Contents
Collection Summary
Biographical Note
Scope and Content Note
Organization of the Ella Fitzgerald Collection
Selected Search Terms
Container List
Full Scores and Parts
Titles without Numbers
Symphony Arrangements
Printed Music
Miscellaneous Fragments
Lyric Sheets
Miscellaneous
Index Cards
Photographs
Oversized Full Scores and Parts
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Ella Fitzgerald Collection
Processed by the Music Division of the Library of Congress
2005
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Creator
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Fitzgerald, Ella |
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Title
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Ella Fitzgerald Collection |
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Span Dates
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1956-1992(bulk 1960-1985) |
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Abstract:
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Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996) was a popular and highly-respected American jazz and pop vocalist and recording artist. The Ella Fitzgerald Collection chiefly consists of musical arrangements made for her by more than fifty arrangers and orchestrators. Arrangers whose works are found in this collection include: Buddy Bregman, Benny Carter, Frank DeVol, Russ Garcia, Billy May, Marty Paich, Nelson Riddle, and Gerald Wilson. The arrangements consist of a combination of full scores and parts, and are often accompanied by piano-conductor short scores, reduced scores, lead sheets and lyric sheets. Music is found in the form of manuscripts, printed music, photocopies, and ozalids, often in multiple or different versions. In addition, the collection contains repertoire and program lists and other miscellaneous material, including a minimal amount of correspondence and photographs. |
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Extent:
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23,500 items285 containers176 linear feet |
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Language:
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Collection material in
English |
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Identification:
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ML31.F58 |
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Note
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To find locations of arrangements within this finding aid, consult the Songs Index and Arrangers Index under Index Terms. The Songs Index provides an alphabetical title list of song arrangements that includes box/folder locations for each title. The Arrangers Index provides an alphabetical list of arrangers that includes their respective arrangements contained in this collection. |
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Date
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Event
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1917 April 25 |
Born Ella Jane Fitzgerald in Newport News, Va., to William and Temperance (Tempie) Fitzgerald |
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1932 |
Mother dies from injuries sustained in a car crash |
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1934 Nov. |
Wins an amateur contest sponsored by the Apollo Theatre, New York |
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1935 |
Wins an opportunity to perform for one week at the Harlem Opera House |
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1935 March |
Begins performing with the Chick Webb Band |
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1935-1939 |
Records with Chick Webb and his orchestra |
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1935-1955 |
Under contract to the Decca label; records total of 612 recordings |
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1936 |
First recording, Love and Kisses released on the Decca label |
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1937 |
Top female vocalist, Down Beat magazine |
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1938 |
First number one song "A-tisket, A-tasket" |
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1939 June 16 |
Webb dies; Fitzgerald takes over direction of the band for the next three years |
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1939 |
Hit song "Undecided" |
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1939-1940 |
Married to Benny Kornegay |
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1939-1941 |
Records as Ella Fitzgerald and Her Famous Orchestra |
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1942 |
Appears in the film Ride ‘em, Cowboy |
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1946 |
Begins association with producer Norman Granz and his Jazz at the Philharmonic |
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1946-1952 |
Married to Ray Brown; son Ray Brown, Jr., is born |
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1954 |
Best female vocalist, Metronome magazine and Down Beat magazine
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1955 |
Appears in the film Pete Kelly’s Blues |
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1956 |
Joins Granz’s newly-founded Verve label; all star female, Metronome magazine |
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1956-1966 |
Under contract to the Verve record label; records 1,191 titles |
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1958 |
At first Grammy Awards, wins best female vocal performance for The Irving Berlin Songbook and best individual jazz performance for The Duke Ellington Songbook; appears in the film St. Louis Blues |
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1959 |
Wins best female vocal performance Grammy for But Not for Me (single) and best individual jazz performance for Ella Swings Lightly (album) |
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1960 |
Wins best female vocal performance (single) Grammy for Mack the Knife and best female vocal performance (album) for Ella in Berlin; honorary membership to Alpha Kappa Alpha; appears in the film Let No Man Write My Epitaph |
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1962 |
Wins best female solo vocal performance Grammy for Ella Swings Brightly with Nelson Riddle |
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1965 |
Receives first ASCAP award in recognition of an artist |
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1966-1971 |
This period is referred to as the "Concert Years;" Fitzgerald not under contract to any one recording company, but made 284 recordings on various labels |
