PurFact
Practise for free

Ella Fitzgerald

11 questions · Music

Ella Fitzgerald was born in 1917 in Newport News, Virginia, and grew up in Yonkers, just outside New York. As a girl she dreamed of becoming a dancer. After her mother died in 1932 her life fell apart: she skipped school, was sent to a reform school, ran away and scraped by in Harlem. In 1934 she entered Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater, planning to dance. But the act before her was a dazzling pair of dancing sisters, so the intimidated seventeen-year-old decided to sing instead. She won. The drummer Chick Webb hired her for his orchestra in 1935, although at first he was not at all taken with the shy, plainly dressed girl. In 1938 her version of the nursery rhyme “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” became a huge hit, and after Webb died in 1939 she even led his band herself. Later the impresario Norman Granz became her manager and in 1956 founded the Verve label, above all to record her. The album devoted to Cole Porter opened her series of Songbooks, in which she presented the great American songwriters, and that same year she made the first of three albums with Louis Armstrong. Her scat singing was as nimble as a saxophone. When she forgot the words to “Mack the Knife” in Berlin in 1960, she simply made up new lines, and the recording won her a Grammy. She had already won that prize in 1959 at the very first ceremony, twice over, the first African American woman to do so. People called her the “First Lady of Song”. In later life she suffered from diabetes, and in 1993 both her legs had to be amputated below the knee. She died in 1996 at her home in Beverly Hills.

Practise for free

PurFact brings every card back right before you would forget it. That's how knowledge sticks.

All questions with answers

By which nickname did Ella Fitzgerald become famous?

Show answer

First Lady of Song

She was also known as “Lady Ella” and the “Queen of Jazz”.

💡 Did you know? Her range spanned about three octaves, and her diction was considered flawless.

At which Harlem venue did the seventeen-year-old Ella win an amateur contest in 1934?

Show answer

Apollo Theater

She had meant to dance, but after a dazzling dance act before her she chose to sing instead.

💡 Did you know? The prize was 25 dollars.

Which drummer and bandleader took the young Ella into his orchestra in 1935?

Show answer

Chick Webb

With his orchestra at the Savoy Ballroom she made her name; after his death in 1939 she led the band under her own name.

💡 Did you know? Since childhood Webb had been small and badly hunched from tuberculosis of the spine.

Which impresario founded the Verve label in 1956, chiefly to record Ella?

Show answer

Norman Granz

Granz was her manager and had already brought her on his “Jazz at the Philharmonic” tours.

💡 Did you know? He insisted on integrated audiences and equal treatment for his Black musicians, in hotels and on planes too.

To which composer did Ella devote the first of her great Songbook albums in 1956?

Show answer

Cole Porter

By 1964 further Songbooks followed, among them Rodgers and Hart, Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin and Johnny Mercer.

💡 Did you know? The series did much to establish the idea of the “Great American Songbook”.

With which trumpeter and singer did Ella record three joint albums from 1956?

Show answer

Louis Armstrong

“Ella and Louis” was followed by “Ella and Louis Again” and a version of Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess”.

💡 Did you know? On the first albums the two were accompanied by the Oscar Peterson Quartet.

In which song did Ella forget the words on stage in Berlin in 1960 and make up new lines?

Show answer

Mack the Knife

The concert at the Deutschlandhalle was released as the album “Ella in Berlin” and won her two Grammys.

💡 Did you know? She even sang about forgetting the lyrics and worked in nods to Bobby Darin and Louis Armstrong.

Which honour did Ella win twice when it was handed out for the very first time in 1959?

Show answer

Grammy

She was the first African American woman to receive a Grammy, and many more followed over her career.

💡 Did you know? The awards went to two of her Songbook albums, devoted to Irving Berlin and Duke Ellington.

In which city in Virginia was Ella born in 1917?

Show answer

Newport News

She grew up in Yonkers near New York, where her mother moved with her.

💡 Did you know? A statue in Yonkers now honours her.

In which year did Ella Fitzgerald die?

Show answer

1996

She died at her home in Beverly Hills after years of diabetes.

💡 Did you know? Her last public concert was in 1991 at Carnegie Hall, where she had appeared 26 times before.

Ella Fitzgerald

Foto: William P. Gottlieb · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Who is shown here?

Show answer

Ella Fitzgerald

How PurFact works

Practise for free

More on this topic

Music: all topics →

Home · All topics · Legal notice · Privacy · Terms · Contact