Did Ella Fitzgerald have stage fright?

Did Ella Fitzgerald have stage fright?

When the curtain rose for her number, she was paralyzed by stage fright. She couldn’t dance, and her knees were like pudding. The audience was growing restless and Ella spontaneously decided to sing a song by the Boswell Sisters.

What did Ella Fitzgerald do for black people?

As a result, Fitzgerald became the first African American to perform at Mocambo, and it gave her career a big boost. Ella Fitzgerald signed this contract to be the first African American performer at Mocambo, a prestigious and well-known club in West Hollywood.

What happened in 1934 to Ella Fitzgerald?

The performer in question was a teenaged Ella Fitzgerald, whose decision to sing rather than dance on this day in 1934 set her on a course toward becoming a musical legend. It also led her to victory at Amateur Night at the Apollo, a weekly event that was then just a little more than a year old but still thrives today.

What did Ella Fitzgerald die of?

Ella Fitzgerald, known to jazz lovers throughout the world as the First Lady of Song, died Saturday at her Beverly Hills home. She was 78. The cause of death was not released, but Fitzgerald had suffered from heart disease and diabetes for many years.

What did Ella Fitzgerald do for jazz?

Ella Fitzgerald, the Voice of Jazz, Dies at 79. Her series of “Songbook” albums, celebrating such songwriters as Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, the Gershwins, Rodgers and Hart and Duke Ellington, helped to elevate the work of the best American songwriters to a stature widely recognized as art song.

What happened to Ella Fitzgerald’s digitized recordings?

Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. Ella Fitzgerald, whose sweet, silvery voice and endlessly inventive vocal improvisations made her the most celebrated jazz singer of her generation, died yesterday at home in Beverly Hills, Calif.

What happened to Ella Fitzgerald after she move to Harlem?

However, as reported by NPR, Ella’s aunt struggled to support her. After she moved to Harlem, Ella Fitzgerald entered a dark period — one she almost never spoke of publicly. She skipped school, and she took up work as a lookout at a bordello and as a courier for a numbers-runner.