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Becoming Ella Fitzgerald: The Jazz Singer Who Transformed American Song
A landmark biography that reclaims Ella Fitzgerald as a major American artist and modernist innovator. Ella Fitzgerald (1917–1996) possessed one of the twentieth century’s most astonishing voices. In this first major biography since Fitzgerald’s death, music historian Judith Tick draws on deep archival research, family interviews, and newly available recordings and concert footage to show how Fitzgerald fused a Black vocal aesthetic with mainstream popular repertoire to revolutionize American music. From Fitzgerald’s first audition at the Apollo Theater to swing-era success at the Savoy, Tick shows how this “girl singer” broke new ground: as a female bandleader, as a groundbreaking bebop improviser, and as the arbiter of the American canon with her Song Book recordings. Yet even as she electrified concert halls and sold millions of records, jazz critics belittled her as “naive.” Tick reveals instead an ambitious risk-taker with a stunningly diverse repertoire, whose exceptional musical spontaneity (often radically different on stage than in the studio) made her a transformational artist. 30 black-and-white images
22 pages, Audiobook
First published December 5, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 90 reviews
March 2, 2025
Rounding up to 4, but more like a 3.5.
I love the jazz of her time. I still remember wearing out the Duke Ellington tape I had in high school. Take the A Train was my first. I've been a big fan ever since, but it was only when I was visiting New Orleans, enjoying a drink at one of their many beautiful lounges, that I realized recorded music could never transmit to my ears how beautiful music is live. I'd been to many concerts of all genres and sat in many jazz bars, but it was the first time I heard someone sing Ella's music. I was transfixed. So I was very excited to read this book.
This book took a lot of focus to read because there were so many details. I love her music. I love jazz. I would gladly have paid Beyoncé/Taylor Swift-like money to have heard her sing live. And yet, this book felt largely like a chronology of her life sprinkled with some stories. I wish it had been more engaging, but I did enjoy learning more about her.
I love the jazz of her time. I still remember wearing out the Duke Ellington tape I had in high school. Take the A Train was my first. I've been a big fan ever since, but it was only when I was visiting New Orleans, enjoying a drink at one of their many beautiful lounges, that I realized recorded music could never transmit to my ears how beautiful music is live. I'd been to many concerts of all genres and sat in many jazz bars, but it was the first time I heard someone sing Ella's music. I was transfixed. So I was very excited to read this book.
This book took a lot of focus to read because there were so many details. I love her music. I love jazz. I would gladly have paid Beyoncé/Taylor Swift-like money to have heard her sing live. And yet, this book felt largely like a chronology of her life sprinkled with some stories. I wish it had been more engaging, but I did enjoy learning more about her.
March 28, 2024
When I was 14 (I was a really cool 14 year old) I temporarily lived in a house in the middle of town, which, unbelievably, actually had shops to go to (a brand new experience for me, at the time). Every day I would go to the charity shops to buy whatever vinyls I could find (three for £1, absolutely crazy). I specifically remember the day I found an Ella Fitzgerald record, containing a collection of her best songs, and the genuine excitement that I felt which led me to buy it immediately.
I’d like to thank the publishers of this audiobook for this commission and sending me a pre-publication edition in exchange for an honest review!!! This book is due to be published next week (as of the time I’m writing this review), on the 26th of December 2023!
IMPORTANT NOTE: ATM this review isn’t on the audiobook edition as I’m waiting for the librarians add it to the database. I will update this review shortly when the audiobook edition has been added to Goodreads :)
Prior to this audiobook, I knew nothing about Fitzgerald outside of her music, I’d never even thought about looking it up. I just knew that she was definitely one of the best singers and musicians I had ever heard, so earlier this year when I saw there was a book being written about her, I was looking forward to learning more about her, and how her circumstances growing up in early 1900s America impacted her career and musical style. If there’s anything I’ve realised since I started reading, is that learning about not just the art but also the artist, makes the art seem even more incredible (or in a rare circumstances, does the opposite… *cough* like what happened with Pablo Picasso *cough*)
I suppose I feel quite reluctant to write an overly negative review about a literal biography, there’s part of me that feels like it could be rather disrespectful to the person it’s written about, especially if they’re someone who’s gone through traumas or major historical events, or somebody who’s done a lot of long lasting good in the world. —So if you proceed with reading this review, I’d like you to keep in mind I’m reviewing this audiobook and its content, not the literal life story of Ella Fitzgerald.
I admire Tick’s courage to even attempt to write this book, because, as very clearly displayed throughout, there’s so much about Fitzgerald that went unspoken, and so much that she kept private and that her (criminal) management and “friends” didn’t bother ever asking her about. It’s not that this book didn’t lack the in depth archival research, or the very detailed history of the first to last time she ever sung and danced- Tick is very clearly an impressive researcher.
But in many ways I think that the disappointment in this book was just that-
it is just plain research into Ella Fitzgerald’s life, start to finish, all the information anyone can access piled into one book.
This might make me sound like a massive techie 2000s baby loser, but I can’t help but wonder if, in this century, and probably for the rest of human existence, if this sort of collection is “enough”.
Maybe if I wanted to write further works about Fitzgerald myself, this book would be great because it compiles her whole life story into one place. It’s linear, it’s organised.
But in a world where virtually anyone has access to internet, if they ever need to know what Ella Fitzgerald did on a particular day in a particular venue, they could just look it up.
No, biographies, published biographies I believe need to offer something beyond what the average person could think of or look up for themselves with a simple search.
Tell me about how X in Fitzgerald’s life specifically impacted Y in the long term. Tell me how X Y and Z all intertwined and stacked up and then led to something very particular happening down the line that was absolutely, looking back on it, devastatingly inevitable.
I know that scientifically time probably roughly goes from A to B, but I do not believe we as human beings experience it like that. Time moves forward and physically we age but we are constantly looking back to specific points in the past, thinking about how that one thing that happened when you were a child led to you doing a specific thing today, how one simple misjudgment that one made a few years before led to a catastrophic failure later on that only they could take the blame for. How a false rumour started and now it led to turmoil.
