page_title: Ella Fitzgerald
section_title: Big-band singing
hierarchical_section_title: Ella Fitzgerald / Big-band singing
caption_attribution_description: English: Ella Fitzgerald, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1940 Jan. 19
context_page_description: Ella Jane Fitzgerald, was an American jazz singer. She was called "Lady Ella", the "Queen of Jazz", and the "First Lady of Song".
  Her voice spanned three octaves. She could sing very high notes and very low notes. She was famous for her scat singing. She won 14 Grammy Awards. She was awarded the National Medal of Art and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
context_section_description: In January 1935, Fitzgerald won the chance to perform for a week with the Tiny Bradshaw band at the Harlem Opera House. She met a drummer and bandleader called Chick Webb here. Webb had already hired a singer called Charlie Linton to work with the band. According to The New York Times, Webb was "reluctant to sign her....because she was gawky and unkempt, a diamond in the rough."  Webb let her try singing with his band when they played a dance at Yale University.
  Fitzgerald began singing often with Webb's Orchestra during 1935, at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom. She recorded several hit songs with them, including "Love and Kisses" and "(If You Can't Sing It) You'll Have to Swing It (Mr. Paganini)". In 1938 she co-wrote and sang a version of the nursery rhyme, "A-Tisket, A-Tasket". After this, she started getting famous.
  Chick Webb died on June 16, 1939, and his band was renamed "Ella Fitzgerald and her Famous Orchestra". Fitzgerald became the bandleader. She recorded nearly 150 sides during her time with the orchestra.
caption: A photograph of Ella Fitzgerald Carl Van Vechten in 1940
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