulogized him by stating: "Albert wasn't my brother in blood, but he was my brother in blues."
On December 11, 2012, it was announced that King would be posthumously inducted into the 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.[2] Gary Clark Jr., John Mayer, and Booker T Jones performed King's "Born Under A Bad Sign" at the induction ceremony.
King also has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.[3]
Instruments
King's first instrument was a diddley bow. Next, he built himself a cigar box guitar, before buying a Guild acoustic. The instrument he is usually associated with is a 1958 Gibson Flying V. In 1974 he began using a Flying V built by Dan Erlewine, and after 1980 also one built by Bradley Prokopow.[4]
King was left-handed, but usually played right-handed guitars flipped over upside-down. He used a dropped minor tuning, reportedly C♯-G♯-B-E-G♯-C♯. He never used the sixth string.[4]
For amplification, King used a solid-state Acoustic amplifier, with a speaker cabinet with two 15" speakers and a horn ("which may or may not have been operative"). Later in his career he also used a MXR Phase 90.
Albert King (April 25, 1923 – December 21, 1992) was an American blues guitarist and singer, and a major influence in the world of blues guitar playing. King was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in May 2013.
Life and career
One of the "Three Kings of the Blues Guitar" (along with B.B. King and Freddie King), Albert King stood 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m), some reports say 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) and weighed 250 pounds (110 kg)[1] and was known as "The Velvet Bulldozer". He was born Albert King Nelson, on a cotton plantation in Indianola, Mississippi. During his childhood he would sing at a family gospel group at a church where his father played the guitar. One of 13 children, King grew up picking cotton on plantations near Forrest City, Arkansas, where the family moved when he was eight.
He began his professional work as a musician with a group called in the Groove Boys in Osceola, Arkansas.[1] Moving north to Gary, Indiana and later St. Louis, Missouri, he briefly played drums for Jimmy Reed's band and on several early Reed recordings. Influenced by blues musicians Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lonnie Johnson, the electric guitar became his signature instrument, his preference being the Gibson Flying V which he named "Lucy". King earned his nickname "The Velvet Bulldozer" during this period as he drove one of them and also worked as a mechanic to make a living.
Life and career
One of the "Three Kings of the Blues Guitar" (along with B.B. King and Freddie King), Albert King stood 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m), some reports say 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) and weighed 250 pounds (110 kg)[1] and was known as "The Velvet Bulldozer". He was born Albert King Nelson, on a cotton plantation in Indianola, Mississippi. During his childhood he would sing at a family gospel group at a church where his father played the guitar. One of 13 children, King grew up picking cotton on plantations near Forrest City, Arkansas, where the family moved when he was eight.
He began his professional work as a musician with a group called in the Groove Boys in Osceola, Arkansas.[1] Moving north to Gary, Indiana and later St. Louis, Missouri, he briefly played drums for Jimmy Reed's band and on several early Reed recordings. Influenced by blues musicians Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lonnie Johnson, the electric guitar became his signature instrument, his preference being the Gibson Flying V which he named "Lucy". King earned his nickname "The Velvet Bulldozer" during this period as he drove one of them and also worked as a mechanic to make a living.
King moved to Gary, Indiana in the early 1950s, then to Chicago in 1953 where he cut his first single for Parrot Records, but it was only a minor regional success.[1] He then went back to St. Louis in 1956 and formed a new band. During this period, he settled on using the Flying V as his primary guitar.[1] He resumed recording in 1959 with his first minor hit, "I'm a Lonely Man," written by Little Milton, who was Bobbin Records A&R man, a fellow guitar hero, and responsible for King's signing with the label.
It was not until his 1961 release "Don't Throw Your Love on Me So Strong" that King had a major hit,[1] reaching number fourteen on the US Billboard R&B chart. The song was included on his first album The Big Blues, released in 1962. He next signed with jazz artist Leo Gooden's Coun-Tree label.
In 1966, King moved to Memphis, where he signed with the Stax record label.[1] Produced by Al Jackson, Jr., King with Booker T. & the MGs recorded dozens of influential sides, such as "Crosscut Saw" and "As The Years Go Passing By". In 1967 Stax released the album Born Under a Bad Sign, which was not technically a studio album, but a collection of all the singles King recorded at Stax.[1] The title track of that album (written by Booker T. Jones and William Bell) became King's best-known song and has been covered by many artists (from British rock group Cream, Paul Rodgers, Canadian guitarist Pat Travers, American rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix to cartoon character Homer Simpson). The production of the songs was sparse, clean, and maintained a traditional blues sound while also sounding fresh and thoroughly contemporary. Almost as important as King himself was the "menacing" bass of Donald Dunn, which at some points approached an early metal feel.
Another landmark album followed with Live Wire/Blues Power, from one of many dates King played at promoter Bill Graham's Fillmore Auditorium. The album influenced musicians Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Robbie Robertson, Gary Moore and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
In 1969, King performed live with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. That same year, he released a follow-up album to Born Under a Bad Sign, Years Gone By. During the early 1970s, he recorded an album Lovejoy with a group of white rock singers, an Elvis Presley tribute album, Albert King Does The King's Things, and a cameo on an Albert Brooks comedy album A Star is Bought. The above-mentioned album was a collection of Elvis's 1950s hits reworked and re-imagined in Albert King's musical sound, although critics felt the results of it were mixed. Lovejoy introduced no really new musical innovations over King's previous two Stax albums, although it notably includes a cover of the Rolling Stones' hit "Honky Tonk Women".
According to Bill Graham, "Albert was one of the artists I used many times for various reasons. He wasn't just a good guitar player; he had a wonderful stage presence, he was very congenial and warm, he was relaxed on stage, and he related to the public. Also he never became a shuck-and-jiver. One of the things that happened in the '60s – it's not a very nice thing to say, but it happens to be true – was that blues musicians began to realize that white America would accept anything they did on stage. And so many of them became jive. But Albert remained a guy who just went on stage and said 'Let's play.'"[citation needed]
On June 6, 1970, King joined The Doors on stage at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver, Canada. He lent his distinctive guitar to blues cuts such as "Little Red Rooster," “Money," “Rock Me" and "Who Do You Love." (Released on Rhino records as "The Doors Live in Vancouver 1970" in 2010.)
Like many older artists, King wanted to remain relevant and on the charts, and so he eagerly embraced the new sound of funk. King was teamed with members of The Bar-Kays and The Movement (Isaac Hayes's backing group), including bassist James Alexander and drummer Willie Hall adding strong funk elements to his music. Adding strings and multiple rhythm guitarists, producers Allen Jones and Henry Bush created a wall of sound that contrasted with the sparse, punchy records King made with Booker T. & the MGs. Among these was another of King's signature tunes "I'll Play the Blues For You" in 1972. The new instrumental arrangements added a renewed freshness to King's guitar licks; in addition it worked well for The Bar-Kays since funk was still a young genre and most such groups had yet to work with a competent guitarist.
After I'll Play The Blues For You, King recorded another album with the Bar-Kays, I Wanna Get Funky (1974). The record skillfully mixed standard blues licks with the latest in hot funk (although a few traditional-style blues tracks were also included) and it is considered his last strong album.
In 1975, King's career took a turn downward when Stax Records filed for bankruptcy, after which he moved to the small Utopia label. His next two albums, Albert and Truckload of Lovin' (1976), devolved into generic 1970s pop music and the third album with Utopia, King Albert (1977), while somewhat more subdued, still lacked any standout material and King's guitar took a backseat to the background instruments.
The last recording King did with Utopia was Live Blues in 1977, performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. As the audience here were knowledgeable jazz and blues fans who disliked experimentation, he played it safe and conservative, although As The Years Go Passing By is noteworthy for his duet (and even dueling) with Irish guitarist Rory Gallagher.
In 1978, King moved to a new label, Tomato Records, where he recorded the studio album New Orleans Heat. The label paired him up with R&B producer Allen Toussaint, who had been responsible for scores of 1960s–1970s hits in that genre, but was a novice at working with blues artists. The album was a mix of new songs (including Toussaint's own "Get Out of My Life, Woman") and re-recordings of old material such as "Born Under A Bad Sign".
King took a four-year break from recording after the disappointing results of his late 1970s efforts. During this period, he fully re-embraced his roots as a blues artist and abandoned any arrangements except straight 12-bar guitar, bass, drums, and piano. In 1983, he finally cut a new live album with Fantasy Records, Crosscut Saw: Albert King In San Francisco.
In 1984, King recorded I'm In A Phone Booth, Baby, which turned out to be his last studio album. The recording included a redo of "Truckload Of Lovin'" and two ancient Elmore James tunes, "Dust My Broom" and "The Sky Is Crying". Fantasy Records tried to recreate the sparse instrumentals of King's Stax years and not drown him out.
King influenced others such as Mick Taylor, Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes, Mike Bloomfield and Joe Walsh (the James Gang guitarist spoke at King's funeral). He also had an impact on contemporaries Albert Collins and Otis Rush. He was often cited by Stevie Ray Vaughan as having been his greatest influence. Clapton has said that his work on the 1967 Cream hit "Strange Brew" and throughout the album Disraeli Gears was inspired by King.
King's health problems led him to consider retirement in the 1980s, but he continued regular tours and appearances at blues festivals, using a customized Greyhound tour bus with "I'll Play The Blues For You" painted on the side.[1] Shortly before his death, he was planning an overseas tour.[1] His final album, Red House – named after the Jimi Hendrix song – was recorded in 1992. The album was largely ignored because of bad production quality, and original copies of it are scarce.
King died on December 21, 1992, from a heart attack in his Memphis, Tennessee home. His final concert had been in Los Angeles two days earlier. He was given a funeral procession with the Memphis Horns playing "When The Saints Go Marching In" and buried in Paradise Gardens Cemetery in Edmondson, Arkansas near his childhood home. B.B. King eulogized him by stating: "Albert wasn't my brother in blood, but he was my brother in blues."
On December 11, 2012, it was announced that King would be posthumously inducted into the 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.[2] Gary Clark Jr., John Mayer, and Booker T Jones performed King's "Born Under A Bad Sign" at the induction ceremony.
King also has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.[3]
Instruments
King's first instrument was a diddley bow. Next, he built himself a cigar box guitar, before buying a Guild acoustic. The instrument he is usually associated with is a 1958 Gibson Flying V. In 1974 he began using a Flying V built by Dan Erlewine, and after 1980 also one built by Bradley Prokopow.[4]
King was left-handed, but usually played right-handed guitars flipped over upside-down. He used a dropped minor tuning, reportedly C♯-G♯-B-E-G♯-C♯. He never used the sixth string.[4]
For amplification, King used a solid-state Acoustic amplifier, with a speaker cabinet with two 15" speakers and a horn ("which may or may not have been operative"). Later in his career he also used a MXR Phase 90.
Albert King With Stevie Ray Vaughan - Call It Stormy Monday
Albert King - The very best (full album)
01 - Let's have a natural ball
02 - Don't throw your love on me so strong
03 - C.O.D.
04 - Laundromat blues
05 - Overall junction
06 - Oh, pretty woman (Can't make you love me)
07 - Crosscut saw
08 - Born under a bad sign
09 - Personal manager
10 - Cold feet
11 - Blues power [Live]
12 - I'll play the blues for you, Part 1
13 - Breaking up somebody's home
14 - Answer to the laundromat blues
15 - .That's what the blues is all about
16 - Cadillac assembly line
02 - Don't throw your love on me so strong
03 - C.O.D.
04 - Laundromat blues
05 - Overall junction
06 - Oh, pretty woman (Can't make you love me)
07 - Crosscut saw
08 - Born under a bad sign
09 - Personal manager
10 - Cold feet
11 - Blues power [Live]
12 - I'll play the blues for you, Part 1
13 - Breaking up somebody's home
14 - Answer to the laundromat blues
15 - .That's what the blues is all about
16 - Cadillac assembly line
Earl Bostic *25.04.1913
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Am bekanntesten war Bostic für seinen markanten Alt-Saxophon-Sound. Außerdem spielte er Tenor-Saxophon, Flöte und Klarinette. Der romantische, aber auch zupackende Klang der Bostic-Band, üblicherweise in der Besetzung Gene Redd, Vibraphon, Fletcher Smith, Piano, Margo Gibson, Bass, Charles Walton, Schlagzeug und Alan Seltzer, Gitarre sowie Earl Bostic auf dem Alt-Saxophon war einer der unverkennbaren Sounds sowohl des Jazz wie auch des Rhythm and Blues. Seine Plattenaufnahmen waren in den 1950er-Jahren „Dauerbrenner“ in den Musikautomaten.
Bostic genoss eine elementare Ausbildung als Musiker und erhielt von der Xavier Universität (New Orleans, Louisiana) eine Auszeichnung in Musik-Theorie. Er zog 1938 nach New York City und gründete eine Jazz-Combo. In den frühen 1940er-Jahren spiele er in der Band von Lionel Hampton. 1945 verließ er Hampton, gründete erneut eine Combo, mit der er für das Plattenlabel Majestic einige Aufnahmen machte. Der große Erfolg blieb allerdings aus, bis er 1948 beim Label Gotham in New York einen Vertrag abschloss und sich dem Rhythm and Blues zuwendete. Mit dem Musikstück Temptation hatte er unmittelbar Erfolg (US R&B-Charts Nr. 10).
Im Laufe der 1950er-Jahre nahm Bostic viel für das Label King Records aus Cincinnati auf, wo er zwei sehr erfolgreiche Singles herausbrachte: Sleep (US R&B Nr. 6) und 1951 seinen größten Erfolg Flamingo (US R&B Nummer 1). Die Interpretation des letzteren wurde zu seinem Markenzeichen. In den 1960er-Jahren nahm er für King Records etliche Alben auf, deren musikalischer Stil zunehmend in Richtung des Soul-Jazz tendierte.
Am 28. Oktober 1965 erlag er einem schweren Herzinfarkt während eines Auftritts in Rochester, NY.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Bostic
Earl Bostic - Night Train
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnVTSc5s3RI
Earl Bostic (April 25, 1912 – October 28, 1965) was an American jazz alto saxophonist and a pioneer of the post-war American rhythm and blues style. He had a number of popular hits such as "Flamingo", "Harlem Nocturne", "Temptation", "Sleep", "Special Delivery Stomp" and "Where or When", which all showed off his characteristic growl on the horn. He was a major influence on John Coltrane.[1]
Career
Bostic was born April 25, 1912, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He turned professional at the age of 18 when he joined Terence Holder's "Twelve Clouds of Joy". Bostic made his first recording with Lionel Hampton in October 1939, with Charlie Christian, Clyde Hart and Big Sid Catlett. Before that he performed with Fate Marable on New Orleans riverboats. Bostic graduated from Xavier University in New Orleans. He worked with territory bands as well as Arnett Cobb, Hot Lips Page, Rex Stewart, Don Byas, Charlie Christian, Thelonious Monk, Edgar Hayes, Cab Calloway, and other jazz luminaries. In 1938, and in 1944, Bostic led the house band at Small's Paradise.[2] While playing at Small's Paradise, he doubled on guitar and trumpet. During the early 1940s, he was a well-respected regular at the famous jam sessions held at Minton's Playhouse. He formed his own band in 1945 and made the first recordings under his own name for the Majestic label. He turned to rhythm and blues in the late 1940s. His biggest hits were "Temptation", "Sleep", "Flamingo", "You Go to My Head" and "Cherokee". At various times his band include Keter Betts, Jaki Byard, Benny Carter, John Coltrane, Teddy Edwards, Benny Golson, Blue Mitchell, Tony Scott, Cliff Smalls, Sir Charles Thompson, Stanley Turrentine, Tommy Turrentine and other musicians who rose to prominence, especially in jazz.
