The time. To do. To do they do. Did they. Ready do that to put up. A big. Thank you i. Now. When i would hear her voice it was just something so happy thats the thing she made me feel happy she made me feel safe. In 138. 00 Ella Fitzgerald collaborated to make a jazz piece out of a childrens rhyming game to skid a task it. Was her 1st hit with a chick when workers trim and marked the start of an unparalleled career spanning 5 decades. And that. Bad. Luck and then leave. You know was. No other voice was more influential in 20th century jazz the color fitzgeralds the queen of jess and the 1st lady of janice the 1st lady of song loves you saying yes she had a very long career its really 3 generations that are not the 3rd generation is now speaking so they grew up with their grandparents listening on the records were in the house they grew up with their parents listening and. What your mother and your father play around you or sing around you is so deeply rooted in me. Was. Yelling at me. You. Cant hear bob. Its clarity comes from her internation she hits the pitch right in the bulls eye and thats why we can understand the words so clearly we dont hear all these overtones mollett muddying up the pitch so we hear this clarity and that clarity of pitch is experienced as a kind of purity of tone which reminds us of an essential aspect of the human voice and see a lot of times the Rhythm Sections make the singers sound better the singers can float on top of whatever is happening musically. And sometimes its the interpretation of vocalists has that just you know obviously souls the song but as far as this time feel we always reluctant rely on the Rhythm Section so that was one of the few singers who. Contributed to the time feel into the overall groove of the music. Initially ella dreamed of becoming a dancer instead because of a last minute decision she became a singer. At your Humble Beginnings in yonkers new york ella just 15 when our mother died fled her abusive stepfather dropped out of school and lived on the streets of harlem. In 1034 at the age of 17 ellen got her big break at the legendary apollo amateurs night talent show. Rather than dance she decided to sing big band leader and drummer chick webb became a protective figure as he fostered her exceptional talent. When she started out with chick webb the chick singer up front with the band was supposed to do. Beautiful dress in the garden sit in the chair sing her a little chorus in the middle of the song get up and sit down well from the very beginning she didnt sit down she. Got up and waved her arms and interacted with the musicians as if she were the conductor and told chick that she wanted to learn how to jam with the boys in the band. And shes blending in to speak and like one of the you know instruments in the band she might jump and sing with the trombones or play in a with the sax as a play and with the trumpets you know shes had that ability everything by ear. She thought he brought me in he brought me out he brought me to my audiences and without him what would have happened to me. When our mentor died in 1939 young ella took over his band and continued to lead it successfully for several more years. An astonishing accomplishment for a young woman called them at a time when jens was still generally considered disreputable. Basic in the 30s you would never take your mother to a jazz concert you would never take your wife you might take your mistress you know is that kind of thing but you would never risk but when respectable people went to see jazz at the prince of wales like jazz but he thought he was salami and that was sort of the attitude people enjoyed it but it was very much underground and even in the black community it was looked down upon in the beginning the black middle class and the black religious class looked down on jazz it had to do with gambling it had to do with. Low class low sexual morals and things like that but but you know people like ellington and really gave it a kind of respectability i mean after al i really you. Take your mother to hear to a jazz concert. Beat beat. To. Do it. 7 was. 7 7 in the mid 1940 c. Met and married bassist ray brown and was forging a new style of Music Together with Charlie Parker art tatum roiled ridge and Dizzy Gillespie a style called be. Sure to deep musical bond with dizzy who would become an important teacher. 2 6 c she stood next to Dizzy Gillespie in all of these great great bebop players the people that invented view and she could hold her own you know so the people that end up scattering. Good next to her would be people by Dizzy Gillespie and wright eldridge and people that actually played lawrence if you learn bebop heads all the Charlie Parker tillmans and all those b. Legs you know never theres never room for should we joe base you know. I tell them like ella is a great one now because she used a great syllables it was just very natural for her when she and provide as you know and i think shes the greatest scat singer even today to me shes the greatest guessing. Did you really really. Show. The movie did. You. Really think youre. Going to because you know you didnt need to become the number. Member so she invented a language you know that is actually taught you know or you go blot out bebop or do you do do you know and you know maybe that might work not work for you you know but people do it anyway but she did it because that worked for her that was how she could get to where she needed to get to me to. 6 go about that so when you get being able. To do both i know that she can sketch she could do chorus after chorus after chorus after chorus with. Complete ease i know when