and Brück]]

Airmail (or air mail, in French Par avion) is mail that is transported by aircraft. It typically arrives more quickly than surface mail, and usually costs more to send. Airmail may be the only option for sending mail to some destinations, such as overseas, if the mail cannot wait the time it would take to arrive by ship, sometimes weeks.

In June 2006 the United States Postal Service formally trademarked Air Mail (two words with capital first letters) along with Pony Express. On May 14, 2007, Air Mail was incorporated into the classification First Class Mail International.

Air-speeded

A postal service may sometimes opt to transport some regular mail by air, perhaps because other transportation is unavailable. It is usually impossible to know this by examining an envelope, and such items are not considered "airmail." Generally, airmail would take a guaranteed and scheduled flight and arrive first, while air-speeded mail would wait for a non-guaranteed and merely available flight and would arrive later than normal airmail.

Names

Boeing 747-400]] A letter sent via airmail may be called an aerogramme, aerogram, air letter or simply airmail letter. However, aerogramme and aerogram may also refer to a specific kind of airmail letter which is its own envelope; see aerogram.

Some forms of airletter, such as aerogram, may forbid enclosure of other material so as to keep the weight down.

The choice to send a letter by air is indicated either by a handwritten note on the envelope, by the use of special labels called airmail etiquettes, or by the use of specially-marked envelopes. Special airmail stamps may also be available, or required; the rules vary in different countries.

Airmail stickers are coloured blue, with the words "air mail" in French, the home language. These are used to save having to write "air mail" by hand.

The study of airmail is known as aerophilately.

History

.]] Specific instances of a letter being delivered by air long predate the introduction of Airmail as a regularly scheduled service available to the general public.

Although homing pigeons had long been used to send messages (an activity known as pigeon mail), the first mail to be carried by an air vehicle was on January 7, 1785, on a hot air balloon flight from Dover to France near Calais. It was carried by flown by Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries. The letter was written by an American Loyalist William Franklin to his son William Temple Franklin who was serving in a diplomatic role in Paris with his grandfather Benjamin Franklin.

During the first aerial flight in North America by balloon on January 9, 1793, from Philadelphia to Deptford, New Jersey, Jean-Pierre Blanchard carried a personal letter from George Washington to be delivered to the owner of whatever property Blanchard happened to land on, making the flight the first delivery of air mail in the United States.

The first official air mail delivery in the United States took place on August 17, 1859, when John Wise piloted a balloon starting in Lafayette, Indiana with a destination of New York. Weather issues forced him to land in Crawfordsville, Indiana and the mail reached its final destination via train. In 1959 the U.S. Postal Service issued a 7 cent stamp commemorating the event.

Balloons also carried mail out of Paris and Metz during the Franco-Prussian War (1870), drifting over the heads of the Germans besieging those cities. Balloon mail was also carried on an 1877 flight in Nashville, Tennessee.

The introduction of the airplane in 1903 generated immediate interest in using them for mail transport. The first official airmail flight was conducted by Fred Wiseman, who carried three letters between Petaluma and Santa Rosa, California on February 17, 1911. The world's second airmail flight came the next day, when French pilot Henri Pequet carried 6,500 letters a distance of 13 km from Allahabad, India to Naini, India, then part of the British Empire.

The world's first scheduled airmail post service took place in the United Kingdom between the London suburb of Hendon, North London, and Windsor, Berkshire, on September 9, 1911.

In the aftermath of the First World War the Royal Engineers (Postal Section) and the Royal Air Force pioneered a scheduled airmail service between Folkestone, Kent and Cologne, Germany. The service operated between December 1918 to the Summer of 1919, its purpose was to provide troops of the British Army stationed in Germany with a fast mail service (see more at British Forces Post Office). Throughout the 1920s the Royal Air Force continued to develop air routes through the Middle East.