Bostic's King album entitled Jazz As I Feel It featured Shelly Manne on drums, Joe Pass on guitar and Richard "Groove" Holmes on organ. Bostic recorded A New Sound about one month later, again featuring Holmes and Pass. These recordings allowed Bostic to stretch out beyond the three-minute limit imposed by the 45 RPM format. Bostic was pleased with the sessions, which highlight his total mastery of the blues but they also foreshadowed musical advances that were later evident in the work of John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy.
He wrote arrangements for Paul Whiteman, Louis Prima, Lionel Hampton, Gene Krupa, Artie Shaw, Hot Lips Page, Jack Teagarden, Ina Ray Hutton and Alvino Rey.
His songwriting hits include "Let Me Off Uptown", performed by Anita O'Day and Roy Eldridge, and "Brooklyn Boogie", which featured Louis Prima and members of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Bostic's signature hit, "Flamingo" was recorded in 1951 and remains a favorite among followers of Carolina Beach Music in South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia.
During the early 1950s Bostic lived with his wife in Addisleigh Park in St. Albans, Queens, in New York City, where many other jazz stars made their home.[3] After that he moved to Los Angeles, where he concentrated on writing arrangements after suffering a heart attack. He opened his own R&B club in Los Angeles, known as the Flying Fox.
Death
Bostic died October 28, 1965 from a heart attack in Rochester, New York, while performing with his band. He was buried in Southern California's Inglewood Park Cemetery on November 2, 1965. Honorary pallbearers at the funeral included Slappy White and Louis Prima. Today he rests under a simple black slate gravemarker inscribed with his name, birth/death dates and a solo saxophone, located not far from other musical luminaries as Chet Baker, Ray Charles, and Ella Fitzgerald, who was born exactly five years after Earl. Bostic was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in 1993.
Style and influence
Bostic was influenced by Sidney Bechet and (according to James Moody) John Coltrane was in turn influenced by Bostic. Coltrane told Down Beat magazine in 1960 that Bostic "showed me a lot of things on my horn. He has fabulous technical facilities on his instrument and knows many a trick." Moody mentioned that "Bostic knew his instrument inside out, back to front and upside down." If one listens carefully to Bostic's fabulous stop time choruses and his extended solo work, the roots of Coltrane's "sheets of sound" become clear.
Bostic's early jazz solos bear similarity to Benny Carter's long flowing lines. Other influences on Bostic include European concert music, bebop and the sounds associated with his Oklahoma roots. Bostic admitted that he was interested in selling records and he went as far as to write out his popular solos note for note in order to please his admiring fans during concerts. Nonetheless, Bostic was always ready to improvise brilliantly during his live performances.
Bostic's virtuosity on the saxophone was legendary, and is evident on records such as Up There in Orbit, Earl's Imagination, Apollo Theater Jump, All On, Artistry by Bostic, Telestar Drive, Liza, Lady Be Good and Tiger Rag. He was famous as a peerless jammer and held his own against Charlie Parker. The alto saxophonist Sweet Papa Lou Donaldson recalled seeing Parker get burned by Bostic during one such jam session at Minton's. Donaldson said that Bostic "was the greatest saxophone player I ever knew. Bostic was down at Minton's and Charlie Parker came in there. They played "Sweet Georgia Brown" or something and he gave Charlie Parker a saxophone lesson. Now you'd see him, we'd run up there and think that we're going to blow him out, and he'd make you look like a fool. Cause he'd play three octaves, louder, stronger and faster."[4] Art Blakey remarked that "Nobody knew more about the saxophone than Bostic, I mean technically, and that includes Bird. Working with Bostic was like attending a university of the saxophone.When Coltrane played with Bostic, I know he learned a lot."[1] Victor Schonfield pointed out that "...his greatest gift was the way he communicated through his horn a triumphant joy in playing and being, much like Louis Armstrong and only a few others have done."[5] He was able to control the horn from low A without using his knee[6] up into the altissimo range years before other saxophonists dared to stray. Bostic was able to play melodies in the altissimo range with perfect execution. He could play wonderfully in any key at any tempo over any changes. Benny Golson, who called Bostic "the best technician I ever heard in my life," mentioned that "He could start from the bottom of the horn and skip over notes, voicing it up the horn like a guitar would. He had circular breathing before I even knew what circular breathing was – we're talking about the early 50s. He had innumerable ways of playing one particular note. He could double tongue, triple tongue. It was incredible what he could do, and he helped me by showing me many technical things." Bostic used a Beechler mouthpiece with a tenor saxophone reed on his Martin Committee model alto sax.
Bostic was a master of the blues and he used this skill in a variety of musical settings. Although he recorded many commercial albums, some notable jazz based exceptions on the King label include Bostic Rocks Hits of the Swing Age, Jazz As I Feel It and A New Sound. Compositions such as "The Major and the Minor" and "Earl's Imagination" display a solid knowledge of harmony. In 1951, Bostic successfully toured with Dinah Washington on the R&B circuit.[7] Bostic was always well dressed and articulate during interviews. His live performances provided an opportunity for a departure from his commercial efforts and those who witnessed these shows remember him driving audiences into a frenzy with dazzling technical displays. Always the consummate showman, he appeared on the Soupy Sales TV show and performed the Soupy Shuffle better than Soupy while playing the saxophone.[8]
During the late 1940s Bostic changed his style in a successful attempt to reach a wider audience.The new sound incorporated his unmistakable rasp or growl,shorter lines than in his jazz based recordings,emphasis on a danceable back beat and a new way of wringing"...the greatest possible rhythmic value from every note and phrase."[5] Bostic showed off the new approach in his hit "Temptation" which reached the Top Ten of the R&B chart during the summer of 1948. The addition of Gene Redd on vibes in 1950 rounded out the Bostic sound and he used the vibes on his major hits such as "Flamingo" in 1951. The 1956 version of Where or When features Bostic growling through the mid-range of the instrument behind a heavy backbeat and loud bass and it is a marked departure from his approach to the same tune recorded on Gotham in 1947 which showed off his sweet "singing' in the upper register with barely audible percussion. Bostic proved that saxophone instrumentals could climb the hit charts and other saxists with hits including Boots Randolph and Stanley Turrentine have acknowledged his influence.
In February 1959 Bostic was voted No. 2 jazz alto sax in the Playboy jazz poll over leading saxists including Cannonball Adderley and Sonny Stitt.[9] He recorded an inimitable version of All The Things You Are released on the Playboy label. In August 1959, he performed at the famous Playboy Jazz Festival in Chicago on the same bill as the major jazz stars of the time.
Bostic discussed his approach to improvising in an interview with Kurt Mohr. "Of course I am maybe one of the few musicians who like simple recurring melody patterns and in all my playing I try to keep a basic melody line in my mind and attempt to develop meaningful inversions and variations...I like the basic blues.... The blues has it all; basic rhythmic quality, genuine lyric content,essential and basic chord structure and maybe above all else, personality. Blues and jazz are inseparable."[10]
Bostic's recording career was diverse and it included small group swing-based jazz, big band jazz, jump blues, organ-based combos and a string of commercial successes.
Career
Bostic was born April 25, 1912, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He turned professional at the age of 18 when he joined Terence Holder's "Twelve Clouds of Joy". Bostic made his first recording with Lionel Hampton in October 1939, with Charlie Christian, Clyde Hart and Big Sid Catlett. Before that he performed with Fate Marable on New Orleans riverboats. Bostic graduated from Xavier University in New Orleans. He worked with territory bands as well as Arnett Cobb, Hot Lips Page, Rex Stewart, Don Byas, Charlie Christian, Thelonious Monk, Edgar Hayes, Cab Calloway, and other jazz luminaries. In 1938, and in 1944, Bostic led the house band at Small's Paradise.[2] While playing at Small's Paradise, he doubled on guitar and trumpet. During the early 1940s, he was a well-respected regular at the famous jam sessions held at Minton's Playhouse. He formed his own band in 1945 and made the first recordings under his own name for the Majestic label. He turned to rhythm and blues in the late 1940s. His biggest hits were "Temptation", "Sleep", "Flamingo", "You Go to My Head" and "Cherokee". At various times his band include Keter Betts, Jaki Byard, Benny Carter, John Coltrane, Teddy Edwards, Benny Golson, Blue Mitchell, Tony Scott, Cliff Smalls, Sir Charles Thompson, Stanley Turrentine, Tommy Turrentine and other musicians who rose to prominence, especially in jazz.
Bostic's King album entitled Jazz As I Feel It featured Shelly Manne on drums, Joe Pass on guitar and Richard "Groove" Holmes on organ. Bostic recorded A New Sound about one month later, again featuring Holmes and Pass. These recordings allowed Bostic to stretch out beyond the three-minute limit imposed by the 45 RPM format. Bostic was pleased with the sessions, which highlight his total mastery of the blues but they also foreshadowed musical advances that were later evident in the work of John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy.
He wrote arrangements for Paul Whiteman, Louis Prima, Lionel Hampton, Gene Krupa, Artie Shaw, Hot Lips Page, Jack Teagarden, Ina Ray Hutton and Alvino Rey.
His songwriting hits include "Let Me Off Uptown", performed by Anita O'Day and Roy Eldridge, and "Brooklyn Boogie", which featured Louis Prima and members of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Bostic's signature hit, "Flamingo" was recorded in 1951 and remains a favorite among followers of Carolina Beach Music in South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia.
During the early 1950s Bostic lived with his wife in Addisleigh Park in St. Albans, Queens, in New York City, where many other jazz stars made their home.[3] After that he moved to Los Angeles, where he concentrated on writing arrangements after suffering a heart attack. He opened his own R&B club in Los Angeles, known as the Flying Fox.
Death
Bostic died October 28, 1965 from a heart attack in Rochester, New York, while performing with his band. He was buried in Southern California's Inglewood Park Cemetery on November 2, 1965. Honorary pallbearers at the funeral included Slappy White and Louis Prima. Today he rests under a simple black slate gravemarker inscribed with his name, birth/death dates and a solo saxophone, located not far from other musical luminaries as Chet Baker, Ray Charles, and Ella Fitzgerald, who was born exactly five years after Earl. Bostic was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in 1993.
Style and influence
Bostic was influenced by Sidney Bechet and (according to James Moody) John Coltrane was in turn influenced by Bostic. Coltrane told Down Beat magazine in 1960 that Bostic "showed me a lot of things on my horn. He has fabulous technical facilities on his instrument and knows many a trick." Moody mentioned that "Bostic knew his instrument inside out, back to front and upside down." If one listens carefully to Bostic's fabulous stop time choruses and his extended solo work, the roots of Coltrane's "sheets of sound" become clear.
Bostic's early jazz solos bear similarity to Benny Carter's long flowing lines. Other influences on Bostic include European concert music, bebop and the sounds associated with his Oklahoma roots. Bostic admitted that he was interested in selling records and he went as far as to write out his popular solos note for note in order to please his admiring fans during concerts. Nonetheless, Bostic was always ready to improvise brilliantly during his live performances.
Bostic's virtuosity on the saxophone was legendary, and is evident on records such as Up There in Orbit, Earl's Imagination, Apollo Theater Jump, All On, Artistry by Bostic, Telestar Drive, Liza, Lady Be Good and Tiger Rag. He was famous as a peerless jammer and held his own against Charlie Parker. The alto saxophonist Sweet Papa Lou Donaldson recalled seeing Parker get burned by Bostic during one such jam session at Minton's. Donaldson said that Bostic "was the greatest saxophone player I ever knew. Bostic was down at Minton's and Charlie Parker came in there. They played "Sweet Georgia Brown" or something and he gave Charlie Parker a saxophone lesson. Now you'd see him, we'd run up there and think that we're going to blow him out, and he'd make you look like a fool. Cause he'd play three octaves, louder, stronger and faster."[4] Art Blakey remarked that "Nobody knew more about the saxophone than Bostic, I mean technically, and that includes Bird. Working with Bostic was like attending a university of the saxophone.When Coltrane played with Bostic, I know he learned a lot."[1] Victor Schonfield pointed out that "...his greatest gift was the way he communicated through his horn a triumphant joy in playing and being, much like Louis Armstrong and only a few others have done."[5] He was able to control the horn from low A without using his knee[6] up into the altissimo range years before other saxophonists dared to stray. Bostic was able to play melodies in the altissimo range with perfect execution. He could play wonderfully in any key at any tempo over any changes. Benny Golson, who called Bostic "the best technician I ever heard in my life," mentioned that "He could start from the bottom of the horn and skip over notes, voicing it up the horn like a guitar would. He had circular breathing before I even knew what circular breathing was – we're talking about the early 50s. He had innumerable ways of playing one particular note. He could double tongue, triple tongue. It was incredible what he could do, and he helped me by showing me many technical things." Bostic used a Beechler mouthpiece with a tenor saxophone reed on his Martin Committee model alto sax.
Bostic was a master of the blues and he used this skill in a variety of musical settings. Although he recorded many commercial albums, some notable jazz based exceptions on the King label include Bostic Rocks Hits of the Swing Age, Jazz As I Feel It and A New Sound. Compositions such as "The Major and the Minor" and "Earl's Imagination" display a solid knowledge of harmony. In 1951, Bostic successfully toured with Dinah Washington on the R&B circuit.[7] Bostic was always well dressed and articulate during interviews. His live performances provided an opportunity for a departure from his commercial efforts and those who witnessed these shows remember him driving audiences into a frenzy with dazzling technical displays. Always the consummate showman, he appeared on the Soupy Sales TV show and performed the Soupy Shuffle better than Soupy while playing the saxophone.[8]
During the late 1940s Bostic changed his style in a successful attempt to reach a wider audience.The new sound incorporated his unmistakable rasp or growl,shorter lines than in his jazz based recordings,emphasis on a danceable back beat and a new way of wringing"...the greatest possible rhythmic value from every note and phrase."[5] Bostic showed off the new approach in his hit "Temptation" which reached the Top Ten of the R&B chart during the summer of 1948. The addition of Gene Redd on vibes in 1950 rounded out the Bostic sound and he used the vibes on his major hits such as "Flamingo" in 1951. The 1956 version of Where or When features Bostic growling through the mid-range of the instrument behind a heavy backbeat and loud bass and it is a marked departure from his approach to the same tune recorded on Gotham in 1947 which showed off his sweet "singing' in the upper register with barely audible percussion. Bostic proved that saxophone instrumentals could climb the hit charts and other saxists with hits including Boots Randolph and Stanley Turrentine have acknowledged his influence.
In February 1959 Bostic was voted No. 2 jazz alto sax in the Playboy jazz poll over leading saxists including Cannonball Adderley and Sonny Stitt.[9] He recorded an inimitable version of All The Things You Are released on the Playboy label. In August 1959, he performed at the famous Playboy Jazz Festival in Chicago on the same bill as the major jazz stars of the time.
Bostic discussed his approach to improvising in an interview with Kurt Mohr. "Of course I am maybe one of the few musicians who like simple recurring melody patterns and in all my playing I try to keep a basic melody line in my mind and attempt to develop meaningful inversions and variations...I like the basic blues.... The blues has it all; basic rhythmic quality, genuine lyric content,essential and basic chord structure and maybe above all else, personality. Blues and jazz are inseparable."[10]
Bostic's recording career was diverse and it included small group swing-based jazz, big band jazz, jump blues, organ-based combos and a string of commercial successes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnVTSc5s3RI
Paul Lassey *25.04.1965
Paul Lassey, French harpist (from Lorraine - France), born April 25, 1965.