We do not live life in the moment, strictly experiencing time as it happens. We do not even process time in chronological order, many people take longer to process a trauma that happened decades ago, than a trauma that happened yesterday. We are in the present when we can be, and in the past at the same time, whether we want to be, or not. And lots of the time we also think about the future.
I felt like this book ignored that. It was almost a completely straight chronological timeline of Fitzgerald’s life, A to B, Birth to Death. It felt incredibly clinical, there are definitely more inspiring ways to write about one’s entire life.
So I think I eventually got bored, when I realised that the book wasn’t going anywhere except directly forward.
Some analysis is made about the reliability of sources, and there is light research on the political climate at certain points, but I feel like if this book focused more on even one of these things more specifically related to Fitzgerald’s life, it would move away from being a linear explanatory timeline of Fitzgerald’s life, and transform this work into something that one wouldn’t really be able to find anywhere else, and would get to read from a perspective they would not have seen or thought of before. Something more special. How the sources and media coverage of Fitzgerald could’ve been so influenced and twisted by the press and her colleagues because she was a black woman. Or how the segregation laws and rampant racism affected her self worth and led to her setting for and accepting such awful management and living conditions. I could go on.
As for an audiobook-specific review, this is a perfectly fine audiobook. There are a few odd pauses here and there, where editing has slipped up, but nothing that throws the dialogue to a point where it can’t be easily understood. I found the narration particularly slow, too. I had this book on x2.5 speed, which is already quite high for me, yet I feel like I still could’ve sped it up even more if I wanted to. Nothing too crazy, it was just something I definitely noticed with this audiobook in particular.
I’d like to thank the publishers of this audiobook for this commission and sending me a pre-publication edition in exchange for an honest review!!! This book is due to be published next week (as of the time I’m writing this review), on the 26th of December 2023!
IMPORTANT NOTE: ATM this review isn’t on the audiobook edition as I’m waiting for the librarians add it to the database. I will update this review shortly when the audiobook edition has been added to Goodreads :)
Prior to this audiobook, I knew nothing about Fitzgerald outside of her music, I’d never even thought about looking it up. I just knew that she was definitely one of the best singers and musicians I had ever heard, so earlier this year when I saw there was a book being written about her, I was looking forward to learning more about her, and how her circumstances growing up in early 1900s America impacted her career and musical style. If there’s anything I’ve realised since I started reading, is that learning about not just the art but also the artist, makes the art seem even more incredible (or in a rare circumstances, does the opposite… *cough* like what happened with Pablo Picasso *cough*)
I suppose I feel quite reluctant to write an overly negative review about a literal biography, there’s part of me that feels like it could be rather disrespectful to the person it’s written about, especially if they’re someone who’s gone through traumas or major historical events, or somebody who’s done a lot of long lasting good in the world. —So if you proceed with reading this review, I’d like you to keep in mind I’m reviewing this audiobook and its content, not the literal life story of Ella Fitzgerald.
I admire Tick’s courage to even attempt to write this book, because, as very clearly displayed throughout, there’s so much about Fitzgerald that went unspoken, and so much that she kept private and that her (criminal) management and “friends” didn’t bother ever asking her about. It’s not that this book didn’t lack the in depth archival research, or the very detailed history of the first to last time she ever sung and danced- Tick is very clearly an impressive researcher.
But in many ways I think that the disappointment in this book was just that-
it is just plain research into Ella Fitzgerald’s life, start to finish, all the information anyone can access piled into one book.
This might make me sound like a massive techie 2000s baby loser, but I can’t help but wonder if, in this century, and probably for the rest of human existence, if this sort of collection is “enough”.
Maybe if I wanted to write further works about Fitzgerald myself, this book would be great because it compiles her whole life story into one place. It’s linear, it’s organised.
But in a world where virtually anyone has access to internet, if they ever need to know what Ella Fitzgerald did on a particular day in a particular venue, they could just look it up.
No, biographies, published biographies I believe need to offer something beyond what the average person could think of or look up for themselves with a simple search.
Tell me about how X in Fitzgerald’s life specifically impacted Y in the long term. Tell me how X Y and Z all intertwined and stacked up and then led to something very particular happening down the line that was absolutely, looking back on it, devastatingly inevitable.
I know that scientifically time probably roughly goes from A to B, but I do not believe we as human beings experience it like that. Time moves forward and physically we age but we are constantly looking back to specific points in the past, thinking about how that one thing that happened when you were a child led to you doing a specific thing today, how one simple misjudgment that one made a few years before led to a catastrophic failure later on that only they could take the blame for. How a false rumour started and now it led to turmoil.
We do not live life in the moment, strictly experiencing time as it happens. We do not even process time in chronological order, many people take longer to process a trauma that happened decades ago, than a trauma that happened yesterday. We are in the present when we can be, and in the past at the same time, whether we want to be, or not. And lots of the time we also think about the future.
I felt like this book ignored that. It was almost a completely straight chronological timeline of Fitzgerald’s life, A to B, Birth to Death. It felt incredibly clinical, there are definitely more inspiring ways to write about one’s entire life.
So I think I eventually got bored, when I realised that the book wasn’t going anywhere except directly forward.
Some analysis is made about the reliability of sources, and there is light research on the political climate at certain points, but I feel like if this book focused more on even one of these things more specifically related to Fitzgerald’s life, it would move away from being a linear explanatory timeline of Fitzgerald’s life, and transform this work into something that one wouldn’t really be able to find anywhere else, and would get to read from a perspective they would not have seen or thought of before. Something more special. How the sources and media coverage of Fitzgerald could’ve been so influenced and twisted by the press and her colleagues because she was a black woman. Or how the segregation laws and rampant racism affected her self worth and led to her setting for and accepting such awful management and living conditions. I could go on.
As for an audiobook-specific review, this is a perfectly fine audiobook. There are a few odd pauses here and there, where editing has slipped up, but nothing that throws the dialogue to a point where it can’t be easily understood. I found the narration particularly slow, too. I had this book on x2.5 speed, which is already quite high for me, yet I feel like I still could’ve sped it up even more if I wanted to. Nothing too crazy, it was just something I definitely noticed with this audiobook in particular.