The first regularly scheduled airmail service in the United States was inaugurated on May 15, 1918, over a route between Washington, DC, and New York City with an intermediate stop in Philadelphia, PA.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the U.S. Congress used legislation (such as the Kelly Act and the McNary-Watres Act), and the U.S. Postal Service under Walter Folger Brown used air mail contract regulations, as tools to foster private-sector aviation companies (manufacturers, airlines, and conglomerates thereof) in order to encourage the development of a civil aviation system that would provide passenger airline service and cargo transport by air as widespread facets of American life, on a profitable basis—an ambitious notion at the time for a nationwide infrastructure that mostly did not yet exist. These events devolved into ethically dubious backroom deals between the government and corporations just in time for the Great Depression to create a populist backlash against such "fat cat" behavior. The resulting Air Mail scandal led to the Air Mail Act of 1934, which mandated the separation of air carriers from their equipment manufacturers, breaking up companies such as the United Aircraft and Transport Corporation.

The first airmail service established officially by an airline occurred in Colombia, South America, in the 19th of October 1920. Scadta, the first airline of the country, flew landing river by river delivering mail in its destinations.

Australia's first airmail contract was awarded to Norman (later Sir) Brearley's Western Australian Airlines (WAA). The first airmail was carried between Geraldton and Derby in Western Australia on December 5, 1921. A memorial plaque to that effect is located at the Derby Airport. WAA commenced operations including Australia's first scheduled airline service eleven (11) months before Qantas got off the ground. [The State Reference Library - the Battye Library Perth Western Australia holds these factual records].

The 1928 book So Disdained by Nevil Shute - a novel based on this author's deep interest in and thorough knowledge of aviation - includes a monologue by a veteran pilot, preserving the atmosphere of these pioneering times: "We used to fly on the Paris route, from Hounslow to Le Bourget and get through as best as you could. Later we moved on to Croydon. (...) We carried the much advertised Air Mails. That meant the machines had to fly whether there were passengers to be carried or not. It was left to the discretion of the pilot whether or not the flight should be cancelled in bad weather; the pilots were dead keen on flying in the most impossible conditions. Sanderson got killed this way at Douinville. And all he had in the machine was a couple of picture postcards from trippers in Paris, sent to their families as a curiosity. That was the Air Mail. No passengers or anything - just the mail".

In the same year when this was published, the famous German pilot Gunther Plüschow carried out the first air mail from Puntas Arenas to Ushuaia, in the southern part of Argentina. Later Plüschow was killed in an air crash, his memory still honoured in Argentina.

Since stamp collecting was already a well-developed hobby by this time, collectors followed developments in airmail service closely, and went to some trouble to find out about the first flights between various destinations, and to get letters onto them. The authorities often used special cachets on the covers, and in many cases the pilot would sign them as well.

The first stamps designated specifically for airmail were issued by Italy in 1917, and used on experimental flights; they were produced by overprinting special delivery stamps. Austria also overprinted stamps for airmail in March 1918, soon followed by the first definitive stamp for airmail, issued by the United States in May 1918.

The dirigibles of the 1920s and 1930s also carried airmail, known as dirigible mail. The German zeppelins were especially visible in this role, and many countries issued special stamps for use on zeppelin mail.

The Universal Postal Union adopted comprehensive rules for airmail at its 1929 Postal Union Congress in London.

Australia

Distances being what they are, all international mail from Australia (other than heavier parcels) goes by air. International stamps are distinguished from internal mail stamps by a blue patch. International stamps do not pay GST of 10% unlike internal stamps which do.

Media

See also

Airmail etiquette

Airmails of the United States

Air Mail scandal

Airmail stamps of Denmark

L-mail

Mail plane

Nellie Brimberry

Surface mail

V-mail

References

Notes

Sources

Richard McP. Cabeen, Standard Handbook of Stamp Collecting (Collectors Club, 1979), pp. 207–221

Schiff, Stacy. Benjamin Franklin and the Birth of America. Bloomsbury, 2006.

