PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Ella Fitzgerald

PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Ella Fitzgerald
By Nancy Steinbach

Broadcast: Sunday, March 07, 2004

(THEME)

ANNCR:

Now, the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today, Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember tell about the jazz singer, Ella Fitzgerald. She was known as America's first lady of song.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The year was nineteen-thirty-three. The place was New York City. Ella Fitzgerald was sixteen years old. She had entered a competition at the Apollo theater in Harlem. She was going to dance. But she had just watched two dancers perform. They were better dancers than she.

 
Graphic¹ Image
So, instead of dancing, she sang a song called "Judy. " People watching the competition urged her to sing another song. She did. She won first prize - twenty-five dollars.

That competition at the Apollo Theater changed Ella Fitzgerald's life forever. Band leader Chick Webb was watching the competition. He hired Ella to sing with his band. He taught her about singing in public. He even showed her what kind of clothes to wear. In three years, she had her first hit record, "A-Tisket-a-Tasket":

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Ella Fitzgerald was born in the southern city of Newport News, Virginia in nineteen-seventeen. Her father left soon after her birth. Her mother took Ella and moved to New York City. Ella's mother died when Ella was fifteen years old.

The next year, Ella started singing with Chick Webb's band. She stayed with Chick Webb until he died in nineteen-thirty-nine. Ella kept his band together after he died until World War Two started. Then most of the band members joined the armed forces. While she was with the band, Ella recorded almost one-hundred-fifty songs.

VOICE ONE:

Ella Fitzgerald was greatly influenced by the experimental music of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. It was called be-bop. She used be-bop rhythms in her singing. In nineteen-forty-five, she recorded the song "Flying Home," using the be-bop method known as 'scat'. In scat, the singer's voice sounds like another instrument in the orchestra². Critics say it was the most influential³ jazz record of the time.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

 
Graphic Image
In nineteen-forty-nine, jazz musician Norman Granz invited her to join his band. It was with his band in Berlin, Germany in nineteen-sixty that Ella sang a famous song in a very different way. A man asked her if she knew the song "Mack the Knife. " Ella said she had heard it a few times but the band did not have the music for it. She said she would try to sing it anyway. This recording⁴ shows how she continued to sing "Mack the Knife" when she did not remember the words. The people listening loved it.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Norman Granz later became her manager. He started a new recording company just for her. It was his idea for Ella to record the now famous series of record albums called the "Songbooks". On each record, she sang works of a different songwriter. She recorded songbooks of the music of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington, Jerome Kern, Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen. Critics say the best songbook is Ella singing the songs of George and Ira Gershwin. Ira Gershwin reportedly said: "I never knew how good our songs were until I heard Ella Fitzgerald sing them. Here, she sings the Gershwin song, "I Got Rhythm":

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Ella Fitzgerald also appeared in movies and on television. She became popular internationally. She performed in concerts around the world sometimes forty weeks a year. She also recorded for different record companies.

In the nineteen-sixties, she began to sing more modern songs such as those written by the Beatles and Burt Bacharach. But she was not very successful with that kind of popular music. She returned to jazz in nineteen-seventy-three, again with Norman Granz. She also began performing with symphony⁵ orchestras⁶.

VOICE ONE:

Ella Fitzgerald was married two times. Both marriages ended in divorce. She raised three children who were not her own.

Ella lived quietly in Beverly Hills, California. Throughout her life she was a very private person. She wanted to be known only for her music. Her friends included members of the Duke Ellington band, Count Basie's band, and singers like Sarah Vaughn and Peggy Lee.

Ella Fitzgerald began to have health problems during the nineteen-seventies. She had the disease diabetes⁷ which caused problems with her eyes. She had a heart operation in nineteen-eighty-six. In nineteen-ninety three, the effects of diabetes led to operations to remove both her legs. She died June fifteenth, nineteen-ninety-six.

 
Graphic Image
VOICE TWO:

People around the world loved Ella Fitzgerald's joyful⁸ singing. Critics said she had raised the American popular song to the level of art.

She won many awards. She received the National Medal of the Arts and a Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime work. The University of Maryland named a performing arts center for her.

Ella Fitzgerald's wonderful voice lives on in her two-hundred-fifty albums. She won thirteen Grammy awards given each year for the best recordings⁹. Her last Grammy was for the nineteen-ninety record: "All That Jazz":

(MUSIC)

ANNCR:

This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach. The announcers were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. I'm Sarah Long. Listen again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America.

(THEME)

1 graphic   

adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的

参考例句：

• The book gave a graphic description of the war.这本书生动地描述了战争的情况。
• Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons.用图标来区分重要的文本项。

2 orchestra   

n.管弦乐队；vt.命令，定购

参考例句：

• He plays the violin in an orchestra.他在管弦乐队中演奏小提琴。
• I was tempted to stay and hear this superb orchestra rehearse.我真想留下来听这支高超的管弦乐队排练。

3 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

4 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

5 symphony   

n.交响乐（曲），（色彩等的）和谐

参考例句：

• The Ninth Symphony of Beethoven is a famous one.贝多芬的第九交响乐非常有名。
• They play over the whole symphony.他们把整个交响乐重新演奏了一遍。

6 orchestras   

管弦乐队( orchestra的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The orchestras, the choruses, the drama and opera casts, will be cut to pieces. 各个管弦乐队、合唱队、戏剧和歌剧的演员名单都将支离破碎。
• In Indonesia, gamelan orchestras play music on gongs, drums, and xylophones. 印度尼西亚，佳美兰乐队用锣、和木琴演奏音乐。

7 diabetes   

n.糖尿病

参考例句：

• In case of diabetes, physicians advise against the use of sugar.对于糖尿病患者，医生告诫他们不要吃糖。
• Diabetes is caused by a fault in the insulin production of the body.糖尿病是由体內胰岛素分泌失调引起的。

8 joyful   

adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的

参考例句：

• She was joyful of her good result of the scientific experiments.她为自己的科学实验取得好成果而高兴。
• They were singing and dancing to celebrate this joyful occasion.他们唱着、跳着庆祝这令人欢乐的时刻。

9 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