February 5, 2024
Judith Tick has provided readers with a thoroughly enjoyable experience with Becoming Ella Fitzgerald: the Jazz Singer Who Transformed American Song. Here is the tale of a rebel, a heroine and humble human who stood her ground, making sure she was heard the way SHE wanted to be heard.
This well-researched book covers aspects of her life and career that haven't been shared in the past, and a bright light is focused on the aspect of race relations in her living, working and musical spaces - despite all she overcame with grace and beauty. This read is time-worthy for both those who are familiar with her history, or those who know very little (me).
Ella provides an inspiring, forthright and a worthy example for anyone then or now, and this book is a great way to discover her!
*A sincere thank you to Judith Tick, Tantor Audio, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and independently review.* #BecomingEllaFitzgerald #NetGalley 52:50
This well-researched book covers aspects of her life and career that haven't been shared in the past, and a bright light is focused on the aspect of race relations in her living, working and musical spaces - despite all she overcame with grace and beauty. This read is time-worthy for both those who are familiar with her history, or those who know very little (me).
Ella provides an inspiring, forthright and a worthy example for anyone then or now, and this book is a great way to discover her!
*A sincere thank you to Judith Tick, Tantor Audio, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and independently review.* #BecomingEllaFitzgerald #NetGalley 52:50
July 30, 2025
This is a very dry, scholarly book, which gives the chronological facts of Ella’s life from beginning to end, as well as public reception. Naturally, there are no musical examples, but many many songs mentioned. I felt resistance to listening to this book until I started to listen to some of the songs mentioned. I knew many of them, but I wanted to listen in light of what contemporary critics were saying about her voice and singing and stylistic choices. It was much more enjoyable an experience but my progress slowed to 1-3% per day! I started it in May of 2024, but it took me about 6 months of concerted effort to finish this book.
I’m sure Ms. Tick did mountains of research for this book. It is very detailed, but she generally leaves the reader to draw their own conclusions and there is virtually no commentary of her own.
The narrator, Carmen Jewel Jones, was a total dud. She has a pleasant enough voice, but the delivery was halting and monotone, especially when voicing quotes from Ella and other passages where a tiny bit of an impression would have made a big difference. For example, there was a quote from ‘The Woody Woodpecker Song’: “The signature ‘oh oh oh oh oh, oh oh oh oh oh, oh that’s the woody woodpecker song’” in which Jones delivered the line in a halting, monotone as though she had never heard Woody Woodpecker and certainly didn’t investigate how those lyrics might be delivered to greater effect. I couldn’t believe it. I mean, come on! Who does that?!!
At any rate it is my recommendation that if you are really very interested in Ella Fitzgerald and her life and career, read this book. With your eyes, not your ears. Have Spotify, Apple Music and/or YouTube handy and you may enjoy the experience.
My thanks to NetGalley, Ms. Tick, Ms. Jones and the publisher, Tantor Audio for providing me with this audio ARC. My apologies that it took so long.
I’m sure Ms. Tick did mountains of research for this book. It is very detailed, but she generally leaves the reader to draw their own conclusions and there is virtually no commentary of her own.
The narrator, Carmen Jewel Jones, was a total dud. She has a pleasant enough voice, but the delivery was halting and monotone, especially when voicing quotes from Ella and other passages where a tiny bit of an impression would have made a big difference. For example, there was a quote from ‘The Woody Woodpecker Song’: “The signature ‘oh oh oh oh oh, oh oh oh oh oh, oh that’s the woody woodpecker song’” in which Jones delivered the line in a halting, monotone as though she had never heard Woody Woodpecker and certainly didn’t investigate how those lyrics might be delivered to greater effect. I couldn’t believe it. I mean, come on! Who does that?!!
At any rate it is my recommendation that if you are really very interested in Ella Fitzgerald and her life and career, read this book. With your eyes, not your ears. Have Spotify, Apple Music and/or YouTube handy and you may enjoy the experience.
My thanks to NetGalley, Ms. Tick, Ms. Jones and the publisher, Tantor Audio for providing me with this audio ARC. My apologies that it took so long.
September 6, 2023
I received a free copy of, Becoming Ella Fitzgerald, by Judith Tick, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Ella Fitzgerald is a music pioneer, her amazing voice, is one a kind. What an amazing life she led, the places he played, the people she met, she did not have it easy though with health scares and quite a few surgeries needed. This is a long book but packed full of wonderful information on Ella Fitzgerald.
October 13, 2023
This is a thoroughly researched and well-written biography of Ella Fitzgerald. The focus is clearly on the music as the author chronicles the musicians and songs for each recording session, concert tour, and television appearance. The in depth research includes contemporary reviews of concerts and recordings, including from previously low circulation African American publications. A secondary focus of the book is the racial, gender, and genre discrimination that Ella Fitzgerald faced as a black female jazz singer. Although the amount of detail made it a somewhat dry at times, the information was so interesting and fascinating that it didn't detract from my enjoyment . Highly recommended
Thanks to NetGalley and W. W. Norton & Company for an advanced reader copy.
Thanks to NetGalley and W. W. Norton & Company for an advanced reader copy.
January 18, 2024
LOST INTEREST due to the crappy narrator of the audiobook. Got to 59% done and nope, will try to read about this wonderful artist via other books.
As for as the actual info- you are in the weeds with details - tho so much of it can't be verified but not from a lack of trying on the author's part.
As for as the actual info- you are in the weeds with details - tho so much of it can't be verified but not from a lack of trying on the author's part.
October 8, 2024
The three star review of Becoming Ella Fitzgerald is deceiving. As a compendium of all things Ella, it's a five star book. It's extremely meticulous and filled with specific dates and details. Judith Tick dug deep and wide into Ella's life, and went back into roots that were another century ago. No one deserved a more thoroughly researched book than Ella Fitzgerald, and, perhaps if it had been done 50 years ago, it could have been filled with many more rich personal anecdotes, as opposed to short statements and quotations from Ella, whose humility and somewhat retiring nature made her disinclined to share her soul in interviews.
