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Ella Fitzgerald: Shaping Influences

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Shaping Influences Ella Fitzgerald had a struggling childhood that impacted her future tremendously. Her mother died when she was fifteen, leaving her with her abusive step father. She then moved in with her aunt in Harlem, which was the hub of jazz music during the decade. Stated from the NPR news cast, Morning Edition, “She spent time with an aunt, then in foster care and a reformatory,” this transition in her life she kept as a secret for the public. Living in these situations taught her to strive for her dream of becoming a singer and dancer. When living on the street she sang and danced for money, this instilled in her a strong work ethic that would stay with her when she was on the road traveling around the world to sing. The reformatory …show more content…

Ella’s first big break was when Chick Web hired her to sing in his band in 1935. She recorded her first album with Chick and her first hit. At age twenty she reached number one in national charts for the song, "A-tisket, A-tasket" recorded with Chick. He fostered her talent and was, essentially, the reason for her fame. Her fame would not have been possible without Chick being her mentor. When he died she was distraught, she had lost a parental figure yet again. The relationship between her and Chick was close to a father-daughter relationship. She was introduced to jazz legends, such as Duke Ellington, when performing with Chick’s band. These pictures are of Chick Web and Ella along with their top chart record from, Ella Fitzgerald: A Biography of the First Lady of Jazz, written by Stuart Nicholson. Another influence in Ella’s life was Norman Granz who kept Ella’s career afloat. He was her manager who ended up becoming her friend and also a close part of her family. He signed her to the Verve Label, in which she acquired her pivotal of fame and fortune. Their relationship kept her grounded and was beneficial to her career. Norman was the reason for her achieving as much as she did during her lifetime including her earning her thirteen grammies. He managed her through her most successful tours around the

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Annie Jean Easley was born April 23, 1933 to Mary Melvina Hoover and Samuel Bird Easley, in Birmingham Alabama. She was raised, along with her older brother, by a single mom. Annie attended schools in Birmingham and graduated high school valedictorian of her class. Throughout high school Annie wanted to be a nurse because she thought that the only careers that were open to African American women at the time were nursing and teaching and she definitely did not want to teach so she settled on being a nurse but as she studied in high school she began thinking about becoming a pharmacist.

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The making of this 1972 film also helped regain the interest of Billie’s music during that time ("The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum”). Holiday's addiction began to take a toll on her voice when she recorded her last album Lady in Satin in 1958. This album had rougher sounding voice of Holiday, but she still was able to convey great emotional intensity ("Billie Holiday Biography"). Although Holiday’s life was brief, she made a huge marker during the Harlem Renaissance era and her legacy lives on.

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Ransby wrote about the complexity of Ella Baker's life. Ransby stated: "for me, in looking back as Baker's life in all of its rich complexity" (Ransby, Pg). In the writing the biography, Ransby brought to life a person in her writing. Her argument centered on the idea of complexity. The complexity of Baker's life leads to the importance of her legacy.

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After being convinced by her friend James Baldwin, who kept urging her to write about her devastating past and how she benefited from those experiences, she finally wrote the book which resulted to becoming one of her best autobiographical work. This book was also a very crucial part of how her fame came to be. Another one of her autobiographical work is, A Song Flung Up to Heaven, which is about her trip from Ghana back to the United States and how she was struggling to cope with the assassinations of her two close friends Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm

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Loretta Lynn is a country music singer and songwriter;.She has had continued success throughout the year Growing up, loretta lynn was the second of the eight children and she began singing in the church at a very young age.{biography}.com she had came from a family that didn't have much money but she was still able to find a love in music. It wasn’t until her husband bought her a guitar that she was encouraged to pursue her interest in music (Biography.com) she said she always would help take care of the younger siblings because she was one of the oldest. loretta lynn has overcome many struggles in her journey to being a successful country singer biography.com) loretta lynn was born in butcher holler kentucky that where she had started

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Annie J. Easley was born April 23, 1933 in Birmingham Alabama. She was the daughter of Samuel Bird Easley and Mary Melvina Hoover. Mrs.Easley and her brother were both raised by their single mother. Also, she had attended parochial schools in Birmingham since the fifth grade through high school and also graduated as a valedictorian. Although Easley’s mother had told her that she could become anything that she wanted to become.

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Lynn has wrote some of her songs on her life and other women's lives, she has a song and album out called "Coal Miner's Daughter,” and there is a movie on her life about it (“Country Music in the 1970’s,”2015). Loretta Lynn has made and has had a lot of albums coming out in her life. Lynn has made a lot of awards, she works with rocker Jack White of the band White Stripes (Carlin, 2006). Loretta Lynn traveled all over the country with her husband to different radio stations and asking DJs to play her song, and they loved her voice and music, and her song "Honky Tonk Girl" inspired by Kitty Wells became a number one hit (Levine, 2006). Lynn and Conway Twitty were duet partner for songs, their songs have funny lyrics and have to do with where they are from (Carlin,

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Because of this, and despite her “gawky and unkempt” appearance, he gave her the opportunity to sing with his band at a dance at Yale University as a test run. Webb was quoted for saying that “if the kids like her, she stays”. She was a raging success and true to his promise, Chick hired Ella to travel with the band. She recorded “Love and Kisses” with the band in 1935 and was soon a regular artist at the Savoy, one of Harlem’s hottest nightclubs. It didn’t take too long for Ella to emerge from the shadows and become a star attraction coming out with major hits such as her first number one single, “A-tisket, A-tasket”.

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Being one of the first women to work with an-all white orchestra, Billie Holiday was well recognized for many of her attributions. Her musical career has continued to keep Holiday a legendary icon even after her death. Billie Holiday won 5 Grammy Awards throughout her career and was inducted into the Women's Hall of Fame thanks to her wonderful voice. Regardless of any personal issues, Holiday has always had a way of touching people's hearts. Her impact is still widely recognized today.

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Jazz itself was a very controversial genre of music at the time because many Christians believed it was a very sinful type of music. I relate to her in a sense that even though times have changed, it still is very hard to get out there if you have a different sound and tend to enjoy a different genre of music. I chose to research Sarah Vaughan because her story gives me hope that if I push through life and not care what others may say or think I could to be a legend in music and make a very big impact on my generation like she did. The more I read about all her achievements as a musician and an individual I realized I admired her constant persistent to be better at her craft. Both articles talk about how she kept up a very busy schedule that included many performances and recording

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Her talent even helped to establish the origins of rock and roll in jazz. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Holiday as an "Early Influence" in 2000 (Morgenstern 259). It’s no surprise that Lady Day became a world-renowned jazz singer, for she said herself, “If I'm going to sing like someone else, then I don't need to sing at all” (Holiday and Dufty

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Billie Holiday lived a tumultuous life as she went through many ups and downs during her childhood and into her adulthood. Billie Holiday was only eighteen years old when she was discovered singing in nightclubs and soon found great success as a jazz singer. In spite of her lack of musical training, Holiday’s distinct singing caught the attention of her audience and she became one of the greatest jazz singers of the twentieth century. However, despite the remarkable success Billie achieved, she continuously battled with substance abuse until the end of her life. Holiday may have had a tragic life, but her emotional, melancholic voice made her an imperative presence in the period of jazz.

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Maya’s innocence showed how as a young age nothing could be understood as to why she could not fight back and stand up for her family. “I was as clearly imprisoned behind the scene as the actors outside were confined to their roles” (Angelou,18). Her grandmother’s wise words after this event led her to become the women she is today. By reminding Maya to always have respect for all her elders, no matter what color, helped shaped Maya Angelou into the most influential world leaders for African Americans.

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