From
18yo, he discovers diatonic and chromatic harmonica through
respectively Charlie Mac Coy and Toots Thielemanss records, but realizes
later - early 90s, with a Jean-Jacques Milteau masterclass this entire
instruments potential. He then makes his debut in various bands from
Lorraine, France: Kilimanjaro, Packard Blues and MG Blues Band.
Professional musician since 1998, he turns his harmonica player career into teaching.
In the early 2000s, thanks to the “Planète Clé de Sol” association, he uses harmonica as a therapeutic instrument for asthmatic children, through the Nancy Brabois hospitals “breathe workshops”.
In the early 2000s, thanks to the “Planète Clé de Sol” association, he uses harmonica as a therapeutic instrument for asthmatic children, through the Nancy Brabois hospitals “breathe workshops”.
The harmonica-dedicated websites he administrates since years now have contributed to his popularity.
http://mattizwoo.blogspot.de/2013/11/paul-lassey.html
http://www.braithwaiteandwhiteley.com/
http://www.braithwaiteandwhiteley.com/
"Mr. Subway Man" - Diana Braithwaite & Chris Whiteley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_KX3oUg7zQ
Chris Whiteley *25.04.
He formed a group with his brother Ken, and soon they were performing on the Festival circuit, meeting and playing with such artists as Roosevelt Sykes, Taj Mahal, Sam Chatmon of the Mississippi Sheiks, Bukka White and John Hammond. About this time, he served in the house band at Toronto’s then Rock and Roll concert venue “The Rockpile”, where the band provided back up for many visiting artists, including Chuck Berry and John Lee Hooker. Another important mentor for Whiteley was the great Chicago piano player Blind John Davis, who had been the house piano player for Bluebird Records. He had the opportunity to perform many shows and also record an album with Blind John.
He also toured with Leon Redbone, playing cornet and harmonica. He recorded an album with Leon, and also appeared with him on Saturday Night Live in New York.
His own career continued to progress, both as a leader and as a sought after session player. He has appeared on over 200 recordings, playing guitar, trumpet, harmonica and pedal steel . His own recordings have led to many awards and accolades,including Jazz Report Blues Album of the Year, six Juno Award nominations, and 7 Maple Blues Awards, as Horn Player of the Year and Songwriter of the Year. In 2010 he was awarded the prestigious ”Blues with a Feeling” lifetime achievement award. As a composer, LIVING BLUES Magazine praised his “witty lyrics–classic traditional blues” and SING OUT! called his songs ”Sparks -striking originals”. Chris has written a number one Canadian country hit for the band Prairie Oyster, and also had his songs recorded by such artists as Amos Garret, Cindy Church, Penny Lang, The BeBop Cowboys, Lunch at Allens, Quartette and Juno winning blues band Fathead.He has also written music for radio, television and film, including Sesame Street and the National Film Board. Chris composed the music for the acclaimed documentary “The Bunny Years”, (about the Playboy clubs), which has aired internationally on the A & E, B.B.C., and C.T.V. networks with great success.
Chris has continued to perform throughout North America, on Television and radio,and at festivals, clubs and concerts-including Saturday Night Live with Leon Redbone,Nashvilles’ famed Bluebird Cafe and has twice appeared at the prestigious Chicago Blues Festival.Chris often performs as part of the award winning CBC Radio show The Vinyl Cafe with Stuart McLean, touring large theatres across Canada.
His latest project is a collaboration with acclaimed blues singer Diana Braithwaite. They have received multiple Maple Blues awards and nominations, and have toured extensively in North America, Europe, and the U.K. Their first album Morning Sun received many rave reviews internationally, (Blues In Britain called it “Manna from Heaven”), and a 2cnd CD, Night Bird Blues, was launched in the fall of 2008, with a 5 week tour of the U.K., Russia, and Europe.The album climbed to number 2 on B.B. King’s Bluesville on XM Satellite Radio.
Chris and Diana have since released 2 more albums, DeltaPhonic and Scrap Metal Blues, and are helping to launch the disc with another European tour and a concert at Toronto’s Glen Gould Studio. They have appeared at Festivals worldwide, including New York City, England, Ireland, and are off to Blues festivals in Pennsylvania and South Carolina this summer.
He also toured with Leon Redbone, playing cornet and harmonica. He recorded an album with Leon, and also appeared with him on Saturday Night Live in New York.
His own career continued to progress, both as a leader and as a sought after session player. He has appeared on over 200 recordings, playing guitar, trumpet, harmonica and pedal steel . His own recordings have led to many awards and accolades,including Jazz Report Blues Album of the Year, six Juno Award nominations, and 7 Maple Blues Awards, as Horn Player of the Year and Songwriter of the Year. In 2010 he was awarded the prestigious ”Blues with a Feeling” lifetime achievement award. As a composer, LIVING BLUES Magazine praised his “witty lyrics–classic traditional blues” and SING OUT! called his songs ”Sparks -striking originals”. Chris has written a number one Canadian country hit for the band Prairie Oyster, and also had his songs recorded by such artists as Amos Garret, Cindy Church, Penny Lang, The BeBop Cowboys, Lunch at Allens, Quartette and Juno winning blues band Fathead.He has also written music for radio, television and film, including Sesame Street and the National Film Board. Chris composed the music for the acclaimed documentary “The Bunny Years”, (about the Playboy clubs), which has aired internationally on the A & E, B.B.C., and C.T.V. networks with great success.
Chris has continued to perform throughout North America, on Television and radio,and at festivals, clubs and concerts-including Saturday Night Live with Leon Redbone,Nashvilles’ famed Bluebird Cafe and has twice appeared at the prestigious Chicago Blues Festival.Chris often performs as part of the award winning CBC Radio show The Vinyl Cafe with Stuart McLean, touring large theatres across Canada.
His latest project is a collaboration with acclaimed blues singer Diana Braithwaite. They have received multiple Maple Blues awards and nominations, and have toured extensively in North America, Europe, and the U.K. Their first album Morning Sun received many rave reviews internationally, (Blues In Britain called it “Manna from Heaven”), and a 2cnd CD, Night Bird Blues, was launched in the fall of 2008, with a 5 week tour of the U.K., Russia, and Europe.The album climbed to number 2 on B.B. King’s Bluesville on XM Satellite Radio.
Chris and Diana have since released 2 more albums, DeltaPhonic and Scrap Metal Blues, and are helping to launch the disc with another European tour and a concert at Toronto’s Glen Gould Studio. They have appeared at Festivals worldwide, including New York City, England, Ireland, and are off to Blues festivals in Pennsylvania and South Carolina this summer.
http://www.braithwaiteandwhiteley.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_KX3oUg7zQ
Roxy Perry *25.04.1950
A child prodigy, Roxy started out fronting swing bands at the famous Glen Island Casino in New Rochelle, New York and performed her first major concert at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California at age 9. In her early teens, she began fronting her own bands. By her late teens, she was working six nights a week with her 10-piece soul band at the Peppermint Lounge on 45th Street and Times Square in New York City. It was there that she was discovered and did her first studio recording as a back-up vocalist. This led to her going on tour for four years with the pop-rock band, Dawn, representing their hits of the time. The band headlined concert tours with Kenny Rogers, The Carpenters, Rare Earth, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Iron Butterfly, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Mike Nesmith, Mark Lindsay and many others. In the ‘80’s an EP was released on Personal Records, produced by Richie Cordell, which was high on the Billboard charts for two months.
Roxy launched her blues career in the late ‘80’s, when she quickly became known for her exciting live performances at clubs, concert halls and festivals throughout the U.S. and abroad and won her reputation as “the real deal” through her riveting live performances and highly acclaimed CDs in blues and jazz circles worldwide.
In recent years Roxy has appeared on the concert bill with Rod Piazza, Shamekia Copeland, Leon Russell, Marcia Ball, John Mayall, Saphire, Hubert Sumlin, Gatemouth Brown, Koko Taylor, Taj Mahal, the Neville Brothers, Popa Chubby, Derek Trucks, The Black Crowes, Susan Tedeschi, Duke Robillard and a host of others. In 2007, Roxy and her band performed at the renowned Montreux Jazz Festival, where they headlined two stages, including the Lake Geneva Blues Cruise
As a recording artist, Roxy has performed, produced and written the material for four highly acclaimed CDs that have been added to classic female Blues artist lists on radio stations throughout the world. They are titled HI HEEL BLUES (Monad Records), ROXY PERRY, NEW YORK BLUES QUEEN (BluePerry Hill Records), BACK IN BLUESVILLE (BluePerry Hill Records), and her most recent CD, IN MY SWEET TIME (BluePerry Hill Records). Many of her original songs appear on compilation blues CDs. Her unique version of HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN appeared on the compilation album, PUBLIC DOMAIN (Purchase Records), which was nominated for a Grammy award. In 2006, BACK IN BLUESVILLE was awarded BEST SELF-PRODUCED CD at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee.
Roxy is also featured on a long list of Blues albums as both backup and featured vocalist. Blues legend Roscoe Gordon chose Roxy to sing three part harmonies on his entire last release that aired worldwide.
In 2007, Roxy was presented with the prestigious ARTIST OF THE YEAR award by the Westchester Arts Council, New York. In 2009, Roxy Perry was officially recognized and inducted as a GREAT BLUES MUSICIAN, New Yorkin the BLUES HALL OF FAME®.
Media recognition over the years has been extensive, notably a cover story and 6-page interview in the international magazine, BLUES ROCKS THE WORLD, and stellar reviews in DOWNBEAT, BLUES REVUE, BLUES MATTERS, and many more.
Roxy’s music has been featured on the legendary KING BISCUIT HOUR, and the HOUSE OF BLUES RADIO HOUR hosted by Elwood Blues (Dan Aykroyd). The syndicated radio program, PORTRAITS IN BLUE, which profiles Blues legends and rising stars, produced an hour-long feature on Roxy Perry. This historic documentary airs regularly on NPR stations. Her music continues to be heard regularly on MUSIC CHOICE, DIRECT TV, hundreds of radio stations, web and podcasts. Roxy can also be heard around the world as host to her weekly on-line radio program, NEW YORK BLUES-BIRD, broadcast on KCOR kconlineradio.com.
Roxy launched her blues career in the late ‘80’s, when she quickly became known for her exciting live performances at clubs, concert halls and festivals throughout the U.S. and abroad and won her reputation as “the real deal” through her riveting live performances and highly acclaimed CDs in blues and jazz circles worldwide.
In recent years Roxy has appeared on the concert bill with Rod Piazza, Shamekia Copeland, Leon Russell, Marcia Ball, John Mayall, Saphire, Hubert Sumlin, Gatemouth Brown, Koko Taylor, Taj Mahal, the Neville Brothers, Popa Chubby, Derek Trucks, The Black Crowes, Susan Tedeschi, Duke Robillard and a host of others. In 2007, Roxy and her band performed at the renowned Montreux Jazz Festival, where they headlined two stages, including the Lake Geneva Blues Cruise
As a recording artist, Roxy has performed, produced and written the material for four highly acclaimed CDs that have been added to classic female Blues artist lists on radio stations throughout the world. They are titled HI HEEL BLUES (Monad Records), ROXY PERRY, NEW YORK BLUES QUEEN (BluePerry Hill Records), BACK IN BLUESVILLE (BluePerry Hill Records), and her most recent CD, IN MY SWEET TIME (BluePerry Hill Records). Many of her original songs appear on compilation blues CDs. Her unique version of HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN appeared on the compilation album, PUBLIC DOMAIN (Purchase Records), which was nominated for a Grammy award. In 2006, BACK IN BLUESVILLE was awarded BEST SELF-PRODUCED CD at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee.
Roxy is also featured on a long list of Blues albums as both backup and featured vocalist. Blues legend Roscoe Gordon chose Roxy to sing three part harmonies on his entire last release that aired worldwide.
In 2007, Roxy was presented with the prestigious ARTIST OF THE YEAR award by the Westchester Arts Council, New York. In 2009, Roxy Perry was officially recognized and inducted as a GREAT BLUES MUSICIAN, New Yorkin the BLUES HALL OF FAME®.
Media recognition over the years has been extensive, notably a cover story and 6-page interview in the international magazine, BLUES ROCKS THE WORLD, and stellar reviews in DOWNBEAT, BLUES REVUE, BLUES MATTERS, and many more.
Roxy’s music has been featured on the legendary KING BISCUIT HOUR, and the HOUSE OF BLUES RADIO HOUR hosted by Elwood Blues (Dan Aykroyd). The syndicated radio program, PORTRAITS IN BLUE, which profiles Blues legends and rising stars, produced an hour-long feature on Roxy Perry. This historic documentary airs regularly on NPR stations. Her music continues to be heard regularly on MUSIC CHOICE, DIRECT TV, hundreds of radio stations, web and podcasts. Roxy can also be heard around the world as host to her weekly on-line radio program, NEW YORK BLUES-BIRD, broadcast on KCOR kconlineradio.com.
Roxy Perry, Blues, Views & BBQ 2012
Fast Eddy Wilkinson *25.04.
FAST EDDY’S BLUE BAND wurde 1990 von dem in London geborenen Bluesrock-Sänger Eddy Wilkinson ”The Voice from London” gegründet. Ihr unverwechselbarer Stil wird geprägt von mitreißendem, dynamischen Blues und Rock mit leichten Elementen aus Soul und Funk. Getragen von Eddys unverwechselbarer und ausdrucksstarker Stimme – Blues, der aus der Seele kommt – und seinem Bühnenauftritt ist jede Show ein Feuerwerk aus Humor, Leidenschaft und musikalischer Power.
Die Band blickt seit ihrer Gründung auf unzählige Auftritte im Süddeutschen Raum und dem nahen Ausland zurück. International Blues & Jazz Festivals, Top Blues, Rock & Jazz Clubs, darunter auch eine Reihe von Top-Acts wie zum Beispiel: Montreux Jazz Festival (CH), Bowers & Wilkins Festival (D) Blue Balls Festival (CH), Cognac Blues Passions (F), Gastro & Blues Festival (H), Flims Blues Festival (CH) Blues Schmus & Apfelmus (D) und viele weitere (siehe auch “Highlights” auf der Website).
Der Stil der Band wird maßgeblich beeinflusst von Größen wie B.B. King / Freddie King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, über Johnny Winter/ Willy Dixon / Albert King / Muddy Waters / Jimmy Reed bis the Fabulous Thunderbirds/ Joe Cocker/ Marvin Gaye/ Wilson Picket/ Otis Redding und viele weitere Interpreten.
Eddys eigene Songs, deren Anzahl ständig wächst, spiegeln Einflüsse aus seinen Lebensstationen in USA, in Sydney/Australien und nicht zuletzt seinen unzähligen Touren in Deutschland, Schweiz, Frankreich und Europa wider. Viele dieser Songs stehen im festen Repertoire der Band und sind auch auf den CDs vertreten. Bislang wurden vier Studio-CDs und eine Live-CD produziert: “Blues Club”, “Blues Hunter”, “Honesty”, “Milestone On The Highway 1994″ und “One Step Ahead Live”. Eine weiterere Band CD “Best Of 25 Years – Blues & Songs” mit der Plattenfirma Stormy Monday Records ist am 15. Februar 2015 erschienen
Die neue “FAST EDDY’S BLUE BAND” CD “BEST OF 25 YEARS – BLUES & SONGS” STORMY MONDAY RECORDS wird für der “Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik” März/April 2015 nominiert.
