Women's History Month: Ella Fitzgerald, First Lady of Song

By J9 of J9's MusicLife

To celebrate Women's History month, throughout March check out a series of features on women who have impacted history as it relates to music.

Ella Jane Fitzgerald (1917-1996) was born in Newport News, Virginia and raised in New York City.  She had a tough upbringing from losing her mom at an early age, being abused by family members and caretakers to living on the streets.  Ella stated those experiences helped her with the emotion in her performances. 

At the age of 17, Ella's name was picked in a weekly drawing at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York where competed in one of the first Amateur Nights.  Originally planning to dance, she choose to sing because she was intimidated by the previous act.  Her performance of Judy by her favorite singer Connee Boswell gave her a standing ovation the first prize of $25.00.

In 1935, she won the chance to perform with the Tiny Bradshaw band at the Harlem Opera House. It was there Ella met bandleader Chick Webb who gave her the opportunity to sing with his band.  In the band, she recorded many hits like Love and Kisses and (If You Can't Sing It) You'll Have to Swing It.  However, her 1938 version of the nursery rhyme, A-Tisket, A-Tasket, which she co-wrote made her famous.  Sidenote:  I remember singing this song in my grade school chorus.

In 1942, Ella left the band to start her solo career and this is when she began to incorporate scat singing in her performances.  She scatted to emulate the sounds of the horns in the band.  Her 1945 song Flying Home was described by the New York Times as "one of the most influential vocal jazz records of the decade....Where other singers, most notably Louis Armstrong, had tried similar improvisation, no one before Miss Fitzgerald employed the technique with such dazzling inventiveness."  Ella's 1947 recording of Oh, Lady be Good! made her one of the leading jazz vocalists.

To read more, click here.

Women's History Month: Josephine Baker, Entertainer & Activist

By J9 of J9's MusicLife

To celebrate Women's History month, throughout March check out a series of features on women who have impacted history as it relates to music.

Josephine Baker (June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975), American-born French dancer, singer, and actress, was the first African American female to star in a major motion picture and to integrate an American concert hall.  Born Freda Josephine McDonald from St. Louis, Missouri, she lived on the streets at the age of 12.  By 15, her street-corner dancing got her into the St. Louis Chorus vaudeville show.  She then moved to New York City and performed at the Plantation Club and in the chorus of the popular Broadway revues.  Baker was considered "the highest-paid chorus girl in vaudeville."

Later, she went to Paris and performed at the jazz revue La Revue Nègre.  Even though the show failed, the attention she received gave her the opportunity to open at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in 1925.  There, she became a success, known for her erotic dancing.  Some might be familiar with the bananas costume she wore in the Danse sauvage.   These performances gave her the nicknames "Black Venus," "Black Pearl" and "Creole Goddess." 

Soon after, Baker became the most successful American entertainer in France.  Her most successful song was J'ai deux amours (1931) and she became a muse for contemporary authors, painters, designers, and sculptors like Langston Hughes, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, and Christian Dior.
 


To read more, click here.

Women's History Month: Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, First Woman to Win Pulitzer Prize in Music

By J9 of J9's MusicLife

To celebrate Women's History month, throughout March check out a series of features on women who have impacted history as it relates to music.

In 1983, Ellen Taafee Zwilich became the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in Music for her Three Movements for Orchestra (Symphony No. 1) by the American Symphony Orchestra.  She has been called "one of America’s most frequently played and genuinely popular living composers." 

Zwilich began composing as a child and by the time she finished high school, she had studied piano, violin, and trumpet. In 1960, Zwilich earned a Bachelors of Music from Florida State University.  She then moved to New York City and from 1965 to 1973, played violin with the American Symphony Orchestra.  Zwilich then decided to compose full-time and in 1975 enrolled at Juilliard.  There she became the first woman to earn the degree of Doctor of Musicial Arts in composition. 


To read more click here.

Women's History Month: Martha Wash, Queen of Clubland

By J9 of J9's MusicLife

To celebrate Women's History month, throughout March check out a series of features on women who have impacted history as it relates to music.

Martha Wash is an American,  R&B, soul, house, and club singer/songwriter.  She's known for her powerful voice.  Wash started out as a backup singer for disco, soul, gay drag performer Sylvester in the 70s.  She then formed a group with fellow backup singer Izora Rhodes called The Weather Girls.  They are behind the highly successful, Grammy nominated 1982 disco song It's Raining Men.  

In the late 80s, Wash decided to go solo singing on various dance and house music tracks.  You may have heard sing on the popular 90s songs Everybody Everybody and Strike it Up by the group Black Box or Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) by the group C+C Music Factory.

Controversy erupted when Wash was labeled "unmarketable" because of her size and replaced by skinner women in music videos and marketing materials for these songs.  Look at the video for Gonna Make You Sweat below.  One would automatically assume the woman, Zelma Davis, in the video is singing but in fact she is lip syncing to Wash's vocals.


To read more click here.