美国国家公共电台 NPR How Ella Fitzgerald Is Influencing A New Generation Of Latinx Musicians

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Ella Fitzgerald is one of the most acclaimed¹ singers of the 20th century. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and 14 Grammys. She was admired around the world, and her influence is still felt today. For the NPR series Turning The Tables, Catalina Maria Johnson spoke² to two young Latin musicians about what Ella Fitzgerald means to them.

CATALINA MARIA JOHNSON, BYLINE³: Mabiland is a 24-year-old neo soul artist from Colombia who sounds like this.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DICIEMBRE DEL 95")

MABILAND: (Singing in Spanish)

JOHNSON: Mabiland grew up in Quibdo, a small city on the Pacific coastal⁴ plains of Colombia. And she remembers the very first Ella Fitzgerald song she heard when she was 9 years old.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SUMMERTIME")

ELLA FITZGERALD: (Singing) Summertime, and the living is easy.

MABILAND: (Through interpreter) I had no idea a woman could sing like that. For me to hear that voice and understand the power of someone who could put her soul into her voice like that, for me, that is Ella.

JOHNSON: Mabiland, whose real name is Mabely Largacha, says her mom even played one of her favorite Ella tunes⁵ at bedtime to get her to sleep.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "IT'S ONLY A PAPER MOON")

FITZGERALD: (Singing) Say it's only a paper moon. Sailing over a cardboard sea. But it wouldn't be make believe if you believed in me.

JOHNSON: Dayme Arocena is a 27-year-old singer and composer who grew up in Havana, Cuba.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MENUET PARA UN CORAZON")

DAYME AROCENA: (Singing in Spanish)

JOHNSON: Arocena started singing when she was 8 years old. But she didn't hear Ella Fitzgerald until she was 15, when she was invited to join the big band at the famed Havana Conservatory⁶. What really caught her ear was Ella's scat singing.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PERDIDO (LIVE)")

FITZGERALD: (Scatting)

AROCENA: I said to myself, oh, my goodness. What is she doing? You know what? I don't know what's she's doing, but I want to do it, too (laughter). So my love with Ella was pretty connected to scat. Being honest, one of my dreams is to get that level of scatting one day.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CRY ME A RIVER")

AROCENA: (Scatting)

JOHNSON: Neither singer wants to copy Ella. Instead, Mabiland says she tries to take what she's learned from listening to Fitzgerald and combine it with hip-hop, R&B and soul to tell her own story.

MABILAND: (Through interpreter) I have listened to a lot of artists, and I always put her on because that's what she means to me. When I speak of Ella, I think so much of what I'm sharing with people with my voice, when I interpret a song, when I write a song, when I go through the process of putting my soul into it.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "INSTINTO FUGAZ (LIVE) ")

MABILAND: (Singing in Spanish)

JOHNSON: And for Dayme Arocena, it's not so much about the purity of Ella's voice or her perfect diction.

AROCENA: For me, the most impressive thing was the way she could conduct ideas - she could create melodies, rhythms, all the technique that she had to do anything that she had in her mind. Any person that wants to be a singer should know Ella Fitzgerald.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HEAR ME TALKIN' TO YA")

FITZGERALD: (Singing) Rambling⁷ man makes no change in me. I'm going to ramble⁸ back to my used to be. You hear me talking to you.

JOHNSON: These two Latino millennials agree; Ella Fitzgerald's songs are as exciting and interesting today as they were when she recorded her first hit in 1938. Mabiland says Ella transcends⁹ her time.

MABILAND: (Through interpreter) I think there are artists that you know are good, who in their generational moment, they mark that moment. And there are others who are eternal. Ella Fitzgerald was eternal.

JOHNSON: Arocena says she was unique.

AROCENA: Every single day pop up a new singer. But Ella had light, the light from the sky. She had the power from the earth. She had this sweetness from sugar, from honey. She had the colors of her heritage, her ancestors. So I think it could last forever, Ella. She's going to be here forever.

JOHNSON: And Mabiland says Ella Fitzgerald changed her.

MABILAND: (Through interpreter) I feel that my life would not have been the same if I hadn't listened to her.

JOHNSON: For NPR News, I'm Catalina Maria Johnson.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HOW HIGH THE MOON")

FITZGERALD: (Scatting)

1 acclaimed   

adj.受人欢迎的

参考例句：

• They acclaimed him as the best writer of the year. 他们称赞他为当年的最佳作者。
• Confuscius is acclaimed as a great thinker. 孔子被赞誉为伟大的思想家。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

5 tunes   

n.曲调，曲子( tune的名词复数 )v.调音( tune的第三人称单数 )；调整；（给收音机、电视等）调谐；使协调

参考例句：

• a potpourri of tunes 乐曲集锦
• When things get a bit too much, she simply tunes out temporarily. 碰到事情太棘手时，她干脆暂时撒手不管。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 conservatory   

n.温室，音乐学院；adj.保存性的，有保存力的

参考例句：

• At the conservatory,he learned how to score a musical composition.在音乐学校里，他学会了怎样谱曲。
• The modern conservatory is not an environment for nurturing plants.这个现代化温室的环境不适合培育植物。

7 rambling   

adj.[建]凌乱的，杂乱的

参考例句：

• We spent the summer rambling in Ireland. 我们花了一个夏天漫游爱尔兰。
• It was easy to get lost in the rambling house. 在布局凌乱的大房子里容易迷路。

8 ramble   

v.漫步，漫谈，漫游；n.漫步，闲谈，蔓延

参考例句：

• This is the best season for a ramble in the suburbs.这是去郊区漫游的最好季节。
• I like to ramble about the street after work.我下班后在街上漫步。

9 transcends   

超出或超越（经验、信念、描写能力等）的范围( transcend的第三人称单数 )； 优于或胜过…

参考例句：

• The chemical dilution technique transcends most of the difficulties. 化学稀释法能克服大部分困难。
• The genius of Shakespeare transcends that of all other English poets. 莎士比亚的才华胜过所有的其他英国诗人。