Ella Fitzgerald (1917-96) was, along with Sarah Vaughan and Billie Holiday, one
of the most important vocalists to emerge from the big-band era. Her style is
marked by a sunny outlook, a girlish innocence, and a virtuoso command of her
voice.
Fitzgerald was born out of wedlock in Newport News, Virginia, to a laundress
mother and a father who disappeared when she was three years old. Along with
her mother and her mother’s new boyfriend who functioned as a stepfather, she
soon moved to Yonkers, New York, where she began her schooling. Around the
third grade she started dancing, a pursuit that became almost an obsession. In
1932, when she was fifteen, her mother died suddenly of a heart attack. Her
stepfather treated her badly, but an aunt took the teenager to live with her in
Harlem. This arrangement did not last long...