No, it was her albums and performances that spoke for her, and, as far as I'm concerned, she was the greatest. (Well, she and Aretha, and it turns out Ella loved Aretha, too.) I was lucky enough to meet Ella Fitzgerald when I was in high school, and I remember every minute of it. My cousin worked at the Mike Douglas show and when Ella visited for the first time in 1975, my cousin took me backstage. I was overwhelmed because I loved her music so much even then. I told her that and she said, "It means to much when the young people say that." I told her I listened to "Mack the Knife" every night before I went to bed and she said, "Don't do that, honey, it'll give you nightmares." We shook hands and she was so gracious and kind and warm.
Ms. Tick writes that Ella was on the Mike Douglas show for annual visits from 1975-1977, but what she doesn't know or include is how excited Mike Douglas was for Ella to appear. I know this because of my cousin. Mike Douglas didn't get excited about much, but it was his greatest dream for her to be on his show.
And that's the kind of thing that's missing in this book. It has struck me as an adult that it's so sad that Ella was so insecure about her reception from people, and I'm sure it had to do with her early days, which she didn't talk much about and Tick was unable to really give us the details about. And that's what I was looking for in a biography. It's not Tick's fault that she couldn't deliver it, and her love and respect for Ella is obvious from the thoroughness of her details. It's not her fault that the book reads more like an itinerary than a biography.
I took this book out from the library three times, because it's very long and I had to wait months in between to get it back, so it was an even more onerous reading experience. That's not the author's fault, either.
I am glad I read it, and have some details and a very few insights about Ella I didn't have before. I got mad at every reviewer who didn't seem to value her appropriately (and Tick shared a number of reviews, both positive and negative). She was an absolute goddess and some people are so shallow. I started my jazz journey with Billie Holiday and was used to people comparing them, often with Billie getting more praise because of the deep emotion in her voice. But when I discovered Ella (and at first I wanted to place her below Billie), I fell in love. Objectively speaking, no one had Ella's range (and certainly Billie did not). The combination of warmth and crystalline clarity Ella possessed even until her latter years is unmatched.
But of course, why compare them? It's not and shouldn't be a competition. It's like saying a rose is better than an iris. Both are beautiful. One smells sweeter, but has thorns.
If you want to treat yourself, start with Ella in Berlin, then the Cole Porter Songbook, and then just dive in. You don't need to read this bio to fall in love with Ella--but you have to really love Ella to appreciate this biography.
No, it was her albums and performances that spoke for her, and, as far as I'm concerned, she was the greatest. (Well, she and Aretha, and it turns out Ella loved Aretha, too.) I was lucky enough to meet Ella Fitzgerald when I was in high school, and I remember every minute of it. My cousin worked at the Mike Douglas show and when Ella visited for the first time in 1975, my cousin took me backstage. I was overwhelmed because I loved her music so much even then. I told her that and she said, "It means to much when the young people say that." I told her I listened to "Mack the Knife" every night before I went to bed and she said, "Don't do that, honey, it'll give you nightmares." We shook hands and she was so gracious and kind and warm.
Ms. Tick writes that Ella was on the Mike Douglas show for annual visits from 1975-1977, but what she doesn't know or include is how excited Mike Douglas was for Ella to appear. I know this because of my cousin. Mike Douglas didn't get excited about much, but it was his greatest dream for her to be on his show.
And that's the kind of thing that's missing in this book. It has struck me as an adult that it's so sad that Ella was so insecure about her reception from people, and I'm sure it had to do with her early days, which she didn't talk much about and Tick was unable to really give us the details about. And that's what I was looking for in a biography. It's not Tick's fault that she couldn't deliver it, and her love and respect for Ella is obvious from the thoroughness of her details. It's not her fault that the book reads more like an itinerary than a biography.
I took this book out from the library three times, because it's very long and I had to wait months in between to get it back, so it was an even more onerous reading experience. That's not the author's fault, either.
I am glad I read it, and have some details and a very few insights about Ella I didn't have before. I got mad at every reviewer who didn't seem to value her appropriately (and Tick shared a number of reviews, both positive and negative). She was an absolute goddess and some people are so shallow. I started my jazz journey with Billie Holiday and was used to people comparing them, often with Billie getting more praise because of the deep emotion in her voice. But when I discovered Ella (and at first I wanted to place her below Billie), I fell in love. Objectively speaking, no one had Ella's range (and certainly Billie did not). The combination of warmth and crystalline clarity Ella possessed even until her latter years is unmatched.
But of course, why compare them? It's not and shouldn't be a competition. It's like saying a rose is better than an iris. Both are beautiful. One smells sweeter, but has thorns.
If you want to treat yourself, start with Ella in Berlin, then the Cole Porter Songbook, and then just dive in. You don't need to read this bio to fall in love with Ella--but you have to really love Ella to appreciate this biography.
October 28, 2024
One interesting thing about this book was that someone like Ella Fitzgerald, now an indisputable legend, etc. faced a lot of harsh opinions from critics for most of her career. Now, nearly a century later no one remembers any of those jerks and she is still the “First lady of song” so fuck the critics!
November 16, 2024
3.5/5⭐️!!
The biography was incredibly detailed, almost overwhelmingly so. Tick clearly did her homework, but some parts felt too intimate, crossing a line into information I didn't feel I needed or should know. It was a fascinating read, but the depth of personal detail left me questioning the balance between thorough research and respecting privacy.
The biography was incredibly detailed, almost overwhelmingly so. Tick clearly did her homework, but some parts felt too intimate, crossing a line into information I didn't feel I needed or should know. It was a fascinating read, but the depth of personal detail left me questioning the balance between thorough research and respecting privacy.
dnf
March 20, 2024I don't know why I keep trying to read nonfiction. :// It's probably a great book, but unless it's a subject I am *very* passionate about (cough cough hyenas cough cough) I just don't have the oomph to get through it.
April 6, 2024
Ella’s life was fascinating, but this book sadly is not. It is an endless dump of information, song titles and names of musicians without a lot of historical, sociological, or anthropological interpretation. Judith did excellent research but the way it was presented was very dry.
Read
December 31, 2023Audiobook. DNF
March 13, 2024
I have just finished reading a very interesting and detailed biography on the life of Ella Fitzgerald. My parents listened to her music. I really didn’t know much about her music and her life until I read this book. This book answered a lot of questions that I had about her music and her love of family.