Weiter ist Eddy mit dem Schreiben neuer Songs für ein neues Solo-Akustik-Singer, Songwriter, CD-Produktion, beschäftigt.
Jede Show der Band ist unnachahmlich, stimmungsvoll, mitreißend, erfrischend und lässt nur einen Wunsch offen: wann kommt der nächste Auftritt! In diesem Sinne, “Keep on Loving and Bluesing”.
FAST EDDY’S BLUE BAND was founded by the London born Blues Rock singer Eddy Wilkinson ”The Voice from London” in 1990.The band combines an exciting, dynamic, blues and rock show, sprinkled with soul and funk elements.Topped-off with Eddy’s instantly recognisable voice, that comes right from the heart, the show is full of power, wit and passion.
The Fast Eddy’s Blue Band have been playing non stop since it’s beginning, radiating out from it’s base in Stuttgart, Southern Germany. The band have played many International Blues & Jazz Festivals & Top Blues, Rock & Jazz Clubs across Germany, Switzerland and Europe including: Montreux Jazz Festival (CH), Bowers & Wilkins Festival (D) Blue Balls Festival (CH), Cognac Blues Passions (F),Gastro & Blues Festival (H), Flims Blues Festival (CH) Blues Schmus & Apfelmus (D) and many more (check “Highlights”)
The Fast Eddy’s Blue Band draw on influences from B.B. King / Freddie King to Stevie Ray Vaughan, Johnny Winter/ Willy Dixon/ Albert King / Muddy Waters / Jimmy Reed to the Fabulous Thunderbirds/ Joe Cocker/ Marvin Gaye/ Wilson Picket/ Otis Redding and too many more artists to mention.
Eddy’s prolific song writing reflects the influences of his time living in the USA, Sydney/Australia and of course his never ending travels and touring around Germany, Switzerland, France and Europe. Some of these songs are included in the bands repertoire and also on his CDs. He has produced and recorded four studio CDs and a Live CD: “Blues Club” (2011) , “Milestone On The Highway 1994″ (2010) , “Blues Hunter” (2000) , “Honesty” (1996) , “One Step Ahead – Live” (2006) A new band studio CD “Best Of 25 Years – Blues & Songs” is being released with the record label “Stormy Monday Records” on the 15th February 2015.
The Fast Eddy’s Blue Band show is guarenteed to lift you up, get you in the groove and get you in the mood. ” Keep on Loving and Bluesing “
The Fast Eddy’s Blue Band have been playing non stop since it’s beginning, radiating out from it’s base in Stuttgart, Southern Germany. The band have played many International Blues & Jazz Festivals & Top Blues, Rock & Jazz Clubs across Germany, Switzerland and Europe including: Montreux Jazz Festival (CH), Bowers & Wilkins Festival (D) Blue Balls Festival (CH), Cognac Blues Passions (F),Gastro & Blues Festival (H), Flims Blues Festival (CH) Blues Schmus & Apfelmus (D) and many more (check “Highlights”)
The Fast Eddy’s Blue Band draw on influences from B.B. King / Freddie King to Stevie Ray Vaughan, Johnny Winter/ Willy Dixon/ Albert King / Muddy Waters / Jimmy Reed to the Fabulous Thunderbirds/ Joe Cocker/ Marvin Gaye/ Wilson Picket/ Otis Redding and too many more artists to mention.
Eddy’s prolific song writing reflects the influences of his time living in the USA, Sydney/Australia and of course his never ending travels and touring around Germany, Switzerland, France and Europe. Some of these songs are included in the bands repertoire and also on his CDs. He has produced and recorded four studio CDs and a Live CD: “Blues Club” (2011) , “Milestone On The Highway 1994″ (2010) , “Blues Hunter” (2000) , “Honesty” (1996) , “One Step Ahead – Live” (2006) A new band studio CD “Best Of 25 Years – Blues & Songs” is being released with the record label “Stormy Monday Records” on the 15th February 2015.
The Fast Eddy’s Blue Band show is guarenteed to lift you up, get you in the groove and get you in the mood. ” Keep on Loving and Bluesing “
Fast Eddy's Blue Band "Live" Kuckuksie Nürtingen performing Eddy Wilkinson song "Full Moon Shining"
Watermelon Slim *25.04.1949
Watermelon Slim (* in Boston; eigentlich Bill Homans) ist ein US-amerikanischer Bluesmusiker, der Slidegitarre und Mundharmonika spielt.Leben
Er wurde zwar in Boston geboren, wuchs aber in North Carolina auf, wo er bereits mit fünf Jahren mit dem Blues in Berührung kam.[1] Später verließ er die Schule, um als Soldat nach Vietnam zu gehen. Dort brachte er sich, während er verwundet im Lazarett lag, das Slidegitarrenspiel bei. Ernstlich der Musik wendete er sich 1970 zu, als er als entschiedener Kriegsgegner aus dem Vietnamkrieg zurückkehrte.[2] Die Erfahrungen des Vietnamkrieges verarbeitete er in seinem ersten Album "Merry Airbrakes", das 1973 auf einem kleinen Label erschien. Die nächsten 30 Jahre seines Lebens verbrachte er mit verschiedenen Jobs, darunter auch als Arbeiter auf einer Wassermelonenfarm in Oklahoma , wovon sich auch sein Bühnenname herleitet. 2002 erlitt er einen Herzinfarkt, der ihn beinahe das Leben kostete.[3] Obwohl er den größten Teil seines Erwachsenenlebens als Arbeiter verbrachte, erreichte er Bachelor-Abschlüsse in Journalistik und Geschichte (University of Oregon) und einen Masters-Abschluss in Geschichte (Oklahoma State University). Als Heimkehrer aus dem Vietnamkrieg ist er Mitglied und Unterstützer der Vietnam Veterans Against the War, sowie Mitglied von Mensa International, einem Verein von Personen mit hohem IQ.
Bill Homans, professionally known as "Watermelon Slim", is an American blues musician. He plays both guitar and harmonica. He is currently signed to NorthernBlues Music, based in Toronto, Ontario.
Biography
Homans has been performing since the 1970s and has been linked to several notable blues musicians, including John Lee Hooker, Robert Cray, Champion Jack Dupree, Bonnie Raitt, "Country" Joe McDonald, and Henry Vestine of Canned Heat.
The first recording project to feature Homans was Merry Airbrakes, an album recorded and released on a small label in 1973 after returning from a tour of duty in Vietnam. Homans had become, after his return home, involved with Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and the album had songs with lyrics reflecting drug use, spiritual exploration, and involvement with the emotional cost of fighting "enemies." The album, originals of which are now highly collectible, has been re-released.
His more recent music is rooted in the Mississippi Delta style, as he plays his dobro guitar lap-style, lefthanded and backwards, with a slide. While for decades typically an acoustic performer, with The Workers he has concentrated more on playing electric.
In 1998, Homans met two Oklahoma State University philosophy professors, Doren Recker and Mike Rhodes, with whom he started a band called "Fried Okra Jones". This band went through several changes in personnel, including the blues woman Honour Hero Havoc, bass player, and guitarist "Texas" Ray Isom. In 1999, Homans recorded for the first time since 1973, an EP CD called "Fried Okra Jones". In 2002, Homans made his first national release for Southern Records, Big Shoes to Fill, produced by his longtime musical colleague from Massachusetts, Chris Stovall Brown, with cousins Kyle and Adam Enevoldsen on drums and bass. A few months later, Homans had a serious heart attack, but bounced back quickly and continued to drive trucks, hauling industrial waste, and in 2003, used his work vacation time to make his first international tour, a solo journey through southern England.
In 2004, Homans left this last truck driving job to go on tour with his supporting band, "The Workers". In 2005, Homans was nominated for the prestigious W. C. Handy Award for "Best New Artist Debut", for his acoustic masterpiece CD, Up Close and Personal, produced by Chris Hardwick. He and his band were also nominated for six more Handy Awards in 2006, in a variety of categories, and for a Maple Blues Award from the Toronto Blues Society for the 2006 album Watermelon Slim and the Workers. In early 2007, this album won in The 6th Annual Independent Music Awards for Best Blues Album.[1] Watermelon Slim & The Workers were also nominated for Blues Album of the year for The Wheel Man in the 7th annual The Independent Music Awards|Independent Music Awards.
In 2007, Homans made the CD The Wheel Man, which was nominated for another six Blues Music Awards. At the awards ceremony in 2008, Homans and his band won the award for Best Blues Band of 2007, and The Wheel Man was awarded Best Blues CD of 2007. Besides that, Homans won the Maple Blues Award for B.B. King International Entertainer. The Wheel Man also was No. 1 Blues Album in England's Mojo Magazine blues CD poll for the second year in a row.
In 2008, The Workers recorded their third CD for Toronto's NorthernBlues record label, No Paid Holidays. Homans was also inducted into the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame at this time.
In 2009, this CD was nominated for another four Blues Music Awards, for a total of seventeen awards from the Blues Foundation. A few months later, Escape From the Chicken Coop, Homans' first country-and-western CD recorded in Nashville with Paul Franklin, Darrell Scott and other top Nashville session players, was released on NorthernBlues. Future releases will include another Nashville record, reflecting Homans' North Carolina Grand Ol' Opry roots, an acoustic duo CD featuring Honour Havoc, and blues CDs with Mississippi bluesmen James "Super Chikan" Johnson and Robert "The Wolfman" Belfour.
Homans is a graduate of Lenox School for Boys, a boarding school in Lenox, MA. Homans has a bachelor's degree in journalism and history from the University of Oregon, and a master's degree in history from Oklahoma State University. Before dropping out to enlist in the Vietnam War he had attended Middlebury College. He came back home a fervent anti-war activist, and remains a member and supporter of Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
Film work
Watermelon Slim's music is featured in the 2009 environmental documentary Tar Creek, which is about the Tar Creek environmental disaster in Oklahoma. Music from Big Shoes to Fill, Up Close & Personal, plus a live version of "Oklahoma Blues" score this award-winning documentary by writer/director Matt Myers. Homans and Myers met while attending school together at Oklahoma State University.
Biography
Homans has been performing since the 1970s and has been linked to several notable blues musicians, including John Lee Hooker, Robert Cray, Champion Jack Dupree, Bonnie Raitt, "Country" Joe McDonald, and Henry Vestine of Canned Heat.
The first recording project to feature Homans was Merry Airbrakes, an album recorded and released on a small label in 1973 after returning from a tour of duty in Vietnam. Homans had become, after his return home, involved with Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and the album had songs with lyrics reflecting drug use, spiritual exploration, and involvement with the emotional cost of fighting "enemies." The album, originals of which are now highly collectible, has been re-released.
His more recent music is rooted in the Mississippi Delta style, as he plays his dobro guitar lap-style, lefthanded and backwards, with a slide. While for decades typically an acoustic performer, with The Workers he has concentrated more on playing electric.
In 1998, Homans met two Oklahoma State University philosophy professors, Doren Recker and Mike Rhodes, with whom he started a band called "Fried Okra Jones". This band went through several changes in personnel, including the blues woman Honour Hero Havoc, bass player, and guitarist "Texas" Ray Isom. In 1999, Homans recorded for the first time since 1973, an EP CD called "Fried Okra Jones". In 2002, Homans made his first national release for Southern Records, Big Shoes to Fill, produced by his longtime musical colleague from Massachusetts, Chris Stovall Brown, with cousins Kyle and Adam Enevoldsen on drums and bass. A few months later, Homans had a serious heart attack, but bounced back quickly and continued to drive trucks, hauling industrial waste, and in 2003, used his work vacation time to make his first international tour, a solo journey through southern England.
In 2004, Homans left this last truck driving job to go on tour with his supporting band, "The Workers". In 2005, Homans was nominated for the prestigious W. C. Handy Award for "Best New Artist Debut", for his acoustic masterpiece CD, Up Close and Personal, produced by Chris Hardwick. He and his band were also nominated for six more Handy Awards in 2006, in a variety of categories, and for a Maple Blues Award from the Toronto Blues Society for the 2006 album Watermelon Slim and the Workers. In early 2007, this album won in The 6th Annual Independent Music Awards for Best Blues Album.[1] Watermelon Slim & The Workers were also nominated for Blues Album of the year for The Wheel Man in the 7th annual The Independent Music Awards|Independent Music Awards.
In 2007, Homans made the CD The Wheel Man, which was nominated for another six Blues Music Awards. At the awards ceremony in 2008, Homans and his band won the award for Best Blues Band of 2007, and The Wheel Man was awarded Best Blues CD of 2007. Besides that, Homans won the Maple Blues Award for B.B. King International Entertainer. The Wheel Man also was No. 1 Blues Album in England's Mojo Magazine blues CD poll for the second year in a row.
In 2008, The Workers recorded their third CD for Toronto's NorthernBlues record label, No Paid Holidays. Homans was also inducted into the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame at this time.
In 2009, this CD was nominated for another four Blues Music Awards, for a total of seventeen awards from the Blues Foundation. A few months later, Escape From the Chicken Coop, Homans' first country-and-western CD recorded in Nashville with Paul Franklin, Darrell Scott and other top Nashville session players, was released on NorthernBlues. Future releases will include another Nashville record, reflecting Homans' North Carolina Grand Ol' Opry roots, an acoustic duo CD featuring Honour Havoc, and blues CDs with Mississippi bluesmen James "Super Chikan" Johnson and Robert "The Wolfman" Belfour.
Homans is a graduate of Lenox School for Boys, a boarding school in Lenox, MA. Homans has a bachelor's degree in journalism and history from the University of Oregon, and a master's degree in history from Oklahoma State University. Before dropping out to enlist in the Vietnam War he had attended Middlebury College. He came back home a fervent anti-war activist, and remains a member and supporter of Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
Film work
Watermelon Slim's music is featured in the 2009 environmental documentary Tar Creek, which is about the Tar Creek environmental disaster in Oklahoma. Music from Big Shoes to Fill, Up Close & Personal, plus a live version of "Oklahoma Blues" score this award-winning documentary by writer/director Matt Myers. Homans and Myers met while attending school together at Oklahoma State University.
Watermelon Slim"Poor Policy Blues"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWgXPzns1Jk
Ella
Jane Fitzgerald (* 25. April 1917[1] in Newport News, Virginia; † 15.
Juni 1996 in Beverly Hills, Kalifornien) war eine US-amerikanische
Jazz-Sängerin.
Leben
Ella Fitzgerald wuchs in Yonkers in der Nähe von New York auf und war seit ihrem vierzehnten Lebensjahr als Vollwaise auf sich allein gestellt. Ihr Debüt als Sängerin gab sie mit siebzehn im legendären Apollo Theater in Harlem; das Apollo Theater veranstaltete regelmäßige Amateurwettbewerbe, von denen sie einen gewann. Ursprünglich wollte sie bei diesem Talentwettbewerb als Tänzerin antreten; als der Moment des Auftritts gekommen war, zitterten ihr jedoch vor Aufregung so die Beine, dass sie stattdessen ein Lied sang.[2] Fitzgerald wurde daraufhin 1935 von Chick Webb in seine Big Band engagiert. 1936 nahmen sie mit Love and Kisses eine erste Platte auf; 1938 hatten sie einen Nummer-eins-Hit: Das fröhliche A Tisket A Tasket – eigentlich ein Kinderlied – machte sie mit Chick Webb zum Star.[3][4] Ein weiterer Nummer-eins-Hit gelang ihr mit Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall im Jahre 1944. Fitzgerald konnte sich sowohl in den Pop-, als auch in R&B- und Country-Charts der USA platzieren.
