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Everywhere I go, when I meet new people and they find out what I do, they start telling me their very own Ella Fitzgerald stories. From the deli guy at the market who knew just how she liked her tuna salad (easy on the mayo) to the librarian at the local elementary school who saw her in concert forty years ago. We all love these stories, and if you have one you'd like to tell, please email it to us and we'll share it here with all of you who have been touched by Ella and her magical voice.
We received this earlier this year from Loren of The Jazz Museum of Harlem, he wrote:
Like everyone else, I fell in love with Ella from afar; her voice on hundreds of recordings made me feel like I knew her. In a sense, we all did, for she put her heart and soul out there every time she opened her mouth to sing. Has there ever been a more down-to-earth singer than Ella Fitzgerald? No pretense, no posing, no “attitude”.
Well, anyway, it was in the early 90’s when Benny Carter asked me to assemble a big band to back Ella at Radio City Music Hall. You should have heard the musicians’ voices when they heard who the concert was with! Not only Benny but ELLA! That’s when I discovered the tremendous respect she was afforded by jazz musicians, not only for her musicianship but for her personality. She was truly “one of the guys”. James Moody (the incredible saxophone player) spoke about this at the Ella Fitzgerald Postage Stamp event held at Jazz At Lincoln Center in January, 2007 and again at “Ella’s Birthday Concert” at USC in April, 2007.
We assembled on the stage at Radio City and all of a sudden, there she was! No big deal, no huge entourage (though she did have a devoted staff), no ego; just Ella sitting on a stool, waiting for Benny to stomp the band off. I wish I could tell you that something amazing happened, but it didn’t. She sang along with the band, checked the tempos with Benny and then she was gone. But it was what she DIDN’T do that amazed us. So many singers turn their rehearsals into mini-dramas, suffused with overweening egos, tantrums, tension and condescension to the musicians. Ella made us feel that she was just one of us; needless to say that when the performance came, she turned on the juice and the entire Radio City Music Hall was transformed into a receptacle for her particular brand of music.
As hard as it is to believe that at that time late in her career, there were those who said she should have retired, since her voice wasn’t what it used to be. How odd – in most societies we revere our elders, here she was held to task for aging. Ella at ANY time in her career was singing better than 99% of other singers and to see her confront her age and mortality so bravely was something that I will never forget.
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