Ella Fitzgerald's unique jazz vocals have helped her to maintain a highly successful singing career for more than 50 years. Born in Virginia in 1918, Fitzgerald grew up in Yonkers, a New York City subrurb. While still in high school she was the winner of a prominent talent show held in nearby Harlem. After she made her professional singing debut a short time later, bandleader Chick Webb decided to feature the 17-year old singer in his orchestra, one of the liveliest swing bands in the country. She soon established herself as a top jazz vocalist and her hit recording of "A-tisket, A-Tasket" made her a national celebrity by the time she was 20. Throughout her career, Fitzgerald has demonstrated her versatitity as a singer by expanding her musical range. She has performed sentimental ballads and has ventured into the spontaneous style of jazz known as bebop by scat singing, using her voice as a musical instrument. A deft interpreter of popular music as well she has led her own band and toured with music promoter Norman Granz's revolutionary "Jazz at the Philharmonic" troupe, which attempted to promote racial equality among its listeners while helping to popularize jazz around the world. Such a wide variety of achievements could only have been accomplished by a singer as gifted and devoted to her music as Ella Fitzgerald. - from Amzon