Als Chick Webb 1939 starb, übernahm sie zunächst die Band, die nun unter dem Namen Ella Fitzgerald and Her Famous Orchestra auftrat. Da Ella Fitzgerald aber keine Noten lesen konnte, taugte sie nicht als Bandleaderin. So begann sie 1941 ihre Solokarriere und entwickelte sich zu einer der größten Jazzsängerinnen. 1946 tourte sie mit Dizzy Gillespie und trat in der Jazz at the Philharmonic-Konzertreihe von Norman Granz auf, der sie auch in dem Musikfilm Improvisation (1950) mitwirken ließ. Nach einem Auftritt im Film Pete Kelly’s Blues 1955 ging sie zu Verve Records. Ihr Repertoire reichte von Swing über Bebop, Blues, Bossa Nova, Samba, Gospel und Hip-Hop bis zu verjazzten Weihnachtsliedern. Oft wurde sie die First Lady of Song genannt. Ihr Markenzeichen war eine Gesangsart, die sie mitentwickelte und der sie zu Weltruhm verhalf: der Scatgesang. Charakteristisch ist der jugendliche Charme ihrer Stimme und ihre bis heute unübertroffene Leichtigkeit der Phrasierung, welche es ihr erlaubte, mit einem beachtlichen Stimmumfang von drei Oktaven wie ein Jazz-Instrumentalist zu improvisieren.
Zu Fitzgeralds herausragenden Schallplatteneinspielungen zählen ihre Songbooks der wichtigsten amerikanischen Komponisten der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts, denen sie damit Denkmäler setzte und allen nachfolgenden Sängerinnen Lehrbücher für die perfekte Interpretation der jeweiligen Songs gab.
Im Folgenden eine Auflistung ihrer klassischen Songbooks für das Label Verve und die dazugehörigen Arrangeure:
1956 – Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook (Buddy Bregman)
1956 – Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Rodgers & Hart Songbook (Bregman)
1957 – Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook (Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn)
1958 – Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Songbook (Paul Weston)
1959 – Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook (Nelson Riddle)
1961 – Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Harold Arlen Songbook (Billy May)
1963 – Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Jerome Kern Songbook (Riddle)
1964 – Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Johnny Mercer Songbook (Riddle)
Für andere Plattenfirmen nahm sie später ebenfalls Songbooks auf, unter anderem erneut mit Liedern der Gebrüder Gershwin sowie Cole Porter und Antônio Carlos Jobim. Kolleginnen wie Sarah Vaughan oder Dinah Washington folgtem ihrem Beispiel und nahmen ebenfalls Songbooks auf. Eine weitere bedeutende Einspielung Fitzgeralds gibt es von Gershwins Oper Porgy and Bess, die sie gemeinsam mit Louis Armstrong aufnahm. Darüber hinaus gibt es zahlreiche Live-Einspielungen der Konzerte von Fitzgerald, die zeigen, dass es keinen Unterschied zwischen einem Studio- oder Livegig bei ihr gab. Die einzigen qualitativen Unterschiede bestehen bei der Aufnahmetechnik. Sie gewann insgesamt 13 Grammys; 1987 wurde sie mit der National Medal of Arts ausgezeichnet.
Sie litt lange Jahre an Diabetes, der gegen Ende ihres Lebens zur Erblindung führte. Eine weitere Folge der Krankheit war die Amputation beider Unterschenkel im Jahre 1993. Drei Jahre später verstarb sie als eine der wichtigsten Jazzsängerinnen des 20. Jahrhunderts. Sie liegt auf dem Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood bei Los Angeles begraben.
Privat
Fitzgerald war mindestens zweimal verheiratet. Ihre erste Ehe schloss sie 1939[5] – andere Quellen sprechen von 1941[6] – mit dem Hafenarbeiter Benjamin „Benny“ Kornegay, der ihr und ihrer Band als eine Art männlicher Groupie auf Schritt und Tritt folgte. Als sie nach kurzer Ehe von kriminellen Verwicklungen ihres Mannes erfuhr, ließ sie die Ehe annullieren. Ihr zweiter Ehemann war von 1946 bis 1952 – andere Quellen nennen wiederum abweichende Daten, wie z. B. 1947–1953 oder 10. Dezember 1947 – 1952 – der Bassist Ray Brown, mit dem sie ein Kind, Ray Brown jr., adoptierte. 1957 kursierten Berichte in der skandinavischen Presse, sie habe den jungen Norweger Thor Einar Larsen heimlich geheiratet.
Ella
Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996) was an American jazz
singer often referred to as the First Lady of Song, Queen of Jazz and
Lady Ella. She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction,
phrasing and intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability,
particularly in her scat singing.
After tumultuous teenage years, Fitzgerald found stability in musical success with performances on many stages in the Harlem area, including her rendition of the nursery rhyme "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" that helped boost her to fame. In 1942, Fitzgerald left the amateur performances behind, signed a deal with Decca Records, and started her solo career by redefining the art of scat singing. It was not until her manager, Norman Granz, built Verve Records based on her vocal abilities that she recorded some of her more widely noted works. Under this label, Fitzgerald focused more on singing than scatting, providing perhaps her most career-defining works in her interpretation of the Great American Songbook.
While Fitzgerald appeared in movies and as guests on popular television shows in the second half of the twentieth century, her musical collaborations with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and The Ink Spots were some of her most notable acts outside of her solo career. These partnerships produced recognizable songs like "Dream a Little Dream of Me", "Cheek to Cheek", "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall", and "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)". In 1993, Fitzgerald capped off her sixty-year career with her last public performance. Three years later, she died at the age of 79, following years of decline in her health. After her passing, Fitzgerald's influence lived on through her fourteen Grammy Awards, National Medal of Arts, Presidential Medal of Freedom, and tributes in the form of stamps, music festivals, and theater namesakes.
Early life
Fitzgerald was born on April 25, 1917 in Newport News, Virginia, the daughter of William Fitzgerald and Temperance "Tempie" Fitzgerald.[1] Her parents were unmarried, and they had separated within a year of her birth.[1] With her mother's new partner, a Portuguese immigrant named Joseph Da Silva, Fitzgerald and her mother moved to the city of Yonkers, in Westchester County, New York, as part of the first Great Migration of African Americans.[1] Initially living in a single room, her mother and Da Silva soon found jobs. Her half-sister, Frances Da Silva, was born in 1923.[2] By 1925, Fitzgerald and her family had moved to nearby School Street, then a predominantly poor Italian area.[2] At the age of six, she began her formal education and moved through a variety of schools before attending Benjamin Franklin Junior High School from 1929.[3]
Fitzgerald had been passionate about dancing from third grade, being a fan of Earl "Snakehips" Tucker in particular, and would perform for her peers on the way to school and at lunchtime.[4] Fitzgerald and her family were Methodists and were active in the Bethany African Methodist Episcopal Church, and she regularly attended worship services, Bible study, and Sunday school.[4] The church provided Fitzgerald with her earliest experiences in formal music making, and she may also have had a short series of piano lessons during this period.[3]
As a child Fitzgerald listened to jazz recordings by Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, and The Boswell Sisters. Fitzgerald idolized the Boswell Sisters' lead singer Connee Boswell, later saying, "My mother brought home one of her records, and I fell in love with it....I tried so hard to sound just like her."[5]
In 1932, her mother died from a heart attack when Fitzgerald was 15 years of age.[6] Following this trauma, Fitzgerald's grades dropped dramatically, and she frequently skipped school. Abused by her stepfather, she ran away to her aunt and,[7] at one point, worked as a lookout at a bordello and with a Mafia-affiliated numbers runner.[8] When the authorities caught up with her, she was first placed in the Colored Orphan Asylum in Riverdale, Bronx.[7] However, when the orphanage proved too crowded, she was moved to the New York Training School for Girls in Hudson, New York, a state reformatory located about 120 miles north of New York City. Eventually she escaped and for a time she was homeless.[7]
Early career
Fitzgerald made her singing debut at age 17 on November 21, 1934, at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York.[9][10] She pulled in a weekly audience at the Apollo and won the opportunity to compete in one of the earliest of its famous "Amateur Nights". She had originally intended to go on stage and dance, but, intimidated by the Edwards Sisters, a local dance duo, she opted to sing instead in the style of Connee Boswell.[10][11] She sang Boswell's "Judy" and "The Object of My Affection", a song recorded by the Boswell Sisters, and won the first prize of US $25.00.[12]
In January 1935, Fitzgerald won the chance to perform for a week with the Tiny Bradshaw band at the Harlem Opera House.[9] She met drummer and bandleader Chick Webb there. Webb had already hired singer Charlie Linton to work with the band and was, The New York Times later wrote, "reluctant to sign her....because she was gawky and unkempt, a 'diamond in the rough'."[5] Webb offered her the opportunity to test with his band when they played a dance at Yale University.[9] She began singing regularly with his orchestra throughout 1935 at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom.[9] Fitzgerald recorded several hit songs with them, including "Love and Kisses" and "(If You Can't Sing It) You'll Have to Swing It (Mr. Paganini)".[9] But it was her 1938 version of the nursery rhyme, "A-Tisket, A-Tasket", a song she co-wrote, that brought her wide public acclaim.[13][14]
Webb died on June 16, 1939,[15] and his band was renamed Ella and her Famous Orchestra with Fitzgerald taking on the role of nominal bandleader.[16] She recorded nearly 150 songs with the orchestra before it broke up in 1942; in her New York Times obituary of 1996, Stephen Holder wrote that "the majority of them (were) novelties and disposable pop fluff".[5]
Decca years
In 1942, Fitzgerald left the band to begin a solo career.[17] Now signed to the Decca label, she had several popular hits while recording with such artists as Bill Kenny & the Ink Spots,[18] Louis Jordan,[19] and the Delta Rhythm Boys.[20]
With Decca's Milt Gabler as her manager, Fitzgerald began working regularly for the jazz impresario Norman Granz and appeared regularly in his Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP) concerts. Her relationship with Granz was further cemented when he became her manager, although it would be nearly a decade before he could record her on one of his many record labels.
With the demise of the Swing era and the decline of the great touring big bands, a major change in jazz music occurred. The advent of bebop led to new developments in Fitzgerald's vocal style, influenced by her work with Dizzy Gillespie's big band. It was in this period that Fitzgerald started including scat singing as a major part of her performance repertoire. While singing with Gillespie, Fitzgerald recalled, "I just tried to do [with my voice] what I heard the horns in the band doing."[12]
Her 1945 scat recording of "Flying Home" arranged by Vic Schoen would later be described by The New York Times as "one of the most influential vocal jazz records of the decade....Where other singers, most notably Louis Armstrong, had tried similar improvisation, no one before Miss Fitzgerald employed the technique with such dazzling inventiveness."[5] Her bebop recording of "Oh, Lady Be Good!" (1947) was similarly popular and increased her reputation as one of the leading jazz vocalists.[21]
Verve years
Fitzgerald was still performing at Granz's JATP concerts by 1955. She left Decca and Granz, now her manager, created Verve Records around her. She later described the period as strategically crucial, saying, "I had gotten to the point where I was only singing be-bop. I thought be-bop was 'it', and that all I had to do was go some place and sing bop. But it finally got to the point where I had no place to sing. I realized then that there was more to music than bop. Norman ... felt that I should do other things, so he produced The Cole Porter Songbook with me. It was a turning point in my life."[5]
On March 15, 1955[22] Ella Fitzgerald opened her initial engagement at the Mocambo nightclub in Hollywood,[23] after Marilyn Monroe lobbied the owner for the booking.[24] The booking was instrumental in Fitzgerald's career. Bonnie Greer dramatized the incident as the musical drama, Marilyn and Ella, in 2008. It has been widely reported that Fitzgerald was the first Black performer to play the Mocambo, following Monroe's intervention, but this is not true. African-American singers Herb Jefferies,[25] Eartha Kitt,[26] and Joyce Bryan[27] all played the Mocambo in 1952 and 1953, according to stories published at the time in Jet magazine and Billboard.
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook, released in 1956, was the first of eight Songbook sets Fitzgerald would record for Verve at irregular intervals from 1956 to 1964. The composers and lyricists spotlighted on each set, taken together, represent the greatest part of the cultural canon known as the Great American Songbook. Her song selections ranged from standards to rarities and represented an attempt by Fitzgerald to cross over into a non-jazz audience. The sets are the most well-known items in her discography.
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book was the only Songbook on which the composer she interpreted played with her. Duke Ellington and his longtime collaborator Billy Strayhorn both appeared on exactly half the set's 38 tracks and wrote two new pieces of music for the album: "The E and D Blues" and a four-movement musical portrait of Fitzgerald (the only Songbook track on which Fitzgerald does not sing). The Songbook series ended up becoming the singer's most critically acclaimed and commercially successful work, and probably her most significant offering to American culture. The New York Times wrote in 1996, "These albums were among the first pop records to devote such serious attention to individual songwriters, and they were instrumental in establishing the pop album as a vehicle for serious musical exploration."[5]
A few days after Fitzgerald's death, The New York Times columnist Frank Rich wrote that in the Songbook series Fitzgerald "performed a cultural transaction as extraordinary as Elvis' contemporaneous integration of white and African American soul. Here was a black woman popularizing urban songs often written by immigrant Jews to a national audience of predominantly white Christians."[8] Frank Sinatra, out of respect for Fitzgerald, prohibited Capitol Records from re-releasing his own recordings in separate albums for individual composers in the same way.
Fitzgerald also recorded albums exclusively devoted to the songs of Porter and Gershwin in 1972 and 1983; the albums being, respectively, Ella Loves Cole and Nice Work If You Can Get It. A later collection devoted to a single composer was released during her time with Pablo Records, Ella Abraça Jobim, featuring the songs of Antônio Carlos Jobim.
While recording the Songbooks and the occasional studio album, Fitzgerald toured 40 to 45 weeks per year in the United States and internationally, under the tutelage of Norman Granz. Granz helped solidify her position as one of the leading live jazz performers.[5] In 1961 Fitzgerald bought a house in the Klampenborg district of Copenhagen, Denmark, after she began a relationship with a Danish man. Though the relationship ended after a year, Fitzgerald regularly returned to Denmark over the next three years, and even considered buying a jazz club there. The house was sold in 1963, and Fitzgerald permanently returned to the United States.[28]
There are several live albums on Verve that are highly regarded by critics. Ella at the Opera House shows a typical JATP set from Fitzgerald. Ella in Rome and Twelve Nights in Hollywood display her vocal jazz canon. Ella in Berlin is still one of her best selling albums; it includes a Grammy-winning performance of "Mack the Knife" in which she forgets the lyrics, but improvises magnificently to compensate.
Verve Records was sold to MGM in 1963 for $3 million and in 1967 MGM failed to renew Fitzgerald's contract. Over the next five years she flitted between Atlantic, Capitol and Reprise. Her material at this time represented a departure from her typical jazz repertoire. For Capitol she recorded Brighten the Corner, an album of hymns, Ella Fitzgerald's Christmas, an album of traditional Christmas carols, Misty Blue, a country and western-influenced album, and 30 by Ella, a series of six medleys that fulfilled her obligations for the label. During this period, she had her last US chart single with a cover of Smokey Robinson's "Get Ready", previously a hit for the Temptations, and some months later a top-five hit for Rare Earth.