i was doing her the tribute album to her my dear ella. I decided one day. That i was going to do air mail special but it really didnt it let it be a little a little italy so and i wanted to do her scat didnt she get a. Degree leading you need a little lady in england really like that i have. Only she really i spent a day trying to get her revved up. To really be able to pull this off and i couldnt do it because it was just not natural for me so i delayed that wind a bit i was like well thats a good idea thats im going to read you would need to go get it and i had the benefit of that that that that the thats. In the 2nd round for the 1940 s. She started working with norman grounds already your Legendary Music manager and the founder of the Concert Series called john is it to feel harmonic. Well ive just said i need someone to speak for me and ill do the sign and norm on the. Curb Management Contract and 54. Recording contract at the end of 55 and started for records on my part of it is a had a very terms of her tolerance work ethic the integrity of her work the genius of her. Entire approach to signing jack. To do it. Was. Only. Eat. A little became a fixture of jazz at the. Back with the touring band that brought together the biggest names in the genre in the mid 1950 s. She accompanied the show around the world including to the Southern United States where the performers faced intense discrimination her manager norman grants forcefully opposed racial segregation. Last night as well being on the road he certainly and countersigned were said no he didnt encounter and he purposely. To come front and every year i come here with jazz of the film i like it every year i think the thing this is the greatest thing in jazz myself that. I remember hearing a woman grounds constantly introducing his one and only as mistress gerald the great Ella Fitzgerald rarely does he ever just use her 1st name because he was so clued in to the racist climate in the United States. And 1st lady in a period when we werent supposed to call a black woman mrs is a very important racialized statement as well its a statement of stature of prestige. Of entitlement to dignity. Ringback but the 1st lady of jazz faced the same discrimination that all black jazz musicians suffered at the time in 1955 she and other band members were arrested on a trumped up charge after a concert in houston texas. 30 years earlier on a stopover in honolulu on route to Sydney Australia she was forced off the plane to allow white passengers on board. Fitzgerald had to wait 3 days for another connecting flight norman grants subsequently sued pan am which lost and was forced to pay damages. The case made headlines just like another incident in 1985. Marilyn monroe stepped in when her favorite nightclub the most combo in los angeles refused to let fitzgerald play due to the color band. Contacted the manager and promised shed sit in the front row for a week if he let fitzgerald perform. Later Ella Fitzgerald said of monroe she was an unusual woman and ahead of her time she just did not. Relish his gerald in the was armstrong only collaborator done to albums today those albums are world famous. It said the pair cracked so many jokes during the recording session that they often had to stop working because they were laughing so hard. The around this time norman grants persuaded ella to begin a series of recordings exploring the Great American songbook she was skeptical afraid of losing her loyal jazz audience my son. Is that it was a surprise in some level because he had tried the idea of a song work out earlier with Oscar Peterson for example and it didnt really work he just have the experience of watching Ella Fitzgerald with the jazz at the philharmonic his touring group that she could sing standards and reach an audience and he banked on that. As a premise to do this experiment she tried the spec here in front of an audience she told them she needed to try it out before she would agree to do this and after she did a concert primarily with standards i think primarily with cole porter said we can go ahead and i saw their faces itll be fine. To be. Used. Are a lot of the most classic songs that these writers were all but also playings. And Norman Graham sifted through. And just thought which of these do you want to set for example that great balance every time we say goodbye thats an example for songs became important because shes sighing and that they were on the song. The cool porter song book recorded in 1956 was the 1st of her famous songbook series. The Duke Ellington songbook from the following year was most important to her personally. Ringback also. Ready but. Everyone. There are millions are great examples of al as a ballad singer and to me this is one of them she really really put you know her heart and soul into Something Like this you can tell that shes really feeling it do not. Ready know what. Ready why. Theyre the. Only one. And especially on the song or should i say sometimes its done people just swing it or they you know do it its as if for reverent you know they just do it flip and do nothing till you hear from me and but our mind says that its really a love song. And the message is. No matter what you hear or who you hear it from i will always love you. And she brings that out better i think than almost almost any other singer its a very unique and special performance and there was one mom. Really. Was. And thats an area of her tannen as it were that really doesnt get enough attention people always talk about what a great scat singer she was what a great swinger she was what a great band singer she was what a great jazz singer she wasnt all