Happy Birthday, Ella

Today (April 25) would have been Ella Fitzgerald's 98th birthday.  From her days as the "girl singer" with Chick Webb's great swing band in the 1930's,

to her forays into bebop with Dizzy and Bird in the '40's, 

to her canonical pop recordings of the Great American Songbook in the '50's, 

o her performances in clubs and theaters around the world in the 60's through her death in 1996, 

Fitzgerald was the world's most popular and beloved female jazz vocalist.  Ella didn't sing with the operatic range and drama of Sarah Vaughn (who was 6 years her junior) or the world-weary, bluesy pathos of Billie Holiday (3 years her senior)...instead from the start of her career until the end, her voice maintained a girlish quality - clear, bell-like, full of joy and always swinging.