External links

UKweekly.com article on early airmail service

British Postal Museum & Archive Information Sheet - Airmail

The Flying Mail's Big Debt to War: America again takes front rank in the air with machines of mighty power, Popular Science monthly, February 1919, page 78, Scanned by Google Books: http://books.google.com/books?id=7igDAAAAMBAJ&pg;=PA78

Category:Aviation terminology Category:Articles containing video clips Category:Philatelic terminology

Coordinates	47°09′25″N27°35′25″N
Name	Nikki Yanofsky
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Nicole Yanofsky
Born	February 08, 1994Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Origin	Hampstead, Quebec, Canada
Genre	Jazz, Pop
Occupation	Singer
Years active	2006–present
Label	A440 Entertainment, Decca (US)
Url	NikkiYanofsky.com

Nicole "Nikki" Yanofsky (born February 8, 1994) is a Canadian jazz-pop singer from Hampstead, Quebec. She is involved in charitable causes, and released her first studio album on her own label, A440 Entertainment, and on Decca Records outside of Canada. Yanofsky sang Canada's national anthem at the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. She also performed during the closing ceremonies and the Paralympic opening ceremony.

Recordings

Yanofsky recorded the Ella Fitzgerald classic "Airmail Special" for Verve Records and it was released in June 2007 on the album . Produced by Tommy LiPuma, this track made Yanofsky the youngest singer ever to record for Verve.

In September 2008, Yanofsky released her first full-length album, a live CD/DVD concert package entitled Ella... Of Thee I Swing. Supported by her production company, A440 Entertainment, Inc. and distributed in Canada and Japan by Universal Music, it garnered critical acclaim and earned her two Juno Award nominations in 2009: 'New Artist of the Year' and 'Vocal Jazz Album of the Year'. She also won 'Favourite Jazz Artist' at the 2009 Canadian Independent Music Awards.

Songwriters Stephan Moccio and Alan Frew chose Yanofsky to sing CTV’s broadcast theme for the 2010 Winter Olympics, "I Believe", which hit the airwaves in late January 2010 and was played throughout the Olympics on all of CTV’s media partners.

Yanofsky recorded her first studio album with 14-time Grammy Award-winning producer Phil Ramone. This performance made her the youngest performer ever to headline at this festival. She has returned to this festival each year since, culminating in 2009 with a very special outdoor performance for the festival’s 30th Anniversary. Her other Canadian festival performances include Toronto (Luminato and Downtown), Ottawa (Jazz and Blues), Vancouver, Victoria, Quebec, Edmonton, Saskatoon, and Fredericton. Her international festival appearances include two visits to The Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival as well as the Ginza International Jazz Festival in Japan where she played to a full house at Tokyo's historic Kabuki-za.

On February 8, 2008 – her fourteenth birthday – Yanofsky kicked off a multi-city tour with famed composer and conductor, Marvin Hamlisch at Carnegie Hall. This tour included appearances at other world-class venues such as Avery Fisher Hall, also in New York, as well as The Kennedy Centre in Washington, D.C. This tour also included stops in Seattle, San Diego, Milwaukee and even her hometown of Montreal. In November 2008 she made her Canadian orchestral debut with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and since then has gone on to sing with the National Arts Centre Orchestra for a tribute to Oscar Peterson as well as the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra – both conducted by Canadian pianist, Senator and Order of Canada officer, Tommy Banks.

Yanofsky has performed the Canadian and American National Anthems at several sporting events including Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre, Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center, Florida Panthers at The BankAtlantic Center, a Montreal NASCAR event at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, the 2008 Grey Cup at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium, the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Most recently, she performed at the Stanley Cup playoff game between the Philadelphia Flyers and Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre on May 22, 2010.

Other interesting venues where Yanofsky has performed are the Bell Centre for both an appearance with Wyclef Jean as well as a solo performance at UNICEF’s Unite Against Aids benefit. She also performed a private concert for The Globe and Mail in front of the Library of Celsus at the 2000-year-old Ruins of Ephesus in Turkey.

In July 2010, Yanofsky performed at Napa Valley's Festival del Sole.

Television

Yanofsky has appeared on most major Canadian television stations including CTV (Canada AM, eTalk), CBC (The National), Global (ET Canada), MuchMusic (MuchOnDemand), Radio-Canada (Tout le monde en parle) Télé-Québec (Belle et Bum), and TVA (On n’a pas toute la soirée). She has also appeared as a featured artist on YTV’s The Next Star.

She also can be seen with Wyclef Jean singing and performing the opening sequence to The Children’s Television Workshop’s 2008 revival of their hit show, The Electric Company. She also appeared alongside Wyclef in a music video called "Electric City" for the same show, choreographed by The Lombard Twins.