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1967 |
Receives Grammy Award, Bing Crosby Lifetime Achievement Award; honorary chairmanship of the newly formed Martin Luther King Foundation |
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1972-1992 |
Under contract to the Pablo label; recorded 266 titles |
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1976 |
Ella Fitzgerald Day in Los Angeles (April 1); receives Honorary Doctorate in Music from Dartmouth College; wins Grammy Award, best jazz vocal performance for Fitzgerald & Pass ... Again (album) |
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1979 |
Grammy Award, best jazz vocal performance for Fine and Mellow (album); receives Kennedy Center Honors Award |
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1980 |
Receives Honorary Doctor of Music from Howard University; wins Grammy, best female jazz vocal performance for A Perfect Match (album), recorded with Count Basie and instrumental ensemble |
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1981 |
Grammy Award, best female jazz vocal performance for Digital III at Montreaux (album) |
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1982 |
Hasty Pudding Club Woman of the Year |
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1983 |
Peabody Award for outstanding contributions to music in America; Grammy Award, best female jazz vocal performance for The Best is Yet to Come (album) |
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1986 September |
Undergoes quintuple coronary bypass surgery |
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1987 |
Receives UCLA Medal for Musical Achievements and National Medal of Arts |
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1988 |
Receives NAACP Image Award for Lifetime Achievement |
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1990 |
Grammy Award, best female jazz vocal performance for All that Jazz (album) – her last recording and her twelfth Grammy; receives Commander of Arts and Letters (France) and Honorary Doctor of Music from Princeton University |
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1992 December |
Final performance in Palm Beach, Fla. |
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1996 June 15 |
Fitzgerald dies in Beverly Hills, Calif. |
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Known as the “First Lady of Song,” Ella Fitzgerald sang professionally over a career that spanned some fifty-seven years. More than 2,300 recordings are known to exist of over 1,000 songs; Fitzgerald is thought to be more recorded than any other singer. Her repertoire included works from various genres, including musical theater, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, religious works, and Latin-American songs. Under the guidance of manager and producer, Norman Granz, Fitzgerald recorded several “songbooks” of the works of individual composers and lyricists.
The core of the Ella Fitzgerald Collection in the Library of Congress is the arrangements that were made for her by a group of more than fifty arrangers and orchestrators. The arrangers whose works are included in the collection include: Buddy Bregman, Benny Carter, Frank DeVol, Russ Garcia, Billy May, Marty Paich, Gerald Wilson, and, with the greatest number, Nelson Riddle.
Most arrangements in the collection are represented by a combination of full scores and parts, often with the addition of some combination of a piano-conductor short score, a reduced score, and a lead sheet or lyric sheet. The collection came to the Library with materials for each arrangement kept together in an envelope marked with a song title, a number (or numbers) assigned to that arrangement and, usually, the name of the arranger. These envelopes were kept in numeric order, which appears, for the most part, to represent a chronological filing system, with each new song arrangement being placed after the last. There are a few exceptions, however, where different arrangements of the same title were filed together but had been assigned different numbers.
There are both unnumbered arrangements in the collection and missing arrangements for which numbers are given in the index cards; we assume many of these are held at the other institutions mentioned in the introduction.
Folders may contain a combination of manuscript, printed music, photocopies or ozalids – sometimes multiples in different versions. If there is either some version of a full score and/or what appears to be a complete set of parts, then no particular note is made about a folder’s contents.
To find locations of arrangements within this finding aid, consult the Songs Index and Arrangers Index under Index Terms. The Songs Index provides an alphabetical title list of song arrangements that includes box/folder locations for each title. The Arrangers Index provides an alphabetical list of arrangers that includes their respective arrangements contained in this collection.
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People
- Bregman, Buddy.
- Bulling, Erich.
- Carson, Tee.
- Carter, Benny.
- DeVol, Frank.
- Doggett, Bill, 1916-1996.
- Ellington, Duke, 1899-1974.
- Feller, Sid.
- Fitzgerald, Ella.
- Fitzgerald, Ella.
- Garcia, Russell.
- Holman, Bill.
- Hughart, Jim.
- May, Billy.
- Paich, Marty.
- Riddle, Nelson.
- Weston, Paul, 1912-1996.
- Wilson, Gerald, 1918-
Subjects
- Arrangers (Musicians)--United States.
- Jazz musicians--United States.
- Jazz vocals.
- Jazz.
- Music--Manuscripts--United States.
- Popular music--United States.
- Singers--United States.
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The Ella Fitzgerald Collection is organized into ten series:
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Full Scores and Parts
Includes boxes 35A, 71A, 84A-D, 118A, 119A, 120A, 121A, 154A, 158A, 174A.
Arranged in numeric order.
Titles without Numbers
Lead sheets, parts, chord charts.
Arranged in alphabetical order.
Symphony Arrangements
Separated by parts.
Printed Music
Piano-vocal scores (published and otherwise), lead sheets, photocopies, printed parts.
Arranged in alphabetical order.
Miscellaneous Fragments
Loose pages from parts, full scores & lead sheets; unidentified.
Lyric Sheets
Arranged in alphabetical order.
Miscellaneous
Lyric sheets, song listings, notes, repertoire and program lists, content listings, correspondence, addresses, cassette inventories.
Index Cards
Photographs
Oversized Full Scores and Parts
Loose pages from parts, full scores & lead sheets; unidentified.
Arranged in numeric order.
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