Ella Fitzgerald (with Ray Brown, Dizzy Gillespie, and Milt Jackson)

Object Details

Artist: William Paul Gottlieb, 28 Jan 1917 - 23 Apr 2006
Sitter: Ella Fitzgerald, 25 Apr 1917 - 15 Jun 1996; Dizzy Gillespie, 21 Oct 1917 - 6 Jan 1993; Ray Brown, 13 Oct 1926 - 2 Jul 2002; Milt Jackson, 1 Jan 1923 - 9 Oct 1999; Timme Rosenkrantz, 6 Jul 1911 - 11 Aug 1969

Exhibition Label: Hailed as the “First Lady of Song,” Fitzgerald topped DownBeat magazine’s annual readers’ poll as the best female vocalist for seventeen consecutive years (1953–70). She was just a teenager when her victory in an amateur contest at Harlem’s famed Apollo Theater led to the opportunity to sing with Chick Webb’s orchestra in 1935. Fitzgerald soon secured her standing as a leading swing-era performer and scored a major hit with “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” (1938). After Webb’s death in 1939, she led his orchestra for three years before launching a highly successful solo career. With a supple voice that spanned three octaves, as well as an immense talent for improvisational “scat” singing, Fitzgerald built a wide-ranging repertoire encompassing jazz and popular song. Her long and fruitful association with jazz impresario Norman Granz resulted in the legendary series of “songbook” recordings that marked Fitzgerald as one of the greatest interpreters of American popular music.

Credit Line: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Lisa Ruthel and Anup Mahurkar

1947 (printed later)

Medium: Gelatin silver print
Dimensions: Image: 33.1 × 26.6 cm (13 1/16 × 10 1/2"); Sheet: 35.4 × 28 cm (13 15/16 × 11")

National Portrait Gallery

Topic: Costume\Jewelry; Costume\Headgear\Hat; Costume\Dress Accessory\Eyeglasses; Equipment\Sound Devices\Microphone; Interior\Nightclub; Home Furnishings\Curtain; Ella Fitzgerald: Female; Ella Fitzgerald: Arts and Culture\Performing Arts\Music\Musician\Singer\Jazz singer; Ella Fitzgerald: Civilian awards\Presidential Medal of Freedom; Ella Fitzgerald: Performing arts awards\Grammy; Dizzy Gillespie: Male; Dizzy Gillespie: Arts and Culture\Performing Arts\Music\Musician\Jazz musician; Dizzy Gillespie: Arts and Culture\Performing Arts\Music\Musician\Horn player\Trumpeter; Dizzy Gillespie: Performing arts awards\Grammy; Milt Jackson: Male; Ray Brown: Male; Ray Brown: Arts and Culture\Performing Arts\Music\Musician\Jazz musician; Timme Rosenkrantz: Male; Timme Rosenkrantz: Arts and Culture\Literature\Writer; Portrait

GUID (Link to Original Record): http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm49161edb6-b692-48d0-842e-1084dccbed77