Ella Fitzgerald and Jazz Music, Essay Example

Soul and feeling are the true embodiment of jazz music. Invented by African-Americans near the turn of the century, jazz music contained a lot of the angst experienced by many due to racial tension of the time. Featuring frequent improvisation during performances, the artist’s feelings ooze out of their art ant music. Ella Fitzgerald embodies this idea of free-flowing jazz music due to her background, her incredible musical talent, as well as the experiences she has to drawn upon. This is perfectly shown in her live performance of the frequently covered, but old favorite “Mack the Knife”.

Born in Virginia in April of 1917, Ella Fitzgerald was relocated early in life to Yonkers, New York. After taking the loss of her mother extremely hard in 1932, and through a series of unfortunate circumstances, Ella found herself a 15-year-old living on the streets during the height of The Great Depression (Ella Fitzgerald, 2013).

Ella Fitzgerald found her own way into the music industry when, in 1934, she was randomly chosen for a talent act at the infamous Apollo Theatre. Her performance resulted in an audience-demanded encore song. After performing in small jazz clubs on the road, From 1956 until the mid 1960’s Ella worked with many jazz artists that added to her versatility, including Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington (Ella Fitzgerald, 2013).

She did, however, become known in the process for her improvisation. She added her own vocals and improvised “scat-singing” into many of her live performances. She soon became known as both “The First Lady of Song” and the “Queen of Jazz”.

It was during this time that, while performing in Berlin, Ella Fitzgerald covered the very old, and vastly covered song “Mack the Knife”. The original song was a piece taken from The Threepenny Opera, and was actually the Prologue to the play. In the play it was performed by a random street performer, and meant to foreshadow impending death and gloom. The song has been called one of the best of all time, and has been covered by such musical geniuses as Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, Jim Morrison, and Bobby Darin (Top Ten, 2013).

This song choice is very interesting for a few very important reasons. The fact that it was a cover reflects the way Ella Fitzgerald became famous. She covered a very well known and relatable song to connect with her audience. In keeping with her series of covers, “Mack the Knife” fits perfectly.

Perhaps the most interesting thing to note about the song is the way it truly embodies Ella as a person–both in angst, and creativity. Ella Fitzgerald had an inconsistent, rocky, and unstable childhood. The violent, but sweet-sounding rendition of “Mack the Knife” by Ella Fitzgerald makes the song flow, and is filled with emotion. Interestingly enough, during the famed Berlin show when she performed the song, Ella Fitzgerald forgot the lyrics (Top Ten, 2013).

This could have destroyed the career of the jazz star, but instead it highlighted her ability to improvise. yet still make the song work. In fact, threepennyopera.org considers Ella Fitzgerald’s rendition of “Mack the Knife” to be the second best of all time, lyrics aside (Top Ten, 2013).

In essence, Ella Fitzgerald’s botched rendition of “Mack the Knife”, saved by her incredible ability to improvise, proves her significance to musical history as a whole, and especially jazz vocals.

Resources

“Biography.” The Official Web Site of Ella Fitzgerald. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Apr. 2013.

“Top Ten Recordings of “Mack the Knife”” Threepenny Opera. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Apr. 2013.