By Mark Ambrogi
The Carmel-based Great American Songbook Foundation is in the midst of throwing a year-long birthday celebration for Ella Fitzgerald.
April 25 marks the 100th anniversary of Fitzgerald’s birth. The legendary singer died in 1996 at 79.
A free exhibit, Ella Sings the Songbook, opened in January and runs through October on the Gallery level of the Palladium. The foundation has a different exhibit each year.
“We love Ella, it’s her centennial year so we knew we wanted to do something,” said Chris Lewis, vice president of the foundation. “We have a close association with the Ella Fitzgerald Foundation. They sponsor scholarships for our Songbook Academy program. When they found out we were going to do an exhibit, they stepped up and co-sponsored this exhibit. A lot of the items, the recordings, the photos, the (sheet) music is from Ella’s personal collection.”
The exhibit includes documentaries and performance clips. There is an interactive exhibit, which includes Fitzgerald songs among its 800-plus songs.
“This is the biggest response we’ve had,” Lewis said of their exhibits. “We launched the Ella exhibit before everyone else this year so we got some national attention. Our goal is to double what we did last year (in attendance). We’re on the way there.”
There is a traveling exhibit, which has gone to schools around the state.
Norman Granz, who became Fitzgerald’s manager in 1954, created Verve Records to produce recordings by Fitzgerald. The first album was “Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book” in 1956.
“He thought Ella was the greatest singer he ever heard and he created a whole label,” Lewis said. “She is an amazing jazz singer. But these albums include lush arrangements with strings. They have different top arrangers of the day, Nelson Riddle, Billy May and Buddy Bregman.”
Fitzgerald recorded eight Songbook albums.
“This solidified her as The First Lady of Song,” Lewis said of her nickname. “If you want to educate people on the Great American Songbook, this would be the place to start.”
The exhibit is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and before the jazz and songbook shows at the Palladium.
