the1920sand30s | Ella Fitzgerald - MacPherson Is Rehearsin' (1938) @the1920sand30s | Uploaded January 2023 | Updated October 2024, 2 hours ago.
Performed by: Chick Webb And His Orchestra

Vocalist: Ella Fitzgerald

Alto Saxophone: Louis Jordan

Full Song Title: MacPherson Is Rehearsin'

Recorded in: 1938

Flip side of: youtu.be/M7ueVpcGCBA

William Henry "Chick" Webb (born February 10, 1905 – died June 16, 1939) was an American jazz drummer who led one of the dominant big bands of the swing era. Its swing, precision, & popularity made it the standard of excellence to which other big bands aspired.

He went to New York City in 1924 & formed his own big band in 1926; in its early years it included such players as alto saxophonists Benny Carter & Johnny Hodges. Throughout the 1930s, steady engagements at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem helped Webb maintain a stable roster of band personnel & develop ensemble discipline.

His drumming, noted for swing, taste, & virtuoso technique, was the band’s foundation. His work was perhaps particularly impressive in light of his short physical stature due to a curved spine. From 1933 Edgar Sampson’s arrangements (“Blue Lou,” “Stompin’ at the Savoy”) gave the band distinctive character. Though it included no major soloists, Webb’s band regularly defeated the other major swing bands in musical contests. It reached its heights of popularity after the teenaged Ella Fitzgerald began recording such novelty songs as “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” with it in 1935.

After his death in 1939 (he died from tuberculosis), Ella Fitzgerald led the Chick Webb band until she left to focus on her solo career in 1942, causing the band to break up. Art Blakey & Duke Ellington both credited Webb with influencing their music. Gene Krupa credited Webb with raising drummer awareness & paving the way for drummer-led bands like his own. Webb's thundering solos created a complexity & an energy that paved the way for Buddy Rich (who studied him intensely) and Louie Bellson.

Ella Fitzgerald, in full Ella Jane Fitzgerald, (born April 25, 1917, Newport News, Virginia, U.S.— died June 15, 1996, Beverly Hills, California), was an American jazz singer who became world famous for the wide range & rare sweetness of her voice. She became an international legend during a career that spanned some six decades.

As a child, Fitzgerald wanted to be a dancer, but when she panicked at an amateur contest in 1934 at New York City’s Apollo Theatre & sang in a style influenced by the jazz vocalist Connee Boswell instead, she won first prize. The following year Fitzgerald joined the Chick Webb orchestra; Webb became the teenaged Fitzgerald’s guardian when her mother died. She made her first recording, “Love and Kisses,” in 1935, and her first hit, “A-Tisket, A-Tasket,” followed in 1938. After Webb’s death in 1939, she led his band until it broke up in 1942. She then soloed in cabarets & theatres & toured internationally with such pop and jazz stars as Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, the Mills Brothers, the Ink Spots, & Dizzy Gillespie. She also recorded prolifically.

During much of her early career she had been noted for singing & recording novelty songs. Her status rose dramatically in the 1950s when jazz impresario Norman Granz became her manager. From 1956 to 1964 she recorded a 19-volume series of “songbooks,” in which she interpreted nearly 250 outstanding songs by Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, & Johnny Mercer. This material, combined with the best jazz instrumental support, clearly demonstrated Fitzgerald’s remarkable interpretative skills. Although her diction was excellent, her rendition of lyrics was intuitive rather than studied. For many years the star attraction of Granz’s Jazz at the Philharmonic concert tours, she was also one of the best-selling jazz vocal recording artists in history. During the 1970s she began to experience serious health problems, but she continued to perform periodically, even after heart surgery in 1986.

Fitzgerald’s clear tone & wide vocal range were complemented by her mastery of rhythm, harmony, intonation, & diction. She was an excellent ballad singer, conveying a winsome, ingenuous quality. Her infectious scat singing brought excitement to such concert recordings as Mack the Knife: Ella in Berlin & was widely imitated by others. She garnered 14 Grammy Awards, including one for lifetime achievement. She also received a Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime achievement (1979) & the National Medal of Arts (1987).

In 1993, however, her career was curtailed following complications stemming from diabetes, which resulted in the amputation of both her legs below the knees.She died in her home from a stroke on June 15, 1996, at the age of 79.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
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