05/17/2023
SOLD -Ella Fitzgerald 1995 Tribute Program Universal Amphitheatre 60 Years Jazz Music. Ella wanted to be there, but she couldn’t quite make it. After days of speculation about the First Lady of Song’s possible appearance at the celebration of her 60 years in music at the Universal Amphitheatre Tuesday night, Ella Fitzgerald’s doctors’ advice finally prevailed, and she stayed home.
The tribute was hosted by Debbie Allen, Bill Cosby, and Quincy Jones, with Sinbad adding a series of hilariously spontaneous gags.
Performers included the Pentecostal Community Choir, Mel Torme, Dianne Reeves, Lou Rawls, Barbara Morrison, Joe Williams, Tony Bennett, Nancy Wilson, George Duke, Dionne Warwick, Whitney Houston, Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight, and Stevie Wonder.
However, it remained for Maya Angelou’s poem, specially written for Fitzgerald, to place the evening in context: ". . . her sweet voice, singing in the wind. . . . Listen, listen. . . that is the sound of Ella.” …..Los Angeles Times.
BIO
Dubbed "The First Lady of Song," Ella Fitzgerald was the most popular female jazz singer in the United States for more than half a century. In her lifetime, she won 13 Grammy awards and sold over 40 million albums.
Her voice was flexible, wide-ranging, accurate and ageless. She could sing sultry ballads, sweet jazz and imitate every instrument in an orchestra. She worked with all the jazz greats, from Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Nat King Cole, to Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie and Benny Goodman. (Or rather, some might say all the jazz greats had the pleasure of working with Ella.) She performed at top venues all over the world, and packed them to the hilt. Her audiences were as diverse as her vocal range. They were rich and poor, made up of all races, all religions and all nationalities. In fact, many of them had just one binding factor in common - they all loved her.
Full page greetings to Ella include Radio City Music Hall Productions, HBO, The Walt Disney Company, BET Jazz, Newman’s Own, Michael Jackson and MJJ Productions Gang, NBC, Barbara Streisand, Johnny Mathis, Glenn and Tony Thomas, Delores and Bob Hope, The Elizabeth Taylor Aids Foundation, Lyn and Norman Lear.