that is entirely true but she was a wonderful ballad singer well. She was a gifted improvise. A little bit but i knew but that was the the lion because when you see that you know all she everybody is like sweet n low and that it is but not not at those times you know she was ready to take you there and i mean she was monstrous light and if it is out. There that that. And musicians were afraid of her. Instrumentalists i was the season isnt instrumentalists yeah because shes not come up there and shes. Then i go back and forth with you shes always got something to say you better have something to say or shell run you off the stage. And jazz was a means of reaching people and was still among the best musicians today it can be that as well but its sort of got the stigma attached to it that compared to say rock and roll music jazz is much more nishi and intellectual whereas thats not what its supposed to be at all jazz is a means of communication jazz is primarily a means of making people dance and primarily a means of making people smile its not supposed to be this and similar thing and ella was the greatest of that that. 6 they could tune there and stream of say allah do and i but even more importantly they were spotted her musicianship on a lot of times musicians calm a whole singers as as as riots or of an out of the the extra amount of lesser still predominate with with with. She was as good or better than the run of the mill. Always on the road most of the year singing was all she wanted to do. This or in life. The stages of the world in an audience were all she needed. People climb or do you. Her voice and she never disappointed. Her troubles or lifted charles commanded tremendous respect as a black center. For greatness among great. Freedom. There are very. Good home in the u. S. The struggle against racial segregation and oppression in the 1960 s. Was marked by escalating violence. As the Civil Rights Movement gained momentum under the leadership of Martin Luther king jr the queen of jazz to seem more confident and more resolute before. Gospel creatures just let the spirit flow into them then thats a scene here. They have the spirit takes over it. Really. Is going to put a sea close in some american pop. House thanks for this ng. There was silence. Oh man. I dont think they saw a black woman standing there on stage. I think the music her music you just were in the presence of something very special you were in the presence you were you were in this other space i cant. I cant stand up pakistan. But she has not because the stuff that wasnt of me was yes i was. Wrong was. Was. Was. She didnt really understand the. The affection that people had towards her she didnt she didnt i mean she would come out after a concert and say that was a that was a good audience you know nothing about her singing but before hand should be a rock. Very nervous she didnt want to talk to her one time we had a concert that was about 60 miles away when i was road man engine or not one word was spoken in the limo on the way up on the way back you could show her up. In the final years of Ella Fitzgerald in life jim blackman was one of the few people allowed into her inner circle. I always said that its a good thing ella was as universally acclaimed as she was because i dont think she could have taken any criticism because it would hurt her feelings. What is. It with you i did find it interesting that. She she had this ability to make people want to protect her there was something about her that you didnt want any harm to come to or you didnt want her to have any bad situations in life because she. She felt deeply about things and extremely private you know. Extremely private so you know thats why i would think you know she let you see what it was that she needed to have and needed to be the sinus becomes. A defense for how little she wishes to share her what she thinks of it in days answering questions that are invasions of privacy. And war are some of my go to allan sites paul could you do this or do that she says yesterday or as she said there are a lot because she could not remember many peoples names yesterday. So then i would be like i asked Norman Potter to call and speak to norman. Norman browns from presented Ella Fitzgerald for more than 40 years their professional and personal relationship was the most stable bond in fitzgeralds life. In the course of her long career she was showered with accolades like in paris in 1900. 80 bridgewater met her there after an awards ceremony. When i went to the u. S. Embassy i mean there were some in about 200 people there were at the embassy and there was a big spread and of course champagne and all kinds of drinks and all of these people were talking in this room and there was no Ella Fitzgerald little bit where. I went over and i said down with her and i said miss fitzgerald and shes didi ellen. Why why are you here you know this reception is for you and she said to me something that i have never forgotten she said a few things on that occasion. And she said you know dee i hate these kinds of affairs i hate receptions i hate those meeting crete and she said because people just come to those things so they can get together interested in me you see no one has missed me youre the 1st person to come and look for me. The other thing that ella told me was she said i hope you will take the time to be a mother to your children she said that that was her biggest regret is that she did not spend more time with ray jr and she said that was the thing that she wished she could have turned back time. Eller adopted ray brown jr while she was married to bassist ray brown. When the marriage ended