The surprise success of the 1972 album Jazz at Santa Monica Civic '72 led Granz to found Pablo Records, his first record label since the sale of Verve. Fitzgerald recorded some 20 albums for the label. Ella in London recorded live in 1974 with pianist Tommy Flanagan, guitarist Joe Pass, bassist Keter Betts and drummer Bobby Durham, was considered by many to be some of her best work. The following year she again performed with Joe Pass on German television station NDR in Hamburg. Her years with Pablo Records also documented the decline in her voice. "She frequently used shorter, stabbing phrases, and her voice was harder, with a wider vibrato", one biographer wrote.[29] Plagued by health problems, Fitzgerald made her last recording in 1991 and her last public performances in 1993.[30]
Film and television
In her most notable screen role, Fitzgerald played the part of singer Maggie Jackson in Jack Webb's 1955 jazz film Pete Kelly's Blues.[31] The film costarred Janet Leigh and singer Peggy Lee.[32] Even though she had already worked in the movies (she had sung briefly in the 1942 Abbott and Costello film Ride 'Em Cowboy),[33] she was "delighted" when Norman Granz negotiated the role for her, and, "at the time....considered her role in the Warner Brothers movie the biggest thing ever to have happened to her."[29] Amid The New York Times pan of the film when it opened in August 1955, the reviewer wrote, "About five minutes (out of ninety-five) suggest the picture this might have been. Take the ingenious prologue ... [or] take the fleeting scenes when the wonderful Ella Fitzgerald, allotted a few spoken lines, fills the screen and sound track with her strong mobile features and voice."[34] Fitzgerald's race precluded major big-screen success. After Pete Kelly's Blues, she appeared in sporadic movie cameos, in St. Louis Blues (1958),[35] and Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960).[36] Much later, she appeared in the 1980s television drama The White Shadow.
She made numerous guest appearances on television shows, singing on The Frank Sinatra Show, The Andy Williams Show, The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, and alongside other greats Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, Mel Tormé, and many others. She was also frequently featured on The Ed Sullivan Show. Perhaps her most unusual and intriguing performance was of the "Three Little Maids" song from Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operetta The Mikado alongside Joan Sutherland and Dinah Shore on Shore's weekly variety series in 1963. A performance at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London was filmed and shown on the BBC. Fitzgerald also made a one-off appearance alongside Sarah Vaughan and Pearl Bailey on a 1979 television special honoring Bailey. In 1980, she performed a medley of standards in a duet with Karen Carpenter on the Carpenters' television program Music, Music, Music.[37]
Fitzgerald also appeared in TV commercials, her most memorable being an ad for Memorex.[38] In the commercials, she sang a note that shattered a glass while being recorded on a Memorex cassette tape.[39] The tape was played back and the recording also broke the glass, asking: "Is it live, or is it Memorex?"[39] She also starred in a number of commercials for Kentucky Fried Chicken, singing and scatting to the fast-food chain's longtime slogan, "We do chicken right!"[40] Her final commercial campaign was for American Express, in which she was photographed by Annie Leibovitz.[41]
Collaborations
Fitzgerald's most famous collaborations were with the vocal quartet Bill Kenny & the Ink Spots, trumpeter Louis Armstrong, the guitarist Joe Pass, and the bandleaders Count Basie and Duke Ellington.
From 1943 to 1950, Fitzgerald recorded seven songs with the Ink Spots featuring Bill Kenny. Out of all seven recordings, four reached the top of the pop charts including "I'm Making Believe" and "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall" which both reached #1.
Fitzgerald recorded three Verve studio albums with Armstrong, two albums of standards (1956's Ella and Louis and 1957's Ella and Louis Again), and a third album featured music from the Gershwin musical Porgy and Bess. Fitzgerald also recorded a number of sides with Armstrong for Decca in the early 1950s.
Fitzgerald is sometimes referred to as the quintessential swing singer, and her meetings with Count Basie are highly regarded by critics. Fitzgerald features on one track on Basie's 1957 album One O'Clock Jump, while her 1963 album Ella and Basie! is remembered as one of her greatest recordings. With the 'New Testament' Basie band in full swing, and arrangements written by a young Quincy Jones, this album proved a respite from the 'Songbook' recordings and constant touring that Fitzgerald was engaged in during this period. Fitzgerald and Basie also collaborated on the 1972 album Jazz at Santa Monica Civic '72, and on the 1979 albums Digital III at Montreux, A Classy Pair and A Perfect Match.
Fitzgerald and Joe Pass recorded four albums together toward the end of Fitzgerald's career. She recorded several albums with piano accompaniment, but a guitar proved the perfect melodic foil for her. Fitzgerald and Pass appeared together on the albums Take Love Easy (1973), Easy Living (1986), Speak Love (1983) and Fitzgerald and Pass... Again (1976).
Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington recorded two live albums, and two studio albums. Her Duke Ellington Songbook placed Ellington firmly in the canon known as the Great American Songbook, and the 1960s saw Fitzgerald and the 'Duke' meet on the Côte d'Azur for the 1966 album Ella and Duke at the Cote D'Azur, and in Sweden for The Stockholm Concert, 1966. Their 1965 album Ella at Duke's Place is also extremely well received.
Fitzgerald had a number of famous jazz musicians and soloists as sidemen over her long career. The trumpeters Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie, the guitarist Herb Ellis, and the pianists Tommy Flanagan, Oscar Peterson, Lou Levy, Paul Smith, Jimmy Rowles, and Ellis Larkins all worked with Ella mostly in live, small group settings.
Possibly Fitzgerald's greatest unrealized collaboration (in terms of popular music) was a studio or live album with Frank Sinatra. The two appeared on the same stage only periodically over the years, in television specials in 1958 and 1959, and again on 1967's A Man and His Music + Ella + Jobim, a show that also featured Antônio Carlos Jobim. Pianist Paul Smith has said, "Ella loved working with [Frank]. Sinatra gave her his dressing-room on A Man and His Music and couldn't do enough for her." When asked, Norman Granz would cite "complex contractual reasons" for the fact that the two artists never recorded together.[29] Fitzgerald's appearance with Sinatra and Count Basie in June 1974 for a series of concerts at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, was seen as an important incentive for Sinatra to return from his self-imposed retirement of the early 1970s. The shows were a great success, and September 1975 saw them gross $1,000,000 in two weeks on Broadway, in a triumvirate with the Count Basie Orchestra.
Later life and death
In 1985, Fitzgerald was hospitalized briefly for respiratory problems,[42] in 1986 for congestive heart failure,[43] and in 1990 for exhaustion.[44] In March 1990 she appeared at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England with the Count Basie Orchestra for the launch of Jazz FM, plus a gala dinner at the Grosvenor House Hotel at which she performed.[45] In 1993, she had to have both of her legs amputated below the knee due to the effects of diabetes.[46] Her eyesight was affected as well.[5]
In 1996, tired of being in the hospital, she wished to spend her last days at home. Confined to a wheelchair, she spent her final days in her backyard of her Beverly Hills mansion on Whittier, with her son Ray and 12-year-old granddaughter, Alice. "I just want to smell the air, listen to the birds and hear Alice laugh," she reportedly said. On her last day, she was wheeled outside one last time, and sat there for about an hour. When she was taken back in, she looked up with a soft smile on her face and said, "I'm ready to go now." She died in her home on June 15, 1996 at the age of 79.[5] A few hours after her death, the Playboy Jazz Festival was launched at the Hollywood Bowl. In tribute, the marquee read: "Ella We Will Miss You."[47] Her funeral was private,[47] and she was buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.
Personal life
Fitzgerald married at least twice, and there is evidence that she may have married a third time. Her first marriage was in 1941, to Benny Kornegay, a convicted drug dealer and local dockworker. The marriage was annulled in 1942.[48]
Her second marriage was in December 1947, to the famous bass player Ray Brown, whom she had met while on tour with Dizzy Gillespie's band a year earlier. Together they adopted a child born to Fitzgerald's half-sister, Frances, whom they christened Ray Brown, Jr. With Fitzgerald and Brown often busy touring and recording, the child was largely raised by his mother's aunt, Virginia. Fitzgerald and Brown divorced in 1953, bowing to the various career pressures both were experiencing at the time, though they would continue to perform together.[5]
In July 1957, Reuters reported that Fitzgerald had secretly married Thor Einar Larsen, a young Norwegian, in Oslo. She had even gone as far as furnishing an apartment in Oslo, but the affair was quickly forgotten when Larsen was sentenced to five months' hard labor in Sweden for stealing money from a young woman to whom he had previously been engaged.[49]
Fitzgerald was also notoriously shy. Trumpet player Mario Bauzá, who played behind Fitzgerald in her early years with Chick Webb, remembered that "she didn't hang out much. When she got into the band, she was dedicated to her music....She was a lonely girl around New York, just kept herself to herself, for the gig."[29] When, later in her career, the Society of Singers named an award after her, Fitzgerald explained, "I don't want to say the wrong thing, which I always do but I think I do better when I sing."[12]
Fitzgerald was a quiet but ardent supporter of many charities and non-profit organizations, including the American Heart Association and the City of Hope Medical Center. In 1993, she established the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation.[50]
Discography and collections
The primary collections of Fitzgerald's media and memorabilia reside at and are shared between the Smithsonian Institution and the US Library of Congress [51]
Awards, citations and honors
Fitzgerald won thirteen Grammy Awards,[52] and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1967.[53]
Other major awards and honors she received during her career were the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Medal of Honor Award, National Medal of Art, first Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award, named "Ella" in her honor, Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement, UCLA Spring Sing.[54] Across town at the University of Southern California, she received the USC "Magnum Opus" Award which hangs in the office of the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation. In 1990, she received an honorary doctorate of Music from Harvard University.[55]
Tributes and legacy
The career history and archival material from Ella's long career are housed in the Archives Center at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, while her personal music arrangements are at the Library of Congress. Her extensive cookbook collection was donated to the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University, and her extensive collection of published sheet music was donated to UCLA.
In 1997, Newport News, Virginia created a music festival with Christopher Newport University to honor Ella Fitzgerald in her birth city. The Ella Fitzgerald Music Festival is designed to teach the region's youth of the musical legacy of Fitzgerald and jazz. Past performers at the week-long festival include: Diana Krall, Arturo Sandoval, Jean Carne, Phil Woods, Aretha Franklin, Victoria Wyndham, Charles Keating, Freda Payne, Cassandra Wilson, Ethel Ennis, David Sanborn, Jane Monheit, Dianne Reeves, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ramsey Lewis, Patti Austin, Lalah Hathaway, Ledisi, Chrisette Michele, Natalie Cole, Freddie Jackson, Joe Harnell, Roy Ayers and Ann Hampton Callaway.
Callaway, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Patti Austin have all recorded albums in tribute to Fitzgerald. Callaway's album To Ella with Love (1996) features fourteen jazz standards made popular by Fitzgerald, and the album also features the trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. Bridgewater's album Dear Ella (1997) featured many musicians that were closely associated with Fitzgerald during her career, including the pianist Lou Levy, the trumpeter Benny Powell, and Fitzgerald's second husband, double bassist Ray Brown. Bridgewater's following album, Live at Yoshi's, was recorded live on April 25, 1998, what would have been Fitzgerald's 81st birthday.
Austin's album, For Ella (2002) features 11 songs most immediately associated with Fitzgerald, and a twelfth song, "Hearing Ella Sing" is Austin's tribute to Fitzgerald. The album was nominated for a Grammy. In 2007, We All Love Ella, was released, a tribute album recorded for the 90th anniversary of Fitzgerald's birth. It featured artists such as Michael Bublé, Natalie Cole, Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight, Diana Krall, k.d. lang, Queen Latifah, Ledisi, Dianne Reeves, Linda Ronstadt, and Lizz Wright, collating songs most readily associated with the "First Lady of Song". Folk singer Odetta's album To Ella (1998) is dedicated to Fitzgerald, but features no songs associated with her. Her accompanist Tommy Flanagan affectionately remembered Fitzgerald on his album Lady be Good ... For Ella (1994).
"Ella, elle l'a", a tribute to Fitzgerald written by Michel Berger and performed by French singer France Gall, was a hit in Europe in 1987 and 1988.[56] Fitzgerald is also referred to in the 1976 Stevie Wonder hit "Sir Duke" from his album Songs in the Key of Life, and the song "I Love Being Here With You", written by Peggy Lee and Bill Schluger. Sinatra's 1986 recording of "Mack the Knife" from his album L.A. Is My Lady (1984) includes a homage to some of the song's previous performers, including 'Lady Ella' herself. She is also honored in the song "First Lady" by Canadian artist Nikki Yanofsky.
In 2008, the Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center in Newport News named its brand new 276-seat theater the Ella Fitzgerald Theater. The theater is located several blocks away from her birthplace on Marshall Avenue. The Grand Opening performers (October 11 and 12, 2008) were Roberta Flack and Queen Esther Marrow.
In 2012, Rod Stewart performed a "virtual duet" with Ella Fitzgerald on his Christmas album Merry Christmas, Baby, and his television special of the same name.[57]
In 2013, Google paid tribute to Ella by celebrating her 96th birthday with a Google Doodle on its US homepage.[58]
There is a bronze sculpture of Fitzgerald in Yonkers, the city in which she grew up, created by American artist Vinnie Bagwell. It is located southeast of the main entrance to the Amtrak/Metro-North Railroad station in front of the city's old trolley barn. A bust of Fitzgerald is on the campus of Chapman University in Orange, California. On January 9, 2007, the United States Postal Service announced that Fitzgerald would be honored with her own postage stamp.[38] The stamp was released in April 2007 as part of the Postal Service's Black Heritage series.
Ella Jane Fitzgerald *25.04.1917
Ella
Jane Fitzgerald (* 25. April 1917[1] in Newport News, Virginia; † 15.
Juni 1996 in Beverly Hills, Kalifornien) war eine US-amerikanische
Jazz-Sängerin.Leben
Ella Fitzgerald wuchs in Yonkers in der Nähe von New York auf und war seit ihrem vierzehnten Lebensjahr als Vollwaise auf sich allein gestellt. Ihr Debüt als Sängerin gab sie mit siebzehn im legendären Apollo Theater in Harlem; das Apollo Theater veranstaltete regelmäßige Amateurwettbewerbe, von denen sie einen gewann. Ursprünglich wollte sie bei diesem Talentwettbewerb als Tänzerin antreten; als der Moment des Auftritts gekommen war, zitterten ihr jedoch vor Aufregung so die Beine, dass sie stattdessen ein Lied sang.[2] Fitzgerald wurde daraufhin 1935 von Chick Webb in seine Big Band engagiert. 1936 nahmen sie mit Love and Kisses eine erste Platte auf; 1938 hatten sie einen Nummer-eins-Hit: Das fröhliche A Tisket A Tasket – eigentlich ein Kinderlied – machte sie mit Chick Webb zum Star.[3][4] Ein weiterer Nummer-eins-Hit gelang ihr mit Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall im Jahre 1944. Fitzgerald konnte sich sowohl in den Pop-, als auch in R&B- und Country-Charts der USA platzieren.
