{"id":429,"date":"2025-02-14T14:35:36","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T15:35:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.withoutsanity.com\/?p=429"},"modified":"2025-04-25T14:54:53","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T14:54:53","slug":"ella-fitzgerald-the-first-lady-of-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.withoutsanity.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/14\/ella-fitzgerald-the-first-lady-of-song\/","title":{"rendered":"Ella Fitzgerald: The First Lady of Song"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ella Fitzgerald has been described as \u201cperhaps the quintessential jazz singer<\/a>.\u201d This live performance of \u201cLet\u2019s Do It (Let\u2019s Fall In Love)<\/a>\u201d is one of the countless examples of Ella Fitzgerald thrilling an audience with her talents.<\/p>\n

In 1955 LIFE\u2019s Eliot Elisofon<\/a> photographed Fitzgerald for a story on the top jazz stars of the day<\/a>, and she was the only woman included in the group. LIFE wrote of her, \u201cElla Fitzgerald, who sings love ballads daintily, can roar on like a trombone through a jazz classic. Her most famous number is \u201cA-Tisket, A-Tasket<\/a>,\u201d but it is her many hotter songs that keep her the first lady of jazz year after year.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1958 LIFE staff photographer Yale Joel<\/a> took his turn shooting Fitzgerald. He caught her performing at Mister Kelly\u2019s<\/a>, a renowned jazz club in Chicago. The photo places the viewer in a front row seat. Fitzgerald, elegantly dressed, sings with her eyes closed and hand to heart on a low stage that has her nearly at level with the audience. That photo is one of the most popular images in LIFE\u2019s print store<\/a>, which is a tribute to both Joel\u2019s skill and Fitzgerald\u2019s enduring popularity\u2014several of her songs have more than 100 million plays on Spotify<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Included here are several other of Joel\u2019s shots from Mister Kelly\u2019s, and also other instances in which LIFE\u2019s photographers documented this great artist. <\/p>\n

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Singer Ella Fitzgerald holding a basket of flowers as she sings A-Tisket, A-Tasket in front of backdrop, 1946.<\/p>\n

Eliot Eilsofon\/Life Picture Collection\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald performed at Mister Kelly\u2019s nightclub in Chicago, 1958.<\/p>\n

Yale Joel\/Life PIcture Collection\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Bathed in red light, American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald performed her eyes closed, at Mister Kelly\u2019s nightclub, Chicago, 1958.<\/p>\n

Yale Joel\/Life PIcture Collection\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Ella Fitzgerald performed at Mister Kelly\u2019s nightclub in Chicago, 1958.<\/p>\n

Yale Joel\/Life Picture Collection\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Ella Fitzgerald performing at Mister Kelly\u2019s nightclub in Chicago, 1958.<\/p>\n

Yale Joel\/Life Picture Collection\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Ella Fitzgerald mingled with people who had come to hear her perform at the opening night of the Bop City nightclub in New York City, April 1949.<\/p>\n

.Martha Holmes\/Life Picture Collection\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Songbird Ella Fitzgerald sang at opening at the Bop City nightclub in New York City, 1949.<\/p>\n

Martha Holmes\/Life Picture Collection\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Ella Fitzgerald sang during opening night of Bop City nightclub in New York City, April 1949.<\/p>\n

Martha Holmes\/Life Picture Collection\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Ella Fitzgerald at the old Madison Square Garden in New York on the night Marilyn sang to John F. Kennedy, May 1962.<\/p>\n

Bill Ray\/Life Picture Collection\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\n <img decoding="async" data="block-image" data-id=3876780 desc="Not published in LIFE.<\/strong> Ella Fitzgerald, the Queen of Jazz, 1954.” caption=”Eliot Elisofon\/Life Pictures\/Shutterstock” title=”Ella Fitzgerald, the Queen of Jazz, 1954.” src=”http:\/\/withoutsanity.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/17_01144127.jpg” alt=”Ella Fitzgerald, the Queen of Jazz, 1954.” \/><\/p>\n
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Ella Fitzgerald, the Queen of Jazz, 1954.<\/p>\n

Eliot Elisofon\/Life Pictures\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The post Ella Fitzgerald: The First Lady of Song<\/a> appeared first on LIFE<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ella Fitzgerald has been described as \u201cperhaps the quintessential jazz singer.\u201d This live performance of \u201cLet\u2019s Do It (Let\u2019s Fall In Love)\u201d is one of the countless examples of Ella Fitzgerald thrilling an audience with her talents. In 1955 LIFE\u2019s Eliot Elisofon photographed Fitzgerald for a story on the top jazz stars of the day,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.withoutsanity.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.withoutsanity.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.withoutsanity.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withoutsanity.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withoutsanity.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.withoutsanity.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":442,"href":"http:\/\/www.withoutsanity.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429\/revisions\/442"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withoutsanity.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.withoutsanity.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withoutsanity.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withoutsanity.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}