 Ella
Fitzgerald : A Biography of the First Lady of Jazz by
Stuart Nicholson
Ella Fitzgerald,
who died in 1996, came from a poverty-stricken background. She
was abandoned by her father, possibly abused by her stepfather
and lived on the streets as a teenager. As a club singer she had
to contend with racism, sexism and advances from predatory men.
But in the 1950s, just when Billie Holiday, from a similar background,
was falling toward drug addiction and a sordid death, Fitzgerald
escaped the seeming inevitability of that fate. Her songbook albums
relaunched her career in a new direction, and she became a beloved
figure in American jazz, known for her musical precision and luminous
clarity. This biography offers an assessment of the emotional
strength apparent in both her life and music.
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