Ella Fitzgerald (1917–1996) was one of the most prominent jazz singers of all time. Growing up around poverty and abuse, Fitzgerald found healing in music from an early age.
First finding modest success singing with the Chick Webb Orchestra in the 1930s, she embarked on a solo career in 1942, recording some of her best works in the 1940s and 1950s, including her renditions of the Great American Songbook. Fitzgerald was known for her outstanding tone, phrasing, timing, and intonation, and for her improvisational scat-singing. In later life she expanded her career towards films and television, giving her last concert in 1993, three years before her death.