in 1953 she raised their son alone though she. Remained a lifelong friend. Was. Her singing was in escape from anything that was not good in her life you know and you can tell that her escape was and her desire obviously was to find pure joy because thats what you hear in in her sound that was her that was her heir that was her water that was she loved she lived and loved to sing. In the late 19th sixtys and early seventys fitzgerald increasingly performed a contemporary soul or pop songs including ones with a political message. Ali. Offstage she took a political stance in her own way singing at president john f. Kennedys inauguration and supporting Robert Kennedys campaign in 1968. Following the assassination of dr Martin Luther king jr in april 1968 Ella Fitzgerald composed the song its up to me and do you. Think. That. She. Wanted. To say. To my kids wed like to do a know number. And its one of my favorites. But. Im going to sort of sneak over here was the wound see if i can remember the lyrics. And then. And we hope you remember it all so very fortunate so. We help you thank you. Now. You read. Where you can. Buy a lavish mask of hello i always get the feeling that shes pointing to the music not her own suffering or difficulties or her own personality or personal story she doesnt and as for her the focus is on the music. As if she takes the focus off of her self and whats a spotlight on the content of the music by thats really a very modern approach it was easy this is i think newseum down a dank fison you meet new needs to of me yet. When you there is. In the final years of her life Ella Fitzgerald was beset by Health Problems and increasingly spent more time at her estate in Beverly Hills than on the road. She suffered from diabetes which led to numerous complications and left her legally blind she could barely walk and underwent heart surgery but none of that stopped her from performing. She lived in seclusion with contact of only a few close friends. Jim blackman was one of them and he voted fan who traveled to her concerts for decades she one day acknowledged his loyalty by inviting him over to her house. What does fan come from fanatic probably but that by that point you know i was friends with her and so i wasnt you know i was accompanying her so. You know and i was it what you know people call me a groupie but you know i always tried to stay away from her and it was she who came up to me it was she who started this relationship not me. That constantly so funny before of my school to go after. He said my dear friends i have given. You. Will then. Lead from. There certainly can eat. Oh are full. O. Who. Do these they sued. And if you cant do that. Wold choose. Kids. You simply have to. Prove it didnt get through did. You do. This in a. Dripless mediocre way. You all messed up full bed. On a really good. If you can and sleeping good you simply. Didnt do you didnt a good many these made my rap so deep and if you can update it loves you so you give. It a mug shot. Its down. To do you did better than that or did something good did we. Go back to the mom during. The it did stop this little bit the book. Did you did her power go read it but. No i dont because it is the only reason we found a. Great. Deal of it. Or. When youre driven and near here you get filled you you you theres a spiritual fullness that you get can get from that. And. And performing and getting that love back from the audience as well i think that that was her family shops the noise i had the chance to see or at Carnegie Hall in 1991 she was terribly thin and could hardly see the scene because she came onto the stage and people were just screaming i love you ella it was unbelievable the atmosphere the love pouring from the audience towards this person who see it all and and then she sat on her chair and said i love you too honey to. An american treasure. Which i. Knew she had to have coming out onto the stage and she was had a few words to say she just said really i dont know what to say you know thank you but but i can sing you know and i feel like thats where she was most her most comfortable really was performing and shes saying you are the sunshine of my. Thats was around. And there were these young people in the audience in the front and she was singing to them and you could tell that it was she was singing to them and then. I felt like she was singing to me and that she loved she was i was like. And i felt like she loved me and she loved them and i cry and watch it over and over and over again and each time i cried when i was. See that audience for a soon. To say. Thank you. Thank the setting sun. Thank. Our habit 3 is. A dream that changed the world were made so i was sent to save. A dream thats no browsing the crowds on stage crept up by the Creative Church the turn foundation. The Martin Luther king the choir music. School. Its time to take one step further and face to face. Time to search the you know find. Time to overcome downturns and connect the. Its time for. Coming up ahead. Connie much of. Doors grandma is arrives. To join your regular turn on her journey back to freedom. You know where the interactive documentary during the regular season returns home on the d w dont come to tanks. On the odd. Place. This is steve happy new years live from but lead a new era in green conservative kitty a close knit so tight is sweeps to victory in the election promising felix taxes and more jobs but can he really bring basic days ordinary critiques well go live to dance. At the United States all the womens football hall cup champions they face the netherlands to know in the final their frogs to lift the trophy for a 4th time