I don't think it's a stretch to say that, other than Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald was the world's most popular and beloved jazz singer. She was so famous that in the 1970's she did a series of commercials for Memorex, touting the fidelity of their cassette tapes, that regularly ran on primetime network television:

As noted in a previous post, 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. 

The story of how this shy, gangly teenager got her big break is the stuff of legend: She had been invited to compete in one of the famous Amateur Nights at the Apollo Theater in Harlem and planned to perform as a dancer. But after a pair of dancing sisters on the bill before her wowed the audience, Ella decided at the last minute to sing instead. Benny Carter was in the house that night and began recommending her to his band leader friends. Before long Ella was the "girl singer" for Chick Webb's popular band. 

To celebrate her 100th birthday, here is a sampling of my favorite recordings from over the course of her long career: 

From her time with Chick Webb: Undecided

 

Although she rose to fame in the Swing Era, Ella had started so young that she was chronologically a member of the bop generation. Her crisp diction made her a natural to merge Armstrong's scat singing with the rhythms, harmonies and sensibilities of bebop. Here she is with Dizzy Gillespie's great bebop big band: Almost Like Being in Love

 While Ella had the power to front a big band, she also had the subtlety and taste for more intimate setting, such as a 1950 session of Gershwin tunes accompanied by pianist Ellis Larkins: But Not for Me

 By the mid-1950's, Ella was a mainstream star, and one of the few African Americans who was a regular guest on TV variety shows. At the time, it wasn't common for a black woman and a white man to perform together, let alone sing a ballad, but here are Ella and Frank Sinatra (who was a big fan) singing Moonlight in Vermont

Perhaps even rarer on TV back then was a black man and black woman, both impeccably dressed, singing a sophisticated Cole Porter tune: It's All Right with Me

In the early 1960's, when Ella was an international star and playing large concert halls around the world, she did a 2-week gig at the Crescendo Club in Los Angeles. Norman Granz, her longtime producer and manager, recorded much of the run, but the tapes were never released until 2009. The collection, Twelve Nights in Hollywood, captures Ella at the absolute top of her form: Nice Work if You Can Get It

The first time I ever heard Ella perform live, it was on a bill with guitarist Joe Pass and pianist Oscar Peterson. Ella and Joe made a number of albums together and were a perfect match: Slow Boat to China

By her late 60's, heart ailments and diabetes began to take their toll, but Ella maintained a formidable touring schedule and was still a remarkable singer: Mack the Knife