TRANSCRIPT: I’m Mark Rapp, and this is Rapp on Jazz. Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong were groundbreaking solo artists ...

Ella Fitzgerald (1917–1996) was a gifted American jazz artist. She had a warm and lovely voice, with notable rhythmic sense, versatility, and intonation, as well as exceptional talent at scat singing.

Editor’s note: This segment originally broadcast on March 17, 2023. How did Ella Fitzgerald become the legend she was? That’s the question author Judith Tick asks and answers in her new biography on ...

Affectionately dubbed as "The First Lady of Song," Ella Fitzgerald’s amazing voice thrilled music fans for decades during her impeccable live performances. Even following her death in 1996 at age 79, ...

The title of “Becoming Ella Fitzgerald,” Judith Tick’s incisive, doggedly researched new biography of the 20th century’s preeminent songstress, suggests action and movement. This is no accident. As ...

Tick (Ruth Crawford Seeger), a professor emerita of music history at Northeastern University, delivers a magisterial biography of singer Ella Fitzgerald (1917–1996), who “fearlessly explored ...

In his 859-page monograph The Swing Era (1989), composer and historian Gunther Schuller skipped past Ella Fitzgerald. In 2011, when Judith Tick asked him about the omission, he responded that "there ...

In early 1933, a 15-year-old Ella Fitzgerald spent many a day dancing for dimes and nickels on the sidewalks of Yonkers, N.Y. At least she did until a truant officer caught her and hauled her to ...

R&B legend, Detroit native and Grammy nominee Freda Payne is bringing jazz luminary Ella Fitzgerald back to life onstage at Meadow Brook Theatre’s “Ella, First Lady of Song,” opening this weekend at ...

Tammi Brown is a busy lady. For a long time, the singer has been an important part of our local music community and with her busy schedule, she doesn’t perform locally as often as she did in the past.

Ella, First Lady of Song traces the 60-year career of the woman Mel Torme called “the best singer on the planet.” The story of Ella Fitzgerald truly challenges the age-old saying “The show must go on.

Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong shared one of jazz’s most iconic musical partnerships. Though their voices were very ...