Als Chick Webb 1939 starb, übernahm sie zunächst die Band, die nun unter dem Namen Ella Fitzgerald and Her Famous Orchestra auftrat. Da Ella Fitzgerald aber keine Noten lesen konnte, taugte sie nicht als Bandleaderin. So begann sie 1941 ihre Solokarriere und entwickelte sich zu einer der größten Jazzsängerinnen. 1946 tourte sie mit Dizzy Gillespie und trat in der Jazz at the Philharmonic-Konzertreihe von Norman Granz auf, der sie auch in dem Musikfilm Improvisation (1950) mitwirken ließ. Nach einem Auftritt im Film Pete Kelly’s Blues 1955 ging sie zu Verve Records. Ihr Repertoire reichte von Swing über Bebop, Blues, Bossa Nova, Samba, Gospel und Hip-Hop bis zu verjazzten Weihnachtsliedern. Oft wurde sie die First Lady of Song genannt. Ihr Markenzeichen war eine Gesangsart, die sie mitentwickelte und der sie zu Weltruhm verhalf: der Scatgesang. Charakteristisch ist der jugendliche Charme ihrer Stimme und ihre bis heute unübertroffene Leichtigkeit der Phrasierung, welche es ihr erlaubte, mit einem beachtlichen Stimmumfang von drei Oktaven wie ein Jazz-Instrumentalist zu improvisieren.
Zu Fitzgeralds herausragenden Schallplatteneinspielungen zählen ihre Songbooks der wichtigsten amerikanischen Komponisten der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts, denen sie damit Denkmäler setzte und allen nachfolgenden Sängerinnen Lehrbücher für die perfekte Interpretation der jeweiligen Songs gab.
Im Folgenden eine Auflistung ihrer klassischen Songbooks für das Label Verve und die dazugehörigen Arrangeure:
1956 – Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook (Buddy Bregman)
1956 – Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Rodgers & Hart Songbook (Bregman)
1957 – Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook (Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn)
1958 – Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Songbook (Paul Weston)
1959 – Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook (Nelson Riddle)
1961 – Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Harold Arlen Songbook (Billy May)
1963 – Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Jerome Kern Songbook (Riddle)
1964 – Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Johnny Mercer Songbook (Riddle)
Für andere Plattenfirmen nahm sie später ebenfalls Songbooks auf, unter anderem erneut mit Liedern der Gebrüder Gershwin sowie Cole Porter und Antônio Carlos Jobim. Kolleginnen wie Sarah Vaughan oder Dinah Washington folgtem ihrem Beispiel und nahmen ebenfalls Songbooks auf. Eine weitere bedeutende Einspielung Fitzgeralds gibt es von Gershwins Oper Porgy and Bess, die sie gemeinsam mit Louis Armstrong aufnahm. Darüber hinaus gibt es zahlreiche Live-Einspielungen der Konzerte von Fitzgerald, die zeigen, dass es keinen Unterschied zwischen einem Studio- oder Livegig bei ihr gab. Die einzigen qualitativen Unterschiede bestehen bei der Aufnahmetechnik. Sie gewann insgesamt 13 Grammys; 1987 wurde sie mit der National Medal of Arts ausgezeichnet.
Sie litt lange Jahre an Diabetes, der gegen Ende ihres Lebens zur Erblindung führte. Eine weitere Folge der Krankheit war die Amputation beider Unterschenkel im Jahre 1993. Drei Jahre später verstarb sie als eine der wichtigsten Jazzsängerinnen des 20. Jahrhunderts. Sie liegt auf dem Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood bei Los Angeles begraben.
Privat
Fitzgerald war mindestens zweimal verheiratet. Ihre erste Ehe schloss sie 1939[5] – andere Quellen sprechen von 1941[6] – mit dem Hafenarbeiter Benjamin „Benny“ Kornegay, der ihr und ihrer Band als eine Art männlicher Groupie auf Schritt und Tritt folgte. Als sie nach kurzer Ehe von kriminellen Verwicklungen ihres Mannes erfuhr, ließ sie die Ehe annullieren. Ihr zweiter Ehemann war von 1946 bis 1952 – andere Quellen nennen wiederum abweichende Daten, wie z. B. 1947–1953 oder 10. Dezember 1947 – 1952 – der Bassist Ray Brown, mit dem sie ein Kind, Ray Brown jr., adoptierte. 1957 kursierten Berichte in der skandinavischen Presse, sie habe den jungen Norweger Thor Einar Larsen heimlich geheiratet.
Ella
Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996) was an American jazz
singer often referred to as the First Lady of Song, Queen of Jazz and
Lady Ella. She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction,
phrasing and intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability,
particularly in her scat singing.After tumultuous teenage years, Fitzgerald found stability in musical success with performances on many stages in the Harlem area, including her rendition of the nursery rhyme "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" that helped boost her to fame. In 1942, Fitzgerald left the amateur performances behind, signed a deal with Decca Records, and started her solo career by redefining the art of scat singing. It was not until her manager, Norman Granz, built Verve Records based on her vocal abilities that she recorded some of her more widely noted works. Under this label, Fitzgerald focused more on singing than scatting, providing perhaps her most career-defining works in her interpretation of the Great American Songbook.
While Fitzgerald appeared in movies and as guests on popular television shows in the second half of the twentieth century, her musical collaborations with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and The Ink Spots were some of her most notable acts outside of her solo career. These partnerships produced recognizable songs like "Dream a Little Dream of Me", "Cheek to Cheek", "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall", and "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)". In 1993, Fitzgerald capped off her sixty-year career with her last public performance. Three years later, she died at the age of 79, following years of decline in her health. After her passing, Fitzgerald's influence lived on through her fourteen Grammy Awards, National Medal of Arts, Presidential Medal of Freedom, and tributes in the form of stamps, music festivals, and theater namesakes.
Early life
Fitzgerald was born on April 25, 1917 in Newport News, Virginia, the daughter of William Fitzgerald and Temperance "Tempie" Fitzgerald.[1] Her parents were unmarried, and they had separated within a year of her birth.[1] With her mother's new partner, a Portuguese immigrant named Joseph Da Silva, Fitzgerald and her mother moved to the city of Yonkers, in Westchester County, New York, as part of the first Great Migration of African Americans.[1] Initially living in a single room, her mother and Da Silva soon found jobs. Her half-sister, Frances Da Silva, was born in 1923.[2] By 1925, Fitzgerald and her family had moved to nearby School Street, then a predominantly poor Italian area.[2] At the age of six, she began her formal education and moved through a variety of schools before attending Benjamin Franklin Junior High School from 1929.[3]
Fitzgerald had been passionate about dancing from third grade, being a fan of Earl "Snakehips" Tucker in particular, and would perform for her peers on the way to school and at lunchtime.[4] Fitzgerald and her family were Methodists and were active in the Bethany African Methodist Episcopal Church, and she regularly attended worship services, Bible study, and Sunday school.[4] The church provided Fitzgerald with her earliest experiences in formal music making, and she may also have had a short series of piano lessons during this period.[3]
As a child Fitzgerald listened to jazz recordings by Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, and The Boswell Sisters. Fitzgerald idolized the Boswell Sisters' lead singer Connee Boswell, later saying, "My mother brought home one of her records, and I fell in love with it....I tried so hard to sound just like her."[5]
In 1932, her mother died from a heart attack when Fitzgerald was 15 years of age.[6] Following this trauma, Fitzgerald's grades dropped dramatically, and she frequently skipped school. Abused by her stepfather, she ran away to her aunt and,[7] at one point, worked as a lookout at a bordello and with a Mafia-affiliated numbers runner.[8] When the authorities caught up with her, she was first placed in the Colored Orphan Asylum in Riverdale, Bronx.[7] However, when the orphanage proved too crowded, she was moved to the New York Training School for Girls in Hudson, New York, a state reformatory located about 120 miles north of New York City. Eventually she escaped and for a time she was homeless.[7]
Early career
Fitzgerald made her singing debut at age 17 on November 21, 1934, at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York.[9][10] She pulled in a weekly audience at the Apollo and won the opportunity to compete in one of the earliest of its famous "Amateur Nights". She had originally intended to go on stage and dance, but, intimidated by the Edwards Sisters, a local dance duo, she opted to sing instead in the style of Connee Boswell.[10][11] She sang Boswell's "Judy" and "The Object of My Affection", a song recorded by the Boswell Sisters, and won the first prize of US $25.00.[12]
In January 1935, Fitzgerald won the chance to perform for a week with the Tiny Bradshaw band at the Harlem Opera House.[9] She met drummer and bandleader Chick Webb there. Webb had already hired singer Charlie Linton to work with the band and was, The New York Times later wrote, "reluctant to sign her....because she was gawky and unkempt, a 'diamond in the rough'."[5] Webb offered her the opportunity to test with his band when they played a dance at Yale University.[9] She began singing regularly with his orchestra throughout 1935 at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom.[9] Fitzgerald recorded several hit songs with them, including "Love and Kisses" and "(If You Can't Sing It) You'll Have to Swing It (Mr. Paganini)".[9] But it was her 1938 version of the nursery rhyme, "A-Tisket, A-Tasket", a song she co-wrote, that brought her wide public acclaim.[13][14]
Webb died on June 16, 1939,[15] and his band was renamed Ella and her Famous Orchestra with Fitzgerald taking on the role of nominal bandleader.[16] She recorded nearly 150 songs with the orchestra before it broke up in 1942; in her New York Times obituary of 1996, Stephen Holder wrote that "the majority of them (were) novelties and disposable pop fluff".[5]
Decca years
In 1942, Fitzgerald left the band to begin a solo career.[17] Now signed to the Decca label, she had several popular hits while recording with such artists as Bill Kenny & the Ink Spots,[18] Louis Jordan,[19] and the Delta Rhythm Boys.[20]
With Decca's Milt Gabler as her manager, Fitzgerald began working regularly for the jazz impresario Norman Granz and appeared regularly in his Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP) concerts. Her relationship with Granz was further cemented when he became her manager, although it would be nearly a decade before he could record her on one of his many record labels.
With the demise of the Swing era and the decline of the great touring big bands, a major change in jazz music occurred. The advent of bebop led to new developments in Fitzgerald's vocal style, influenced by her work with Dizzy Gillespie's big band. It was in this period that Fitzgerald started including scat singing as a major part of her performance repertoire. While singing with Gillespie, Fitzgerald recalled, "I just tried to do [with my voice] what I heard the horns in the band doing."[12]
Her 1945 scat recording of "Flying Home" arranged by Vic Schoen would later be described by The New York Times as "one of the most influential vocal jazz records of the decade....Where other singers, most notably Louis Armstrong, had tried similar improvisation, no one before Miss Fitzgerald employed the technique with such dazzling inventiveness."[5] Her bebop recording of "Oh, Lady Be Good!" (1947) was similarly popular and increased her reputation as one of the leading jazz vocalists.[21]
Verve years
Fitzgerald was still performing at Granz's JATP concerts by 1955. She left Decca and Granz, now her manager, created Verve Records around her. She later described the period as strategically crucial, saying, "I had gotten to the point where I was only singing be-bop. I thought be-bop was 'it', and that all I had to do was go some place and sing bop. But it finally got to the point where I had no place to sing. I realized then that there was more to music than bop. Norman ... felt that I should do other things, so he produced The Cole Porter Songbook with me. It was a turning point in my life."[5]
On March 15, 1955[22] Ella Fitzgerald opened her initial engagement at the Mocambo nightclub in Hollywood,[23] after Marilyn Monroe lobbied the owner for the booking.[24] The booking was instrumental in Fitzgerald's career. Bonnie Greer dramatized the incident as the musical drama, Marilyn and Ella, in 2008. It has been widely reported that Fitzgerald was the first Black performer to play the Mocambo, following Monroe's intervention, but this is not true. African-American singers Herb Jefferies,[25] Eartha Kitt,[26] and Joyce Bryan[27] all played the Mocambo in 1952 and 1953, according to stories published at the time in Jet magazine and Billboard.
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook, released in 1956, was the first of eight Songbook sets Fitzgerald would record for Verve at irregular intervals from 1956 to 1964. The composers and lyricists spotlighted on each set, taken together, represent the greatest part of the cultural canon known as the Great American Songbook. Her song selections ranged from standards to rarities and represented an attempt by Fitzgerald to cross over into a non-jazz audience. The sets are the most well-known items in her discography.
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book was the only Songbook on which the composer she interpreted played with her. Duke Ellington and his longtime collaborator Billy Strayhorn both appeared on exactly half the set's 38 tracks and wrote two new pieces of music for the album: "The E and D Blues" and a four-movement musical portrait of Fitzgerald (the only Songbook track on which Fitzgerald does not sing). The Songbook series ended up becoming the singer's most critically acclaimed and commercially successful work, and probably her most significant offering to American culture. The New York Times wrote in 1996, "These albums were among the first pop records to devote such serious attention to individual songwriters, and they were instrumental in establishing the pop album as a vehicle for serious musical exploration."[5]
A few days after Fitzgerald's death, The New York Times columnist Frank Rich wrote that in the Songbook series Fitzgerald "performed a cultural transaction as extraordinary as Elvis' contemporaneous integration of white and African American soul. Here was a black woman popularizing urban songs often written by immigrant Jews to a national audience of predominantly white Christians."[8] Frank Sinatra, out of respect for Fitzgerald, prohibited Capitol Records from re-releasing his own recordings in separate albums for individual composers in the same way.
Fitzgerald also recorded albums exclusively devoted to the songs of Porter and Gershwin in 1972 and 1983; the albums being, respectively, Ella Loves Cole and Nice Work If You Can Get It. A later collection devoted to a single composer was released during her time with Pablo Records, Ella Abraça Jobim, featuring the songs of Antônio Carlos Jobim.
While recording the Songbooks and the occasional studio album, Fitzgerald toured 40 to 45 weeks per year in the United States and internationally, under the tutelage of Norman Granz. Granz helped solidify her position as one of the leading live jazz performers.[5] In 1961 Fitzgerald bought a house in the Klampenborg district of Copenhagen, Denmark, after she began a relationship with a Danish man. Though the relationship ended after a year, Fitzgerald regularly returned to Denmark over the next three years, and even considered buying a jazz club there. The house was sold in 1963, and Fitzgerald permanently returned to the United States.[28]
There are several live albums on Verve that are highly regarded by critics. Ella at the Opera House shows a typical JATP set from Fitzgerald. Ella in Rome and Twelve Nights in Hollywood display her vocal jazz canon. Ella in Berlin is still one of her best selling albums; it includes a Grammy-winning performance of "Mack the Knife" in which she forgets the lyrics, but improvises magnificently to compensate.
Verve Records was sold to MGM in 1963 for $3 million and in 1967 MGM failed to renew Fitzgerald's contract. Over the next five years she flitted between Atlantic, Capitol and Reprise. Her material at this time represented a departure from her typical jazz repertoire. For Capitol she recorded Brighten the Corner, an album of hymns, Ella Fitzgerald's Christmas, an album of traditional Christmas carols, Misty Blue, a country and western-influenced album, and 30 by Ella, a series of six medleys that fulfilled her obligations for the label. During this period, she had her last US chart single with a cover of Smokey Robinson's "Get Ready", previously a hit for the Temptations, and some months later a top-five hit for Rare Earth.
