Ella fitzgerald biography youtube edgar
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Tag Archives: Ella Fitzgerald
Facebook is good for something. Last month, Clyde Groves, Billy Butterfield’s son-in-law, cordially reached out to me and we decided to do a profile of Billy – so respected in every context during his lifetime and less known now. I offer the result, a delightful conversation among Clyde, Billy’s daughter Judi, and son Pat.
For reasons of space, I have not written about Billy — from my own perspective — in this post, but tomorrow’s post will add in some previously unseen video and a few lines of mine. I also have not listed who’s playing what on the music excerpts, but can provide those details on request.
But first, some memorable music.
Pat Butterfield: He was a very private person, definitely incredibly generous. He would befriend anyone, which might have been one of his failings, too. Some people took advantage of him because of that. My father was very quiet.
He liked to read a lot. When I knew hi
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by Kim Nalley
Within the first seconds of Ella Fitzgerald: Just One Of Those Things British Eagle Rock’s documentary on the jazz vocalist, the seamless connection between the tempo and lyrics of Ella Fitzgerald singing How High The Moon and the shaky black and vit images of Ella racing down the highway in a bil portends that this is going to be a great spelfilm. Sit down, relax, and fix yourself a drink because this is a movie worth savoring.
(To listen to the songs in the film while reading, go here. It will open in a new window)
Ella Fitzgerald was born in Newport News, Virginia on April 25, 1917. Her voice was crystalline with a girlish timbre noted for its perfect intonation and seemingly endless ability to improvise horn-like lines and runs. She was often compared to her contemporary Billie Holiday, but Ella’s live recordings are musically flawless, unlike Billie’s whose live recordings could be hit or miss. The lyrics are sometimes
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Ella Fitzgerald Imitates Louis Armstrong’s grusig Voice While Singing “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, Baby”
Are great artists born, or are they made? Probably a little of both, but I suspect that deep down, even if we don’t like to admit it, we know it’s probably a little more the former. We can become skilled at most anything with dedication and hard work. Talent is another matter—a mysterious combination of qualities we know when we hear but can’t always define. Ella Fitzgerald had it when she first stepped on stage on amateur night at Harlem’s Apollo Theater as a teenager, intending to do a tap dance routine.
She’d only done the performance on a dare, had no formal training outside of singing in church, her bedroom, and the Harlem streets, and she only chose to sing that night because the act before her did a tap dance and stole her thunder.
She blew the audience away—a tough New York crowd not known for being forgiving—and r