thu 27 apr 2017 06:00 hrs
Jazz, blues and nostalgia, by Sjaak Roodenburg. Today, the spotlight is on Ella Fitzgerald.
‘The only thing better than singing is more singing,’ Ella Fitzgerald said. You could hear the joy in her voice. Yet her childhood was so miserable, many a blues artist could get a lifetime of inspiration from it. After being abused by her stepfather, she entertained passers-by while living on the streets as an orphan, and was a messenger girl for a brothel. When she auditioned for band leader Chick Webb as a chubby teenager, she was jeered because of her anything but ravishing looks. Until, she started to sing. With the Songbook series, she created in the 50’s with the works of great American songwriters, she would become the undisputed First Lady of Song, and held on to that title for decades. On the occasion of her, would-be, hundredth birthday on 25 April, an hour of Ella Fitzgerald.
