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ELLA FITZGERALD
Blurb written by Will Friedwald for Stuart Nicholson's biography "Ella Fitzgerald" (Scribner's)
After being an Ella Fitzgerald maniac for all my life,
I've long been amazed at the paucity of reliable information about the first lady of song. That complaint no longer stands, because Stuart Nicholson's long-awaited ELLA FITZGERALD is everything we could have hoped a biography of the great singer could be. Thoroughly researched, ELLA FITZGERALD combines long-buried vault information with interviews from dozens of key people in Fitzgerald's personal and professional lives. Equally importantly, Nicholson is a great writer and a great critic, with a keen musical sense that allows him to evaluate all the many milestones in his subject's oceanic recorded output. His summation of the music of Fitzgerald's big band years, his fresh appreciation of her early years as a solo "singles" act on Decca, and new take on her classic Verve albums will be eagerly eaten up by all lovers of great songs and great singing. ELLA FITZGERALD is one of the very best biographies of a Great American Jazz-pop diva ever published.
-- Will Friedwald
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