On December 31, 2009, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams interviewed Yanofsky. She has also appeared on the KTLA morning show in Los Angeles as well as being the first crossover artist on PBS’ youth talent showcase From the Top.

Yanofsky appeared on television during the Opening Ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver to sing "O Canada", the Canadian national anthem. Canada's broadcast of the Opening Ceremonies on CTV concluded with Yanofsky's full-length version of "I Believe" written by Stephan Moccio and Alan Frew. She also later performed at the Olympic closing ceremony and the Paralympic opening ceremony. She performed the National Anthem and O'Canada for the Canadiens-Flyers 2010 NHL Playoff game on May 22.

Charitable works

ceremony in 2010]] In 2008, Yanofsky received the Outstanding Youth in Philanthropy award from the Quebec Chapter of The Association of Fundraising Professionals. Over her career, she has helped raise over $10 Million for local, national and international charities. She is currently associated with The Montreal Children’s Hospital, The Children’s Wish Foundation and MusiCounts. She has also lent her voice to oneXone, Leave Out Violence Everywhere (L.O.V.E.) and ORT.

Nikki Yanofsky sang a solo part on the remake of K'naan's song "Wavin' Flag" performed by Young Artists for Haiti. All proceeds from the single went to charities.

She was awarded the Allan Slaight award by Canada's Walk of Fame in October 2010.

Personal life

Yanofsky was born and raised in a "close-knit Jewish family" in Hampstead, a Montreal suburb. Her parents, Richard and Elyss, manage her career.

Label: A440/Decca

Format: CD, digital download

| 5 | 1 | 9 | 105 | 1 | 3 | 49 | style="text-align:left;"| CAN: Gold |- | 2011 | style="text-align:left;"| TBA

Released: TBA

Label: A440/Decca

Format: CD, digital download

| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | style="text-align:left;"| |- | colspan="10" style="font-size:8pt"| "—" denotes releases that did not chart |}

Singles

Videography

DVDs

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Decca Records – Nikki Yanofsky

Nikki's Interview with JSYK.com

Category:1994 births Category:Living people Category:Anglophone Quebec people Category:Canadian child singers Category:Canadian female singers Category:Canadian jazz singers Category:Musicians from Quebec Category:People from Montreal

Coordinates	47°09′25″N27°35′25″N
Name	Ella Fitzgerald
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Ella Jane Fitzgerald
Alias	First Lady of Song, Lady Ella
Born	April 25, 1917Newport News, Virginia, U.S.
Origin	Yonkers, New York
Died	June 15, 1996Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Genre	Swing, traditional pop, vocal jazz
Instrument	PianoVocals
Occupation	Vocalist
Years active	1934–1993
Label	Capitol, Decca, Pablo, Reprise, Verve
Url	EllaFitzgerald.com

Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996), also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist. With a vocal range spanning three octaves (Db3 to Db6), she was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing and intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.

She is considered to be a notable interpreter of the Great American Songbook. Over a recording career that lasted 59 years, she was the winner of 13 Grammy Awards and was awarded the National Medal of Arts by Ronald Reagan and the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George H. W. Bush.

Early life

Fitzgerald was born in Newport News, Virginia, the child of a common-law marriage between William and Temperance "Tempie" Fitzgerald. The pair separated soon after her birth and she and her mother went to Yonkers, N.Y, where they eventually moved in with Tempie's longtime boyfriend Joseph Da Silva. Fitzgerald's half-sister, Frances Da Silva, was born in 1923.

In her youth Fitzgerald wanted to be a dancer, although she loved listening to jazz recordings by Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby and The Boswell Sisters. She idolized the lead singer Connee Boswell, later saying, "My mother brought home one of her records, and I fell in love with it....I tried so hard to sound just like her."

In 1932, her mother died from a heart attack. and at one point worked as a lookout at a bordello and also with a Mafia-affiliated numbers runner. When the authorities caught up with her, she was first placed in the Colored Orphan Asylum in Riverdale, the Bronx. However, when the orphanage proved too crowded she was moved to the New York Training School for Girls in Hudson, New York, a state reformatory. Eventually she escaped and for a time was homeless.

