The Ella Fitzgerald Companion: Seven Decades of Commentary

"The First Lady of Jazz Song": "The Ella Fitgerald Companion" offers interviews, reviews, commentary, and insight into the life, time, and career of one of this century's greatest jazz singers. Fitzgerald first burst on the jazz scene as the lead singer of Chick Webb's orchestra in the late '30s, scoring a massive pop hit with her rendition of the playful children's song, "A Tisket, A Tasket." In the '40s and '50s, she matured into one of the greatest jazz singers of her day, a master of scat singing, and a wonderful interpreter of the repertoire of Gershwin, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and other great Broadway composers. A respected interpreter of mainstream pop, she continued to perform through the '60s, '70s, '80s, and up to her death in the early '90s, gaining legendary status among fans of all types of music. This book presents the cream of the writings about Ella that have appeared over the decades, along with interviews with the Lady herself.