May 17, 2024
Lots of research in this book. Way too much detail for me.
September 3, 2024
Tick not only takes us through the life of Ella Fitzgerald, but also through a study of the music; how music evolved over her career of more than half a century and how her style evolved to both stay current and to adjust for changes with age. Ella's life alone is fascinating, but her career came out of an age of artists whose careers spanned decades and became classics of the American cannon and she was its premier ambassador with the United States and around the world.
The parts of this book that really dive into the music made this book a beast to read. While I'm familiar with a lot of the music and artists prominently featured, there were specific renditions and styles that I would stop to google to really understand...which would lead me down musical rabbit holes for hours. What I needed was an audio book version with the specific music playing in the background. That would be something spectacular to own! I really learned so much, like that Ella was a big fan of the Beatles, and yes, you can find videos of Ella singing Beatles songs on YouTube. Enjoy!
The parts of this book that really dive into the music made this book a beast to read. While I'm familiar with a lot of the music and artists prominently featured, there were specific renditions and styles that I would stop to google to really understand...which would lead me down musical rabbit holes for hours. What I needed was an audio book version with the specific music playing in the background. That would be something spectacular to own! I really learned so much, like that Ella was a big fan of the Beatles, and yes, you can find videos of Ella singing Beatles songs on YouTube. Enjoy!
January 20, 2024
Ella liked The Monkees!
Well researched biography of Ella Fitzgerald reminds this oldster that she wasn't always ELLA!. Her gender got in her way as did her skin color. She struggled to sing what she wanted to sing. She was continually ridiculed for singing one of her most well known songs (A Tisket, A Tasket). So much to digest in the book. The closer to the end of the book (and her life), the more familiar the people and the songs mentioned.
What a gift.
Well researched biography of Ella Fitzgerald reminds this oldster that she wasn't always ELLA!. Her gender got in her way as did her skin color. She struggled to sing what she wanted to sing. She was continually ridiculed for singing one of her most well known songs (A Tisket, A Tasket). So much to digest in the book. The closer to the end of the book (and her life), the more familiar the people and the songs mentioned.
What a gift.
Read
February 8, 2024Not necessarily the most engaging non-fiction I’ve read just from pure readability, but really loved the way it portrays the full feeling of who Ella was as a person. Definitely gained an appreciation for her!
March 24, 2025
Audiobook.
I chose this book because of the Goodreads challenge to read a woman’s biography. I’ve enjoyed Ms Fitzgerald’s music, and thought it would be enlightening. I was disappointed that it wasn’t written in a more of narrative style, and the long lists of where she performed and what songs she chose to sing became monotonous. I actually sped the audio up to 1.4x, not because of the narrator, but to get through the 20 hour book a little bit faster.
I did enjoy learning about her early life, the little bits about her family and friends, and the coverage of the respect she was given at the end of her life as well.
I chose this book because of the Goodreads challenge to read a woman’s biography. I’ve enjoyed Ms Fitzgerald’s music, and thought it would be enlightening. I was disappointed that it wasn’t written in a more of narrative style, and the long lists of where she performed and what songs she chose to sing became monotonous. I actually sped the audio up to 1.4x, not because of the narrator, but to get through the 20 hour book a little bit faster.
I did enjoy learning about her early life, the little bits about her family and friends, and the coverage of the respect she was given at the end of her life as well.
December 2, 2023
A landmark biography that reclaims Ella Fitzgerald as a major American artist and modernist innovator.
Ella Fitzgerald (1917–1996) possessed one of the twentieth century’s most astonishing voices. In this first major biography since Fitzgerald’s death, historian Judith Tick offers a sublime portrait of this ambitious risk-taker whose exceptional musical spontaneity made her a transformational artist.
Becoming Ella Fitzgerald clears up long-enduring mysteries. Archival research and in-depth family interviews shed new light on the singer’s difficult childhood in Yonkers, New York, the tragic death of her mother, and the year she spent in a girls’ reformatory school—where she sang in its renowned choir and dreamed of being a dancer. Rarely seen profiles from the Black press offer precious glimpses of Fitzgerald’s tense experiences of racial discrimination and her struggles with constricting models of Black and white femininity at midcentury.
Tick’s compelling narrative depicts Fitzgerald’s complicated career in fresh and original detail, upending the traditional view that segregates vocal jazz from the genre’s mainstream. As she navigated the shifting tides between jazz and pop, she used her originality to pioneer modernist vocal jazz. Interpreting long-lost setlists, reviews from both white and Black newspapers, and newly released footage and recordings, the book explores how Ella’s transcendence as an improvisor produced onstage performances every bit as significant as her historic recorded oeuvre.
From the singer’s first performance at the Apollo Theatre’s famous “Amateur Night” to the Savoy Ballroom, where Fitzgerald broke through with Chick Webb’s big band in the 1930s, Tick evokes the jazz world in riveting detail. She describes how Ella helped shape the bebop movement in the 1940s, as she joined Dizzy Gillespie and her then-husband, Ray Brown, in the world-touring Jazz at the Philharmonic, one of the first moments of high-culture acceptance for the disreputable art form.
Breaking ground as a female bandleader, Fitzgerald refuted expectations of musical Blackness, deftly balancing artistic ambition and market expectations. Her legendary exploration of the Great American Songbook in the 1950s fused a Black vocal aesthetic and jazz improvisation to revolutionize the popular repertoire. This hybridity often confounded critics, yet throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Ella reached audiences around the world, electrifying concert halls, and sold millions of records.
A masterful biography, Becoming Ella Fitzgerald describes a powerful woman who set a standard for American excellence nearly unmatched in the twentieth century.
About the Author: Judith Tick is professor emerita of music history at Northeastern University. She has published award-winning books and articles about American music and women's history in music, including Ruth Crawford Seeger: A Composer's Search for American Music.
My Take
Publishing December 5, 2023, this book is an introduction to Ella Fitzgerald. If you are unfamiliar with her, this is a good introduction. Having said that, the strength of this book is that read like a literature review: lots of historical texts are presented and lightly analyzed. I would recommend this book if you are doing research on Ella Fitzgerald this is a good resource book for its bibliography.