Later life

in 1940.]] Fitzgerald married at least twice, and there is evidence that she may have married a third time. In 1941 she married Benny Kornegay, a convicted drug dealer and local dockworker. The marriage was annulled after two years.

Her second marriage, in December 1947, was to the famous bass player Ray Brown, whom she had met while on tour with Dizzy Gillespie's band a year earlier. Together they adopted a child born to Fitzgerald's half-sister, Frances, whom they christened Ray Brown, Jr. With Fitzgerald and Brown often busy touring and recording, the child was largely raised by her aunt, Virginia. Fitzgerald and Brown divorced in 1953, bowing to the various career pressures both were experiencing at the time, though they would continue to perform together. The career history and archival material from Ella's long career are housed in the Archives Center at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History while her personal music arrangements are at The Library of Congress. Her extensive cookbook collection was donated to the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University while her published sheet music collection is at the Schoenberg Library at UCLA.

Career

Big-band singing

In January 1935, Fitzgerald won the chance to perform for a week with the Tiny Bradshaw band at the Harlem Opera House. She met drummer and bandleader Chick Webb here. Webb had already hired singer Charlie Linton to work with the band and was, The New York Times later wrote, "reluctant to sign her....because she was gawky and unkempt, a diamond in the rough."

Henry Pleasants, an American classical-music critic, wrote this about her:

She has a lovely voice, one of the warmest and most radiant in its natural range that I have heard in a lifetime of listening to singers in every category. She has an impeccable and ultimately sophisticated rhythmic sense, and flawless intonation. Her harmonic sensibility is extraordinary. She is endlessly inventive.. . it is not so much what she does, or even the way she does it, it's what she does not do. What she does not do, putting it simply as possible, is anything wrong. There is simply nothing in performance to which one would take exception.. . Everything seems to be just right. One would not want it any other way. Nor can one, for a moment imagine it any other way.

Ella Fitzgerald had an extraordinary vocal range. A mezzo-soprano (who sang much lower than most classical contraltos), she had a range of “2 octaves and a sixth from a low D or D flat to a high B flat and possibly higher”.

Miss Fitzgerald was generous throughout her career, and in 1993, she established the Charitable Foundation that bears her name: The Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, which continues to help the disadvantaged through grants and donation of new books to at-risk children.

Film and television

Ronald Reagan after performing in the White House, 1981]] In her most notable screen role, Fitzgerald played the part of singer Maggie Jackson in Jack Webb's 1955 jazz film Pete Kelly's Blues. The film costarred Janet Leigh and singer Peggy Lee. Even though she had already worked in the movies (she had sung briefly in the 1942 Abbott and Costello film Ride 'Em Cowboy), she was "delighted" when Norman Granz negotiated the role for her, and, "at the time....considered her role in the Warner Brothers movie the biggest thing ever to have happened to her."

Similar to another African-American jazz singer, Lena Horne, Fitzgerald's race precluded major big-screen success. After Pete Kelly's Blues, she appeared in sporadic movie cameos, in St. Louis Blues (1958), and Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960). Much later, she appeared in the 1980s television drama The White Shadow.

She also made numerous guest appearances on television shows, singing on The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, The Frank Sinatra Show, and alongside Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, Mel Tormé and many others. Perhaps her most unusual and intriguing performance was of the 'Three Little Maids' song from Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operetta The Mikado alongside Joan Sutherland and Dinah Shore on Shore's weekly variety series in 1963. Fitzgerald also made a one-off appearance alongside Sarah Vaughan and Pearl Bailey on a 1979 television special honoring Bailey. In 1980, she performed a medley of standards in a duet with Karen Carpenter on the Carpenters' television program, Music, Music, Music.

Fitzgerald also appeared in TV commercials, her most memorable being an ad for Memorex. In the commercials, she sang a note that shattered a glass while being recorded on a Memorex cassette tape. The tape was played back and the recording also broke the glass, asking "Is it live, or is it Memorex?" She also starred in a number of commercials for Kentucky Fried Chicken, singing and scatting to the fast-food chain's longtime slogan, "We do chicken right!"