The surprise success of the 1972 album Jazz at Santa Monica Civic '72 led Granz to found Pablo Records, his first record label since the sale of Verve. Fitzgerald recorded some 20 albums for the label. Ella in London recorded live in 1974 with pianist Tommy Flanagan, guitarist Joe Pass, bassist Keter Betts and drummer Bobby Durham, was considered by many to be some of her best work. The following year she again performed with Joe Pass on German television station NDR in Hamburg. Her years with Pablo Records also documented the decline in her voice. "She frequently used shorter, stabbing phrases, and her voice was harder, with a wider vibrato", one biographer wrote.[29] Plagued by health problems, Fitzgerald made her last recording in 1991 and her last public performances in 1993.[30]
Film and television
In her most notable screen role, Fitzgerald played the part of singer Maggie Jackson in Jack Webb's 1955 jazz film Pete Kelly's Blues.[31] The film costarred Janet Leigh and singer Peggy Lee.[32] Even though she had already worked in the movies (she had sung briefly in the 1942 Abbott and Costello film Ride 'Em Cowboy),[33] she was "delighted" when Norman Granz negotiated the role for her, and, "at the time....considered her role in the Warner Brothers movie the biggest thing ever to have happened to her."[29] Amid The New York Times pan of the film when it opened in August 1955, the reviewer wrote, "About five minutes (out of ninety-five) suggest the picture this might have been. Take the ingenious prologue ... [or] take the fleeting scenes when the wonderful Ella Fitzgerald, allotted a few spoken lines, fills the screen and sound track with her strong mobile features and voice."[34] Fitzgerald's race precluded major big-screen success. After Pete Kelly's Blues, she appeared in sporadic movie cameos, in St. Louis Blues (1958),[35] and Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960).[36] Much later, she appeared in the 1980s television drama The White Shadow.
She made numerous guest appearances on television shows, singing on The Frank Sinatra Show, The Andy Williams Show, The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, and alongside other greats Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, Mel Tormé, and many others. She was also frequently featured on The Ed Sullivan Show. Perhaps her most unusual and intriguing performance was of the "Three Little Maids" song from Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operetta The Mikado alongside Joan Sutherland and Dinah Shore on Shore's weekly variety series in 1963. A performance at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London was filmed and shown on the BBC. Fitzgerald also made a one-off appearance alongside Sarah Vaughan and Pearl Bailey on a 1979 television special honoring Bailey. In 1980, she performed a medley of standards in a duet with Karen Carpenter on the Carpenters' television program Music, Music, Music.[37]
Fitzgerald also appeared in TV commercials, her most memorable being an ad for Memorex.[38] In the commercials, she sang a note that shattered a glass while being recorded on a Memorex cassette tape.[39] The tape was played back and the recording also broke the glass, asking: "Is it live, or is it Memorex?"[39] She also starred in a number of commercials for Kentucky Fried Chicken, singing and scatting to the fast-food chain's longtime slogan, "We do chicken right!"[40] Her final commercial campaign was for American Express, in which she was photographed by Annie Leibovitz.[41]
Collaborations
Fitzgerald's most famous collaborations were with the vocal quartet Bill Kenny & the Ink Spots, trumpeter Louis Armstrong, the guitarist Joe Pass, and the bandleaders Count Basie and Duke Ellington.
From 1943 to 1950, Fitzgerald recorded seven songs with the Ink Spots featuring Bill Kenny. Out of all seven recordings, four reached the top of the pop charts including "I'm Making Believe" and "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall" which both reached #1.
Fitzgerald recorded three Verve studio albums with Armstrong, two albums of standards (1956's Ella and Louis and 1957's Ella and Louis Again), and a third album featured music from the Gershwin musical Porgy and Bess. Fitzgerald also recorded a number of sides with Armstrong for Decca in the early 1950s.
Fitzgerald is sometimes referred to as the quintessential swing singer, and her meetings with Count Basie are highly regarded by critics. Fitzgerald features on one track on Basie's 1957 album One O'Clock Jump, while her 1963 album Ella and Basie! is remembered as one of her greatest recordings. With the 'New Testament' Basie band in full swing, and arrangements written by a young Quincy Jones, this album proved a respite from the 'Songbook' recordings and constant touring that Fitzgerald was engaged in during this period. Fitzgerald and Basie also collaborated on the 1972 album Jazz at Santa Monica Civic '72, and on the 1979 albums Digital III at Montreux, A Classy Pair and A Perfect Match.
Fitzgerald and Joe Pass recorded four albums together toward the end of Fitzgerald's career. She recorded several albums with piano accompaniment, but a guitar proved the perfect melodic foil for her. Fitzgerald and Pass appeared together on the albums Take Love Easy (1973), Easy Living (1986), Speak Love (1983) and Fitzgerald and Pass... Again (1976).
Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington recorded two live albums, and two studio albums. Her Duke Ellington Songbook placed Ellington firmly in the canon known as the Great American Songbook, and the 1960s saw Fitzgerald and the 'Duke' meet on the Côte d'Azur for the 1966 album Ella and Duke at the Cote D'Azur, and in Sweden for The Stockholm Concert, 1966. Their 1965 album Ella at Duke's Place is also extremely well received.
Fitzgerald had a number of famous jazz musicians and soloists as sidemen over her long career. The trumpeters Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie, the guitarist Herb Ellis, and the pianists Tommy Flanagan, Oscar Peterson, Lou Levy, Paul Smith, Jimmy Rowles, and Ellis Larkins all worked with Ella mostly in live, small group settings.
Possibly Fitzgerald's greatest unrealized collaboration (in terms of popular music) was a studio or live album with Frank Sinatra. The two appeared on the same stage only periodically over the years, in television specials in 1958 and 1959, and again on 1967's A Man and His Music + Ella + Jobim, a show that also featured Antônio Carlos Jobim. Pianist Paul Smith has said, "Ella loved working with [Frank]. Sinatra gave her his dressing-room on A Man and His Music and couldn't do enough for her." When asked, Norman Granz would cite "complex contractual reasons" for the fact that the two artists never recorded together.[29] Fitzgerald's appearance with Sinatra and Count Basie in June 1974 for a series of concerts at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, was seen as an important incentive for Sinatra to return from his self-imposed retirement of the early 1970s. The shows were a great success, and September 1975 saw them gross $1,000,000 in two weeks on Broadway, in a triumvirate with the Count Basie Orchestra.
Later life and death
In 1985, Fitzgerald was hospitalized briefly for respiratory problems,[42] in 1986 for congestive heart failure,[43] and in 1990 for exhaustion.[44] In March 1990 she appeared at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England with the Count Basie Orchestra for the launch of Jazz FM, plus a gala dinner at the Grosvenor House Hotel at which she performed.[45] In 1993, she had to have both of her legs amputated below the knee due to the effects of diabetes.[46] Her eyesight was affected as well.[5]
In 1996, tired of being in the hospital, she wished to spend her last days at home. Confined to a wheelchair, she spent her final days in her backyard of her Beverly Hills mansion on Whittier, with her son Ray and 12-year-old granddaughter, Alice. "I just want to smell the air, listen to the birds and hear Alice laugh," she reportedly said. On her last day, she was wheeled outside one last time, and sat there for about an hour. When she was taken back in, she looked up with a soft smile on her face and said, "I'm ready to go now." She died in her home on June 15, 1996 at the age of 79.[5] A few hours after her death, the Playboy Jazz Festival was launched at the Hollywood Bowl. In tribute, the marquee read: "Ella We Will Miss You."[47] Her funeral was private,[47] and she was buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.
Personal life
Fitzgerald married at least twice, and there is evidence that she may have married a third time. Her first marriage was in 1941, to Benny Kornegay, a convicted drug dealer and local dockworker. The marriage was annulled in 1942.[48]
Her second marriage was in December 1947, to the famous bass player Ray Brown, whom she had met while on tour with Dizzy Gillespie's band a year earlier. Together they adopted a child born to Fitzgerald's half-sister, Frances, whom they christened Ray Brown, Jr. With Fitzgerald and Brown often busy touring and recording, the child was largely raised by his mother's aunt, Virginia. Fitzgerald and Brown divorced in 1953, bowing to the various career pressures both were experiencing at the time, though they would continue to perform together.[5]
In July 1957, Reuters reported that Fitzgerald had secretly married Thor Einar Larsen, a young Norwegian, in Oslo. She had even gone as far as furnishing an apartment in Oslo, but the affair was quickly forgotten when Larsen was sentenced to five months' hard labor in Sweden for stealing money from a young woman to whom he had previously been engaged.[49]
Fitzgerald was also notoriously shy. Trumpet player Mario Bauzá, who played behind Fitzgerald in her early years with Chick Webb, remembered that "she didn't hang out much. When she got into the band, she was dedicated to her music....She was a lonely girl around New York, just kept herself to herself, for the gig."[29] When, later in her career, the Society of Singers named an award after her, Fitzgerald explained, "I don't want to say the wrong thing, which I always do but I think I do better when I sing."[12]
Fitzgerald was a quiet but ardent supporter of many charities and non-profit organizations, including the American Heart Association and the City of Hope Medical Center. In 1993, she established the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation.[50]
Discography and collections
The primary collections of Fitzgerald's media and memorabilia reside at and are shared between the Smithsonian Institution and the US Library of Congress [51]
Awards, citations and honors
Fitzgerald won thirteen Grammy Awards,[52] and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1967.[53]
Other major awards and honors she received during her career were the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Medal of Honor Award, National Medal of Art, first Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award, named "Ella" in her honor, Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement, UCLA Spring Sing.[54] Across town at the University of Southern California, she received the USC "Magnum Opus" Award which hangs in the office of the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation. In 1990, she received an honorary doctorate of Music from Harvard University.[55]
Tributes and legacy
The career history and archival material from Ella's long career are housed in the Archives Center at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, while her personal music arrangements are at the Library of Congress. Her extensive cookbook collection was donated to the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University, and her extensive collection of published sheet music was donated to UCLA.
In 1997, Newport News, Virginia created a music festival with Christopher Newport University to honor Ella Fitzgerald in her birth city. The Ella Fitzgerald Music Festival is designed to teach the region's youth of the musical legacy of Fitzgerald and jazz. Past performers at the week-long festival include: Diana Krall, Arturo Sandoval, Jean Carne, Phil Woods, Aretha Franklin, Victoria Wyndham, Charles Keating, Freda Payne, Cassandra Wilson, Ethel Ennis, David Sanborn, Jane Monheit, Dianne Reeves, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ramsey Lewis, Patti Austin, Lalah Hathaway, Ledisi, Chrisette Michele, Natalie Cole, Freddie Jackson, Joe Harnell, Roy Ayers and Ann Hampton Callaway.
Callaway, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Patti Austin have all recorded albums in tribute to Fitzgerald. Callaway's album To Ella with Love (1996) features fourteen jazz standards made popular by Fitzgerald, and the album also features the trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. Bridgewater's album Dear Ella (1997) featured many musicians that were closely associated with Fitzgerald during her career, including the pianist Lou Levy, the trumpeter Benny Powell, and Fitzgerald's second husband, double bassist Ray Brown. Bridgewater's following album, Live at Yoshi's, was recorded live on April 25, 1998, what would have been Fitzgerald's 81st birthday.
Austin's album, For Ella (2002) features 11 songs most immediately associated with Fitzgerald, and a twelfth song, "Hearing Ella Sing" is Austin's tribute to Fitzgerald. The album was nominated for a Grammy. In 2007, We All Love Ella, was released, a tribute album recorded for the 90th anniversary of Fitzgerald's birth. It featured artists such as Michael Bublé, Natalie Cole, Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight, Diana Krall, k.d. lang, Queen Latifah, Ledisi, Dianne Reeves, Linda Ronstadt, and Lizz Wright, collating songs most readily associated with the "First Lady of Song". Folk singer Odetta's album To Ella (1998) is dedicated to Fitzgerald, but features no songs associated with her. Her accompanist Tommy Flanagan affectionately remembered Fitzgerald on his album Lady be Good ... For Ella (1994).
"Ella, elle l'a", a tribute to Fitzgerald written by Michel Berger and performed by French singer France Gall, was a hit in Europe in 1987 and 1988.[56] Fitzgerald is also referred to in the 1976 Stevie Wonder hit "Sir Duke" from his album Songs in the Key of Life, and the song "I Love Being Here With You", written by Peggy Lee and Bill Schluger. Sinatra's 1986 recording of "Mack the Knife" from his album L.A. Is My Lady (1984) includes a homage to some of the song's previous performers, including 'Lady Ella' herself. She is also honored in the song "First Lady" by Canadian artist Nikki Yanofsky.
In 2008, the Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center in Newport News named its brand new 276-seat theater the Ella Fitzgerald Theater. The theater is located several blocks away from her birthplace on Marshall Avenue. The Grand Opening performers (October 11 and 12, 2008) were Roberta Flack and Queen Esther Marrow.
In 2012, Rod Stewart performed a "virtual duet" with Ella Fitzgerald on his Christmas album Merry Christmas, Baby, and his television special of the same name.[57]
In 2013, Google paid tribute to Ella by celebrating her 96th birthday with a Google Doodle on its US homepage.[58]
There is a bronze sculpture of Fitzgerald in Yonkers, the city in which she grew up, created by American artist Vinnie Bagwell. It is located southeast of the main entrance to the Amtrak/Metro-North Railroad station in front of the city's old trolley barn. A bust of Fitzgerald is on the campus of Chapman University in Orange, California. On January 9, 2007, the United States Postal Service announced that Fitzgerald would be honored with her own postage stamp.[38] The stamp was released in April 2007 as part of the Postal Service's Black Heritage series.
Basin Street Blues by Ella Fitzgerald with Lyrics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RabU3oPZot0
http://thepodiumblog.blogspot.de/2008/02/rip-original-snakeboy.html
The Original Snakeboy *25.04.1950
http://thepodiumblog.blogspot.de/2008/02/rip-original-snakeboy.html
"The Original Snakeboy" (April 25, 1950 - February 4, 2008)
Described by his contemporaries as...'Blues guitarist extraordinaire, a true acoustic Slide Master.'
The Original Snakeboy grew up in New Orleans, steeped in the Delta Blues tradition.
He had a classic New Orleans drawl, and was known for his regular response of : "Yeah, U Rite!"
Snakeboy was a founding member of several award winning Texas bands:
Coupe de Ville, The Nomads, and The Asylum Street Spankers.
He only released one CD in his entire career..."Playing With Fire" in 2002.
Described by his contemporaries as...'Blues guitarist extraordinaire, a true acoustic Slide Master.'
The Original Snakeboy grew up in New Orleans, steeped in the Delta Blues tradition.
He had a classic New Orleans drawl, and was known for his regular response of : "Yeah, U Rite!"
Snakeboy was a founding member of several award winning Texas bands:
Coupe de Ville, The Nomads, and The Asylum Street Spankers.
He only released one CD in his entire career..."Playing With Fire" in 2002.
The Original Snakeboy, blues guitarist extraordinaire, has left this world for the next.
Founding member of the Asylum Street Spankers, The Original Snakeboy (aka Bill Thompson) was an exceptional performer who brought his New Orleans' roots to Portland, via Austin, Texas, and numerous wanderings in between.
His passing came as a surprise to many as news quickly made its way around the globe via the various online communities of blues fans and aficionados.
Sadly, like too many before him, The Original Snakeboy's passing was at his own hands, and friends who knew him are positively devastated.
Founding member of the Asylum Street Spankers, The Original Snakeboy (aka Bill Thompson) was an exceptional performer who brought his New Orleans' roots to Portland, via Austin, Texas, and numerous wanderings in between.
His passing came as a surprise to many as news quickly made its way around the globe via the various online communities of blues fans and aficionados.
Sadly, like too many before him, The Original Snakeboy's passing was at his own hands, and friends who knew him are positively devastated.
The Original Snakeboy Live 2005 - Highway 61
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