Ella Fitzgerald (1917–1996) possessed one of the twentieth century’s most astonishing voices. In this first major biography since Fitzgerald’s death, historian Judith Tick offers a sublime portrait of this ambitious risk-taker whose exceptional musical spontaneity made her a transformational artist.
Becoming Ella Fitzgerald clears up long-enduring mysteries. Archival research and in-depth family interviews shed new light on the singer’s difficult childhood in Yonkers, New York, the tragic death of her mother, and the year she spent in a girls’ reformatory school—where she sang in its renowned choir and dreamed of being a dancer. Rarely seen profiles from the Black press offer precious glimpses of Fitzgerald’s tense experiences of racial discrimination and her struggles with constricting models of Black and white femininity at midcentury.
Tick’s compelling narrative depicts Fitzgerald’s complicated career in fresh and original detail, upending the traditional view that segregates vocal jazz from the genre’s mainstream. As she navigated the shifting tides between jazz and pop, she used her originality to pioneer modernist vocal jazz. Interpreting long-lost setlists, reviews from both white and Black newspapers, and newly released footage and recordings, the book explores how Ella’s transcendence as an improvisor produced onstage performances every bit as significant as her historic recorded oeuvre.
From the singer’s first performance at the Apollo Theatre’s famous “Amateur Night” to the Savoy Ballroom, where Fitzgerald broke through with Chick Webb’s big band in the 1930s, Tick evokes the jazz world in riveting detail. She describes how Ella helped shape the bebop movement in the 1940s, as she joined Dizzy Gillespie and her then-husband, Ray Brown, in the world-touring Jazz at the Philharmonic, one of the first moments of high-culture acceptance for the disreputable art form.
Breaking ground as a female bandleader, Fitzgerald refuted expectations of musical Blackness, deftly balancing artistic ambition and market expectations. Her legendary exploration of the Great American Songbook in the 1950s fused a Black vocal aesthetic and jazz improvisation to revolutionize the popular repertoire. This hybridity often confounded critics, yet throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Ella reached audiences around the world, electrifying concert halls, and sold millions of records.
A masterful biography, Becoming Ella Fitzgerald describes a powerful woman who set a standard for American excellence nearly unmatched in the twentieth century.
About the Author: Judith Tick is professor emerita of music history at Northeastern University. She has published award-winning books and articles about American music and women's history in music, including Ruth Crawford Seeger: A Composer's Search for American Music.
My Take
Publishing December 5, 2023, this book is an introduction to Ella Fitzgerald. If you are unfamiliar with her, this is a good introduction. Having said that, the strength of this book is that read like a literature review: lots of historical texts are presented and lightly analyzed. I would recommend this book if you are doing research on Ella Fitzgerald this is a good resource book for its bibliography.
December 17, 2023
BECOMING ELLA FITZGERALD is Judith Tick’s unique and valuable biography of one of the 20th century’s greatest singers. Ella Fitzgerald’s musical style has been and will continue to be cherished by those who share her wide range of genres, songs and syllables.
Drawing on well-established sources, Tick’s portrait begins as Ella began --- in a family officially designated at one time as “mulatto,” or mixed race. Her father left home when she was two, never to be seen again. Her mother, a hard-working woman, found another mate who moved the family from Virginia to Yonkers, New York. Though their neighborhood was not the best, it was a Black haven, and Ella excelled in her early education. But by her teen years, she was on the streets, spent time in a reformatory school, and by chance was “discovered” as she sang wherever she went. This led to her entry into a music competition, hoping to win recognition as a dancer. She ended up taking first prize --- as a singer.
What followed was a lifelong career that budded and bloomed with the help of admirers and those who thought to make a name or a fortune for themselves by touting and displaying her. Ella was reserved and rigorously polite in private, but she was different in public. She was adored by audiences and backed by a jazz band like that of Chick Webb, who first took her on (initially reluctantly) as a “girl singer.” Her career ascent was steady and, by a certain point, dazzling, with television appearances on prime time and nearly constant touring. Her hits included “Cheek to Cheek” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing.”
Those who saw Ella perform knew that she had controlled but sensuous movements to match the swing of the music, and that her voice was almost like a newly invented and never-duplicated horn or pipe. She performed with the greats of her era, including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie. She received a multitude of awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Some would say that she invented her chosen style of swing and made others want to imitate it. Her rhythmic “scat” singing was said to be the best in the world.
Tick brings Ella and her musical success to new light with diligent research, suggesting that she had many fears and sorrows. However, her determination and ability to rise and stay ahead was undeniable. Tick offers a list of Ella’s “Charted Hot Singles,” along with a lengthy bibliography. She portrays Ella in and out of the limelight with a kind of consistency that is a hallmark of those who gain enduring attention.
No matter the size of her audience, Ella would review her set list before going onstage, making sure that it was appropriate and that she was fully prepared for the impression she wished to make. This is in line with what she said in her waning years: Sound and lyrics were her way of sharing, like “neighbors, where we share and love each other.”
Reviewed by Barbara Bamberger Scott
Drawing on well-established sources, Tick’s portrait begins as Ella began --- in a family officially designated at one time as “mulatto,” or mixed race. Her father left home when she was two, never to be seen again. Her mother, a hard-working woman, found another mate who moved the family from Virginia to Yonkers, New York. Though their neighborhood was not the best, it was a Black haven, and Ella excelled in her early education. But by her teen years, she was on the streets, spent time in a reformatory school, and by chance was “discovered” as she sang wherever she went. This led to her entry into a music competition, hoping to win recognition as a dancer. She ended up taking first prize --- as a singer.
What followed was a lifelong career that budded and bloomed with the help of admirers and those who thought to make a name or a fortune for themselves by touting and displaying her. Ella was reserved and rigorously polite in private, but she was different in public. She was adored by audiences and backed by a jazz band like that of Chick Webb, who first took her on (initially reluctantly) as a “girl singer.” Her career ascent was steady and, by a certain point, dazzling, with television appearances on prime time and nearly constant touring. Her hits included “Cheek to Cheek” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing.”