Her final commercial campaign was for American Express, in which she was photographed by Annie Leibovitz.

Discography

Collaborations

Fitzgerald's most famous collaborations were with the trumpeter Louis Armstrong, the guitarist Joe Pass, and the bandleaders Count Basie and Duke Ellington.

Fitzgerald recorded three Verve studio albums with Armstrong, two albums of standards (1956's Ella and Louis and 1957's Ella and Louis Again), and a third album featured music from the Gershwin musical Porgy and Bess. Fitzgerald also recorded a number of sides with Armstrong for Decca in the early 1950s.

Fitzgerald is sometimes referred to as the quintessential swing singer, and her meetings with Count Basie are highly regarded by critics. Fitzgerald features on one track on Basie's 1957 album One O'Clock Jump, while her 1963 album Ella and Basie! is remembered as one of her greatest recordings. With the 'New Testament' Basie band in full swing, and arrangements written by a young Quincy Jones, this album proved a respite from the 'Songbook' recordings and constant touring that Fitzgerald was engaged in during this period. Fitzgerald and Basie also collaborated on the 1972 album Jazz at Santa Monica Civic '72, and on the 1979 albums Digital III at Montreux, A Classy Pair and A Perfect Match.

Fitzgerald and Joe Pass recorded four albums together toward the end of Fitzgerald's career. She recorded several albums with piano accompaniment, but a guitar proved the perfect melodic foil for her. Fitzgerald and Pass appeared together on the albums Take Love Easy (1973), Easy Living (1986), Speak Love (1983) and Fitzgerald and Pass... Again (1976).

Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington recorded two live albums, and two studio albums. Her Duke Ellington Songbook placed Ellington firmly in the canon known as the Great American Songbook, and the 1960s saw Fitzgerald and the 'Duke' meet on the Côte d'Azur for the 1966 album Ella and Duke at the Cote D'Azur, and in Sweden for The Stockholm Concert, 1966. Their 1965 album Ella at Duke's Place is also extremely well received.

Fitzgerald had a number of famous jazz musicians and soloists as sidemen over her long career. The trumpeters Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie, the guitarist Herb Ellis, and the pianists Tommy Flanagan, Oscar Peterson, Lou Levy, Paul Smith, Jimmy Rowles, and Ellis Larkins all worked with Ella mostly in live, small group settings.

Possibly Fitzgerald's greatest unrealized collaboration (in terms of popular music) was a studio or live album with Frank Sinatra. The two appeared on the same stage only periodically over the years, in television specials in 1958 and 1959, and again on 1967's A Man and His Music + Ella + Jobim, a show that also featured Antonio Carlos Jobim. Pianist Paul Smith has said, "Ella loved working with [Frank]. Sinatra gave her his dressing room on A Man and His Music and couldn’t do enough for her." When asked, Norman Granz would cite "complex contractual reasons" for the fact that the two artists never recorded together.

Ella Fitzgerald was a quiet but ardent supporter of many charities and non-profit organizations, including the American Heart Association and the United Negro College Fund. In 1993, she established the "Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation" which continues to fund programs that perpetuate Ella's ideals.

Tributes

In 1997, Newport News, Virginia created a music festival with Christopher Newport University to honor Ella Fitzgerald in her birth city. The Ella Fitzgerald Music Festival is designed to teach the region's youth of the musical legacy of Fitzgerald and jazz. Past performers at the week-long festival include: Diana Krall, Arturo Sandoval, Jean Carne, Phil Woods, Aretha Franklin, Freda Payne, Cassandra Wilson, Ethel Ennis, David Sanborn, Jane Monheit, Dianne Reeves, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ramsey Lewis, Patti Austin, and Ann Hampton Callaway

