Musicman
1
Each April, the story and history of jazz is celebrated
in the U.S. During this month, concerts are held, lectures given and documentary
films are shown to draw greater public attention to the rich and extraordinary
history of jazz. This period is known as Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM) and it is
a time designated for an annual spotlight on jazz as both an historical and
living treasure. JAM is intended to generate more interest and encourage people
of all ages to participate in jazz awareness by attending concerts, reading
books on jazz and listen to jazz on the radio or with friends.
JAM was created by John Edward Hasse PhD, curator of the Smithsonian National
Museum of American History. It is geared towards creating an understanding of
Jazz as an original American art form. In previous writings, we chronicled the
contributions of African Americans to the development and promotion of jazz and
this year, JAM will celebrate the cultural and social legacies of women in jazz.
Notable international sweethearts of rhythm such as Mary Lou Williams, Ella
Fitzerald and Lena Horne are being honored with the spotlight beaming on Mary
Lou Williams whose portrait is featured on the JAM 2011 poster. The first year
of JAM was in 2001 and it was initially funded by the Ella Fitzerald Charitable
Foundation.
Here in The Gambia, the Senegambia Jazz Society will also observe JAM 2011 with
a series of weekly events at the Djeliba Hotel and other venues in the greater
Banjul area. The SGJS was formed in 2009 and we are working to make it more
visible and active as we progress. As we honor women in jazz, let us take a
brief look at the life of Mary Lou Williams and a more detailed exposure of Ella
Fitzerald. Mary Lou Williams (The first lady of jazz) was a jazz pianist,
composer and arranger. She was born on May 8th 1910 and died on May 28th 1981.
She was self taught on the piano at an early age and made her first public
performance at the age of six. She is of Georgian origin but grew up in
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where she was popularly known as the little piano girl
from East Liberty, which was a neighborhood in Pittsburg. Mary Lou wrote
hundreds of songs for band leaders Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, and was
friend and mentor to jazz greats Thelonius Monk, Charlie Parker and Dizzy
Gillesjie. Her legacy is a rich one and the recognition being given to her is
well conceived and well deserved.
Ella Fitzerald (The first lady of song) was an American jazz and song vocalist.
She was born in Newport News, Virginia on April 25th 1917, grew up in Yonkers,
New York and died in Bererly Hills, California on June 15th 1996. Ella was note
for her “purity of tone, impeccable diction and a “horn like”
improvisational ability especially in her scat singing.” While singing with
Dizzy Gillespie, she once remarked that she just tried to do with her voice what
she heard the horns doing. As a youngster, she wanted to be a dancer, but also
enjoyed listening to jazz recordings by Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby and the
Baswell Sisters. She was fascinated by the voice of the lead singer of Boswell
Sisters – Connie Boswell. It was her mother who introduced her to the music of
Connie Boswell and Ella confessed to trying very hard to sound like her. She
made her singing debut at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, N.Y on November 17th
1934. It was at an event billed as “Amateur Nights” which was staged weekly
to give young artists a chance to compete and showcase their various artistic
talents. Ella wanted to go on stage and dance, but was intimidated by a local
dance duo called the Edwards sisters, so she decided to sing. She sang two of
Connie Boswell’s songs and won the first prize of $25.00.
In 1935 she met drummer and band leader chick Webb and was given a chance to
sing with Webb’s orchestra. She began singing regularly with Webb’s band at
the Savoy Ball room in Harlem and recorded several hit songs with them during
the next few years. In June 1939, Webb died and his band was renamed “Ella
Fitzerald and her Famous Orchestra”. She became the bandleader and recorded
over one hundred songs with them. In 1942 she left the band and embarked on a
solo career with Decca Records. Her manager at Decca was a guy called Milt
Gabler and it was during this time that he met jazz impresario Norman Granz.
Granz would later become her manager and she appeared regularly at the
Philharmonic in New York City. The later part of the forties was a period of
decline for touring big bands as a major change in jazz was unfolding.
The advent of bebop let to new developments in Ella’s vocal style and it was
in this period that she started seat singing. In 1945 she made her first seat
recording and the New York Times described her as the most influential jazz
vocalist at that time. Her technique was so unique and dazzling with
inventiveness that for a moment, she stole the spotlight of scat singing from
the master himself – Louis Armstrong. She would later try to diversify and
return back to singing with lyrics. In 1950, she did a series of duets with
Ellis Larkins and recorded an album called – Ella sings Gershwin. Ella
continued playing with Norman Granz and when she left Decca Records, Granz
created Verve Records around her and recorded some of her fest music starting
with the Cole Porter Songbook and later the Great American Songbook. She
described this period as a turning point in her life and observed that she had
gotten to a point where all she was singing was bebop, but was now realizing
that there was more to music than bebop.
Still working with Norman Granz, Ella went on to play and record with the great
bandleader Duke Ellington and together, they wrote another songbook entitled
Ella Fitzerald sings the Duke Ellington Songbook. The songbook series became her
most acclaimed and commercially successful work and was considered by many as
her “most significant offering to American culture. In 1972 and 1983, Ella
recorded albums exclusively devoted to the songs of Porter and Gershwin and
would later record another album devoted to a single composer Antonio Carlos
Jobim. While recording the songbooks she toured extensively in the United States
and internationally and in the mid fifties, she became the first African
American to perform at the exclusive night spot Mocambo. This was made possible
after Marilyn Monroe lobbied the owner for the booking.
She also recorded several live albums on Verve, Ella at the opera house, Ella in
Rome Twelve Nights in Hollywood and Ella in Berlin were all highly regarded by
critics, and she won a granny award with the song “Mack the Knife” in which
she forgets the lyrics, but improvises brilliantly to compensate. Ella had an
extraordinary vocal range and her most amazing asset is the very sound of her
voice. Her Harmonic sensibility was special and she was endlessly inventive.
In 1963 Verve Records was sold to MGM and the new owners failed to renew her
contract, so in the next few years she flitted with Atlantic, Capitol and
Reprise Records. In 1972 Granz started Pablo Records and again Ella was busy and
recorded twenty albums for the label. The album Ella in London recorded love in
1974 featured pianist Tommy Flanaganm Joe Pass on Guitar, Keter Betts on Bass
and Bobby Durham on drums and was considered as one of her best album ever. As
the years passed, Ella was plagued by health problems which limited her work.
She made her last recording in 1991 and her last public performance in 1993. We
hope you have enjoyed this little piece, as we intend to feature other women in
jazz in our next contribution.
Mahtarr E Njai
You can check out Ella's work at the African American
Eclectic Video Archive