Ella Fitzgerald

Paganini's birthday, falling in the midst of spooky season, provides a perfect excuse to delve not only into his musical canon but also the darker currents swirling about his legacy.

One November night in the year 1934, a 17-year-old girl was about to take the stage at the Apollo theater’s Amateur Night program and planned to do a…

December 7, 2020. Some performers are so far from anonymous, they become mononymous—instantly recognizable by just a one-word name. In jazz: Duke, Satch,…

You know Freda Payne's voice from the smash hit “Band of Gold,” which topped the pop charts here and in the U.K. in 1970. During her long career, she has…

The great Ella Fitzgerald was born on April 25th, 1917, and died in 1996. As WRTI’s Susan Lewis reports, "The Queen of Jazz" - also called "The First Lady…

Though she was blessed with impeccable intonation, a distinctive sound, and a superb sense of timing, Ella Fitzgerald was hindered in her early years by…

April is Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM), so we're spotlighting albums that are the benchmarks of influence and popularity. Each week we're highlighting an…

That clean, clear, flexible, and soulful voice can only belong to "The Queen of Song," Ella Fitzgerald. She amazes us with her improvising, range, and…

The songs, or standards, known to us today as "The Great American Songbook" flourished from the mid 1920s to about 1950. Singer Carmen McRae popularized…

Before she became First Lady of Song, Fitzgerald navigated childhood loss, poverty and homelessness — always with music as her refuge.