Those who saw Ella perform knew that she had controlled but sensuous movements to match the swing of the music, and that her voice was almost like a newly invented and never-duplicated horn or pipe. She performed with the greats of her era, including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie. She received a multitude of awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Some would say that she invented her chosen style of swing and made others want to imitate it. Her rhythmic “scat” singing was said to be the best in the world.
Tick brings Ella and her musical success to new light with diligent research, suggesting that she had many fears and sorrows. However, her determination and ability to rise and stay ahead was undeniable. Tick offers a list of Ella’s “Charted Hot Singles,” along with a lengthy bibliography. She portrays Ella in and out of the limelight with a kind of consistency that is a hallmark of those who gain enduring attention.
No matter the size of her audience, Ella would review her set list before going onstage, making sure that it was appropriate and that she was fully prepared for the impression she wished to make. This is in line with what she said in her waning years: Sound and lyrics were her way of sharing, like “neighbors, where we share and love each other.”
Reviewed by Barbara Bamberger Scott
January 10, 2024
Becoming Ella Fitzgerald: The Jazz Singer Who Transformed American Song is less a biography than a discography. Perfect for release during the age of streaming media, I was able to read along with my Pandora premium account, pulling up recordings as they were described. I didn't know much of anything about Ella Fitzgerald prior to reading this excellent work, and I don't feel like I can tell you much about her now that I've finished. A dishy celebrity biography this isn't!
Here's what I can now tell you: I understand why Ella Fitzgerald is considered The First Lady of Song. You would be hard-pressed to find a harder worker in any industry, much less in entertainment. She had a great amount of character in the old-fashioned sense. Don't confuse that with being stale or stodgy. Ella Fitzgerald was a tireless innovator. Given a few more years I would've fully expected to see her release a hip-hop single (it never occurred to me before reading Becoming Ella Fitzgerald: The Jazz Singer Who Transformed American Song that scatting and rapping have similar roots). It seemed like everything was always an uphill struggle for Ella Fitzgerald, too. For example, why the insistence of pitting her against Billie Holiday? The two weren't rivals in real life, why did the press insist on forming teams? No matter what challenges were sent her way, Ella Fitzgerald just kept moving. She is a great inspiration.
Becoming Ella Fitzgerald: The Jazz Singer Who Transformed American Song can be read by the casual reader or used in a classroom setting. For those unconcerned about having access to the acknowledgements, appendix, notes, bibliography, or index, I highly recommend the audiobook due to Carmen Jewel Jones's narration. She captures the essence of Ella Fitzgerald's voice, and I felt like I was directly listening to recorded interviews on a number of occasions. It makes it a little bit harder to flip back and forth into the songs, but you can always pause the recording, open up the Pandora app, pull up the work, and even save it to directly a playlist if you so choose. I would like to thank Tantor Audio for allowing me to experience this NetGalley audiobook.
Here's what I can now tell you: I understand why Ella Fitzgerald is considered The First Lady of Song. You would be hard-pressed to find a harder worker in any industry, much less in entertainment. She had a great amount of character in the old-fashioned sense. Don't confuse that with being stale or stodgy. Ella Fitzgerald was a tireless innovator. Given a few more years I would've fully expected to see her release a hip-hop single (it never occurred to me before reading Becoming Ella Fitzgerald: The Jazz Singer Who Transformed American Song that scatting and rapping have similar roots). It seemed like everything was always an uphill struggle for Ella Fitzgerald, too. For example, why the insistence of pitting her against Billie Holiday? The two weren't rivals in real life, why did the press insist on forming teams? No matter what challenges were sent her way, Ella Fitzgerald just kept moving. She is a great inspiration.
Becoming Ella Fitzgerald: The Jazz Singer Who Transformed American Song can be read by the casual reader or used in a classroom setting. For those unconcerned about having access to the acknowledgements, appendix, notes, bibliography, or index, I highly recommend the audiobook due to Carmen Jewel Jones's narration. She captures the essence of Ella Fitzgerald's voice, and I felt like I was directly listening to recorded interviews on a number of occasions. It makes it a little bit harder to flip back and forth into the songs, but you can always pause the recording, open up the Pandora app, pull up the work, and even save it to directly a playlist if you so choose. I would like to thank Tantor Audio for allowing me to experience this NetGalley audiobook.
January 7, 2025
Becoming Ella Fitzgerald by Judith Tick is a 2023 W.W. Norton and Co, publication.
I remember seeing Ella Fitzgerald on television occasionally, as a child, and the reason I remember is because she truly captivated me.
I was pleased to see this biography pop up on my radar. I’m sure there have been other books written about Ella Fitzgerald over the years, but this one seemed like it would be a balanced, well-researched choice.
I feel like I made the right decision to try this one out. The author obviously went to a great deal of trouble gathering materials and organizing them for this book. I could tell a lot of time was spent on the book and the author had great respect for her subject.
From that standpoint, this is a very comprehensive history of Ella’s music, her life story- especially in her years of recording and performing- with some information about her personal life, though Ella’s personality seemed hard to penetrate. She was quiet, shy, but could also be forceful and stand up for herself. Her personal relationships are not examined too deeply either, which makes it hard to really see Ella beyond her musical achievements.
The book is a bit overlong, in my opinion, though. I took long breaks from it as trying to read it cover to cover began to feel a little tedious. I even listed to chunks of it on audio to speed the process along.
That said, if you want a pure biography that does not tend to insert personal opinions or to slant things, this is a good one. It’s a bit dry, but it is a good study of history, jazz, improvisation, the music business and management, as well a reminder of Ella’s ability to musically perform anything – from scat to jazz to pop- ballads or anything she set her mind to.
Overall, Ella was very talented. She stuck to what worked best for her with a ‘what you see is what you get’ attitude. Though her marketability was not like that of other jazz contemporaries, and she knew and understood that- she didn’t let it stop her. She enjoyed a long, illustrious career and left behind an impressive musical legacy. The author did a great job organizing the material and presenting it a way that reflected Ella’s legacy, while introducing her younger generations who will surely find her to be inspirational, impressive, talented and immensely entertaining.