Ann Hampton Callaway, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Patti Austin have all recorded albums in tribute to Fitzgerald. Callaway's album To Ella with Love (1996) features fourteen jazz standards made popular by Fitzgerald, and the album also features the trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. Bridgewater's album Dear Ella (1997) featured many musicians that were closely associated with Fitzgerald during her career, including the pianist Lou Levy, the trumpeter Benny Powell, and Fitzgerald's second husband, the double bassist Ray Brown. Bridgewater's following album, Live at Yoshi's, was recorded live on April 25, 1998, what would have been Fitzgerald's 81st birthday. Patti Austin's album, For Ella (2002) features 11 songs most immediately associated with Fitzgerald, and a twelfth song, "Hearing Ella Sing" is Austin's tribute to Fitzgerald. The album was nominated for a Grammy. In 2007 , was released, a tribute album recorded for the 90th anniversary of Fitzgerald's birth. It featured artists such as Michael Bublé, Natalie Cole, Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight, Diana Krall, k.d. lang, Queen Latifah, Ledisi, Dianne Reeves, Linda Ronstadt, and Lizz Wright, collating songs most readily associated with the "First Lady of Song".

The folk singer Odetta's album To Ella (1998) is dedicated to Fitzgerald, but features no songs associated with her. Fitzgerald's long serving accompanist Tommy Flanagan affectionately remembered Fitzgerald on his album Lady be Good...For Ella (1994).

Fitzgerald is also referred to on the 1987 song "Ella, elle l'a" by French singer France Gall and the Belgian singer Kate Ryan, the 1976 Stevie Wonder hit "Sir Duke" from his album Songs in the Key of Life, and the song "I Love Being Here With You", written by Peggy Lee and Bill Schluger. Sinatra's 1986 recording of "Mack the Knife" from his album L.A. Is My Lady (1984) includes a homage to some of the song's previous performers, including 'Lady Ella' herself. She is also honored in the song "First Lady" by Canadian artist Nikki Yanofsky.

In 2008, the Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center in Newport News named its brand new 276-seat theater the Ella Fitzgerald Theater. The theater is located several blocks away from her birthplace on Marshall Avenue. The Grand Opening performers (October 11 & 12, 2008) were Roberta Flack and Queen Esther Marrow.

USPS stamp and Yonkers statue

There is a statue of Fitzgerald in Yonkers, the city in which she grew up. It is located southeast of the main entrance to the Amtrak/Metro-North Railroad station. On January 10, 2007, the United States Postal Service announced that Fitzgerald would be honored with her own 39-cent postage stamp. The stamp was released in April 2007 as part of the Postal Service's Black Heritage series.

Filmography

References

Further reading

Nicholson, Stuart. (1996) Ella Fitzgerald. Gollancz. ISBN 0-575-40032-3

Gourse, Leslie. (1998) The Ella Fitzgerald Companion: Seven Decades of Commentary. Music Sales Ltd. ISBN 0-02-864625-8

Johnson, J. Wilfred. (2001) Ella Fitzgerald: A Complete Annotated Discography. McFarland & Co Inc. ISBN 0-7864-0906-1

External links

The official website of the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation

Ella Fitzgerald Complete Discography

Ella Fitzgerald: Twelve Essential Performances by Stuart Nicholson (Jazz.com).

Ella Fitzgerald at the Library of Congress

Official Web Site of Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Fitzgerald, The Official Ed Sullivan Show Website

Redsugar's Ella page

'Remembering Ella' by Phillip D. Atteberry

Todd's Ella Fitzgerald Lyrics Page

Ella Swings Gently - The Ella Fitzgerald Pages

Ella Fitzgerald Tribute CD Video Footage

New York Times article on Ella's early years

Listen to Big Band Serenade podcast, episode 6 Includes complete NBC remote broadcast of "Ella Fitzgerald & her Orchestra" from the Roseland Ballroom (or download)

Category:1917 births Category:1996 deaths Category:African American singers Category:African American female singers Category:American amputees Category:American female singers Category:American gospel singers Category:American jazz singers Category:American singers Category:American singer-songwriters Category:Bandleaders Category:Blind people Category:Burials at Inglewood Park Cemetery Category:Capitol Records artists Category:Deaths from diabetes Category:Decca Records artists Category:George Peabody Medal winners Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Musicians from Virginia Category:Pablo Records artists Category:People from Newport News, Virginia Category:People from Yonkers, New York Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:Swing singers Category:Traditional pop music singers Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients Category:Vaudeville performers Category:Verve Records artists Category:Scat singers Category:Women in jazz