Some people knew her as The Voice of Jazz or the First Lady of Song. Her name was Ella Fitzgerald. She was a popular vocalist in the 1930s in spite of everything that she had been through. Whether you were rich or poor, what religion you were, or nationality, the one thing all her fans had in common was all her fans loved her. She inspired thousands of people all over the world with her songs and voice.
Ella Fitzgerald was born on the 25th of April in 1917 in the town of Newport, Virginia. Ella had a difficult and challenging childhood growing up. After she was born, her parents split up. Resulting in Ella and her family relocating to New York. Her family had been struggling financially causing Ella to want to get a job and help her family. This is where her first inspiration for having a career in the arts came from. She had
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“In the mid-1940s, Granz had started Jazz at the Philharmonic, a series of concerts and live records featuring most of the genre's great performers. Fitzgerald also hired Granz to become her manager.” (Biography.com Editors). Later that year, Ella went on tour with Dizzy Gillespie. She also came to find out that she liked scat music. “One of the early “scat” performers, Fitzgerald found a place among the growing jazz innovators, making recordings with such greats as Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong” (Ella Fitzgerald: Something to Live For). Those were just some of the artists that she worked with.
Since Ella was African- American she had to deal with discrimination. Her manager, Norman Granz, refused to deal with any type of discrimination, no matter where it was at or how big the opportunity was. “Once, while in Dallas touring for the Philharmonic, a police squad irritated by Norman's principles barged backstage to hassle the performers. They came into Ella's dressing room, where band members Dizzy Gillespie and Illinois Jacquet were shooting