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Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington: The Story of a Friendship - JAZZIZ Magazine
In 1956, producer Normal Granz launched Ella Fitzgerald’s Song Book series with the release of Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book. Released on Verve Records, this project celebrated composers and lyricists emblematic of the cultural cornerstone known as the Great American Songbook. The Oxford Companion to Jazz hailed the series: “The concept was
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In 1956, producer Normal Granz launched Ella Fitzgerald's Song Book series with the release of Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book. Released on Verve Records, this project celebrated composers and lyricists emblematic of the cultural cornerstone known as the Great American Songbook. The Oxford Companion to Jazz hailed the series: "The concept was a perfect marriage. [Fitzgerald's] jazz following was delighted and the vast audiences devoted to the cherished composers of popular song was reintroduced to that music in the exhilarating Fitzgerald mode."
Following the success of this inaugural release, seven more Song Book albums ensued, including a tribute to Duke Ellington, the only composer of the series to be featured as a performer. Ellington first encountered Fitzgerald in the mid-1930s, when she performed at Harlem's iconic Savoy Ballroom with Chick Webb and His Orchestra. Despite their enduring friendship, Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book marked their first recorded collaboration.
Recording sessions commenced on June 25, 1957, resulting in two volumes. The first volume showcased the First Lady of Song alongside the Ellington Orchestra, while the second featured her with a smaller ensemble. Ellington, known for his exacting standards, demanded flawless accompaniments, asserting, "With Ella up-front, you've got to play better than your best."
Granz, who oversaw the project and future Ellington-Fitzgerald endeavors, revered Ellington. He once told JET Magazine: "I regard Duke Ellington as the outstanding figure in the entire world of jazz. I say this both because of his total impact on audiences and record listeners alike but also because of his great and distinguished contributions to music as a composer and conductor. Ella Fitzgerald is, in my opinion, the best singer in jazz. I consider them the most flexible jazz performers in the world. As a team they are unique."
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book culminated in a four-movement suite composed by Ellington's longtime collaborator Billy Strayhorn, titled "A Portrait of Ella Fitzgerald." In this piece, performed by the Ellington Orchestra, Ellington and Strayhorn alternated at the piano and offered semi-improvised verbal tributes to the iconic singer, crafting a musical homage to the First Lady of Song's essence.
The album's success led to triumphant live performances, including a memorable concert at New York City's Carnegie Hall on April 6, 1958. This marked the beginning of a series of successful joint appearances, with subsequent recordings, such as Ella at Duke's Place (1957) and Ella and Duke at the Cote D'Azur (1967).
On May 24, 1974, Ellington passed away. Stuart Nicholson, in his book Ella Fitzgerald: A Biography of the First Lady of Jazz, highlights Ellington's significant influence on Fitzgerald: "Ellington, who had once extravagantly promised to write a Broadway show featuring Ella, was a person whom she respected enormously, not, paradoxically, for his musical achievements but as a fatherlike figure to whom she occasionally turned for sage advice and counsel." Fitzgerald honored Ellington at his funeral service at New York's Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, singing his compositions "Solitude" and "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" with poignant emotion.
