Becoming Ella Fitzgerald Audiobook Libro.fm

Ella Fitzgerald 19171996 possessed one of the twentieth centurys most astonishing voices Historian Judith Tick offers a sublime portrait of this ambitious risktaker whose exceptional musical spontaneity made her a transformational artist

Becoming Ella Fitzgerald clears up longenduring mysteries Archival research and indepth family interviews shed new light on the singers difficult childhood the tragic death of her mother and the year she spent in a girls reformatory schoolwhere she sang in its renowned choir and dreamed of being a dancer Rarely seen profiles from the Black press offer precious glimpses of Fitzgeralds tense experiences of racial discrimination and her struggles with constricting models of Black and white femininity

Breaking ground as a female bandleader Fitzgerald refuted expectations of musical Blackness deftly balancing artistic ambition and market expectations Her legendary exploration of the Great American Songbook in the 1950s fused a Black vocal aesthetic and jazz improvisation to revolutionize the popular repertoire This hybridity often confounded critics yet Ella reached audiences around the world electrifying concert halls and sold millions of records This book describes a powerful woman who set a standard for American excellence nearly unmatched in the twentieth century