Legendary jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald's pure tone and wide vocal range elevated the genre.
Newport News began its yearly salute to the native this week with the 27th annual Ella Fitzgerald Music Festival. Two shows are this weekend, and the fest includes performances through the 30th.
Fitzgerald, referred to as “the First Lady of Song,” became the first African American woman in 1959 to earn a Grammy Award. That evening, she took home two. She eventually garnered 13 and recorded more than 200 albums.
Fitzgerald was born in 1917 in the city's East End, blocks away from what is now the Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center. Her family moved to New York in 1922.
Her career began when she won a talent contest in 1934 at Harlem’s Apollo Theater. African American jazz band leader and drummer Chick Webb soon discovered her. She performed with his band and led it after Webb died in 1939; it was unusual for a woman to lead a band then.
Her career continued through the 1950s and ’60s with renditions of works by other legends, including Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin.
She faced racial discrimination in the United States and Europe and often refused to perform in segregated venues and demanded equal accommodations for her and her band.
Her music is just one reason the city honors her.
“She broke through so many barriers,” said center director Joanne Palmeira.
One of her big fans was actor Marilyn Monroe, who used her celebrity to get Fitzgerald booked at the Los Angeles Mocambo nightclub, which didn’t allow Black performers.
Fitzgerald received Kennedy Center Honors in 1979, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992 and lifetime achievement awards from various organizations. She died in 1996.
Newport News has named several places in her honor, including a street, a theater in the Downing-Gross center and a middle school.
The city’s festival includes national and local acts.
Ben Rosenblum, a New York City pianist and composer, performs Saturday at Downing-Gross. He has dabbled in more than 20 genres, including Irish reels, Bulgarian folk songs and Middle Eastern rhythms. He has toured with Grammy-winning pop artist Rickie Lee Jones and Juno-winning contemporary Indian singer Kiran Ahluwalia. Rosenblum leads the Nebula Project, a sextet known for its fusion of global musical traditions.
He appreciates the diverse audience his music attracts.
“I look out and see young and old faces, different races, it’s great,” he said in an interview.
Local favorite Bobby Blackhat, dubbed Virginia’s Blues ambassador, will perform with his band at the Bobby Blackhat Music Series Sunday at the Ferguson Center for the Arts. The show will feature M.S.G Acoustic Blues Trio, Sharon Rae North with Rob Zinn, Katie and Billy Joe Daniel, and Phyllis Domingue.
The festival continues on April 25 with Newport News native Taylor G. with Peter Collins. Taylor G’s blend of jazz fusion and soul is inspired by Fitzgerald, Nina Simone and Amy Winehouse. The show will be at the Downing-Gross.
Vocalist Jazzmeia Horn and pianist Sharp Radway will perform at the Downing-Gross on the 26th. Horn’s first name is no coincidence; her jazz-loving grandmother named her. Horn received a Grammy nomination in 2017 for her debut album “A Social Call” and another in 2019 for “Love and Liberation.”
The Jason Marsalis Quartet performs on the 30th at Downing-Gross.
Visit the Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center onlinetickets and more information.
