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Ella Fitzgerald: 1917-1996
Ella Fitzgerald: 1917-1996
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The DECCA Years, Vol. One, 1935 - 1938
featuring CHICK WEBB AND HIS ORCHESTRA
Liner notes by Will Friedwald
PAGE 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Track Listing

The Edwards Sisters changed her mind. They were a dance team, billed as "the dancin'est sisters in town," who brought the house down right before Fitzgerald went on. "I got out there and I saw all the people I just lost my nerve," Fitzgerald said, "And the man said, 'well, you're out here, do something!' So, I tried to sing." Absolutely at a loss for what to do, Fitzgerald, as she later recalled that pivotal evening, with a stroke of divine inspiration launched into an imitation of Connee Boswell's reading of "Judy" (the song from which Frances Gumm took the name Judy Garland, and which Boswell, unfortunately, never recorded). Undoubtedly expecting to get the hook, Fitzgerald was surprised to discover that her singing was garnering an even more enthusiastic Ella and Louis Jordanresponse than the preceding act, and followed "Judy" with her approximation of the Boswell Sisters' 1934 arrangement of "The Object of My Affection."
spaceAround the same time, Fitzgerald performed again at the amateur level at the Harlem Opera House, and won a week-long professional engagement at that venue (beginning February 16, 1935) with the band of vocalist Tiny Bradshaw, who had recorded eight titles for Decca the previous year. As Connee Boswell herself eventually heard, it was Fitzgerald's choice of role model that first brought her to the attention of Chick Webb. Webb himself had only recently hired a male singer, the older-fashioned Charlie Linton, and would also shortly impress his more blues-oriented alto saxophonist Louis Jordan into vocal service. However, in 1935 female vocalists were a new luxury and few black bands beyond Duke Ellington's could afford even that minuscule addition to the payroll. "Chick made the remark," Boswell later recollected, obviously very flattered, "that he would only hire a black girl singer if she sounded like me."
spaceSoon after, Fitzgerald's earliest professional rabbi, Bardou Ali, the showman who fronted the Webb band, escorted her backstage to Webb's dressing room. "I sang the only three songs I knew - all the things I'd heard Connee Boswell do," Fitzgerald told Leonard Feather, "Chick had a boy singer and didn't want a girl, and he grudgingly said, 'well, 'we're playing Yale tomorrow. Get on the band bus and, if they like you there, you've got a job." Trumpeter Taft Jordan recalled that once Webb himself had been convinced, Fitzgerald still had to audition for the band's manager, Moe Gale. "Moe came and looked at her. 'Ah no, Chick,' he said, 'No, no!' 'Listen to the voice,' Chick said, 'Don't look at her.'" Upon hearing Fitzgerald sing, Jordan continued, Gale was speechless, leaving Webb to have the last word, "Okay, I'll hire her."

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