3.5 rounded up
I remember seeing Ella Fitzgerald on television occasionally, as a child, and the reason I remember is because she truly captivated me.
I was pleased to see this biography pop up on my radar. I’m sure there have been other books written about Ella Fitzgerald over the years, but this one seemed like it would be a balanced, well-researched choice.
I feel like I made the right decision to try this one out. The author obviously went to a great deal of trouble gathering materials and organizing them for this book. I could tell a lot of time was spent on the book and the author had great respect for her subject.
From that standpoint, this is a very comprehensive history of Ella’s music, her life story- especially in her years of recording and performing- with some information about her personal life, though Ella’s personality seemed hard to penetrate. She was quiet, shy, but could also be forceful and stand up for herself. Her personal relationships are not examined too deeply either, which makes it hard to really see Ella beyond her musical achievements.
The book is a bit overlong, in my opinion, though. I took long breaks from it as trying to read it cover to cover began to feel a little tedious. I even listed to chunks of it on audio to speed the process along.
That said, if you want a pure biography that does not tend to insert personal opinions or to slant things, this is a good one. It’s a bit dry, but it is a good study of history, jazz, improvisation, the music business and management, as well a reminder of Ella’s ability to musically perform anything – from scat to jazz to pop- ballads or anything she set her mind to.
Overall, Ella was very talented. She stuck to what worked best for her with a ‘what you see is what you get’ attitude. Though her marketability was not like that of other jazz contemporaries, and she knew and understood that- she didn’t let it stop her. She enjoyed a long, illustrious career and left behind an impressive musical legacy. The author did a great job organizing the material and presenting it a way that reflected Ella’s legacy, while introducing her younger generations who will surely find her to be inspirational, impressive, talented and immensely entertaining.
3.5 rounded up
September 26, 2024
Impeccably researched but ultimately a bit dry, the latest biographer of beloved "Fitz" falls in the same trap as Nadine Cohodas in her biography of Dinah Washington - namely, lacking info about the subject's personal life, the authoress focuses on every single documented concert performance and studio recording. So after a few chapters it starts to get a bit repetitive, because there is simply nothing much to tell about Fitzgerald herself, except yet another concert, another tour, another studio recording. Because Ella was (pardon the pun) elusive, we can admire her, we can love her but we can not pinpoint anything specific about her outside of the concert stage. There might be a possibility that the great lady genuinely had no private life, since she was always working - you never read about Fitzgerald enjoying some relaxed vacation or such, until the very end when Diabetes forced her into a wheelchair and she was simply not physically capable of touring anymore.
I was initially a bit alarmed already in the foreword, because Judith Tick had a currently fashionable way of expressing herself as being not lucky but "privileged" for having access to archives - you know, the type who is always on some spiritual quest, "learning" and "changing the narrative". Thankfully she did not turned the book into anything but biography of a musician, even though she occasionally tries valiantly to describe her subject as activist, where Fitzgerald was by all accounts everything but. Personally I did not find it boring but I can understand that some readers might find it a bit exhausting.
Curiously, Thick completely ignores what might have been genuinely interesting part of the story - Fitzgerald's teenage years spent in New York's reformatory school with other juvenile delinquents where she was allegedly frequently beaten and punished - Thick just breezes over this and never elaborates how this might have scarred and psychologically shaped the singer always known for her quiet disposition. (According to the documents, teenage Fitzgerald escaped the institution.)
I was initially a bit alarmed already in the foreword, because Judith Tick had a currently fashionable way of expressing herself as being not lucky but "privileged" for having access to archives - you know, the type who is always on some spiritual quest, "learning" and "changing the narrative". Thankfully she did not turned the book into anything but biography of a musician, even though she occasionally tries valiantly to describe her subject as activist, where Fitzgerald was by all accounts everything but. Personally I did not find it boring but I can understand that some readers might find it a bit exhausting.
Curiously, Thick completely ignores what might have been genuinely interesting part of the story - Fitzgerald's teenage years spent in New York's reformatory school with other juvenile delinquents where she was allegedly frequently beaten and punished - Thick just breezes over this and never elaborates how this might have scarred and psychologically shaped the singer always known for her quiet disposition. (According to the documents, teenage Fitzgerald escaped the institution.)
June 18, 2024
Like many biographers writing about extremely popular entertainment figures spanning multi-decade careers, most of Judith Tick’s biography deals with Ms. Fitzgerald’s (as she preferred to be addressed) associations with bandleaders, musicians, venues, tours, music collaborations, recording studios, salary disparities and radio plays. Unearthing much personal information was undeniably a challenge for the author. Ella Fitzgerald was never considered a beautiful face hired to attract a male audience. She was just the opposite – an ordinary-looking, shy woman but an extraordinary, groundbreaking workhorse on the jazz music scene. Her professional life came first; all else was secondary. A loner, she almost never hung out after gigs with fellow musicians or friends, although she remained close to her immediate family. Married twice, her first marriage ended in divorce after a few months and her second one to bass player Ray Brown, Sr., fell apart after five years primarily due to their separate career pressures.
By her early 70s Ella was still attempting to perform despite rapidly failing eyesight, constant exhaustion and lung problems due to worsening diabetes. Her illness led to the amputation of several toes, then her lower legs as well during the last several years of her life. We're fortunate to have so many excellent recordings of Ella at the height of her vocal capabilities!
Although some of the book does become rather tedious in places, I would definitely recommend.
By her early 70s Ella was still attempting to perform despite rapidly failing eyesight, constant exhaustion and lung problems due to worsening diabetes. Her illness led to the amputation of several toes, then her lower legs as well during the last several years of her life. We're fortunate to have so many excellent recordings of Ella at the height of her vocal capabilities!
Although some of the book does become rather tedious in places, I would definitely recommend.
February 3, 2024
(Was sent an advance copy though a Goodreads giveaway!)
I've always been a fan of Ella's music but didn't know a lot about her life behind the music, so reading this was a thrilling opportunity! I echo what a lot of other reviewers have said regarding the book not delving very deep into her personal life, although if this book has taught me one thing, it's that Ella kept her privacy and kept it well. For someone already familiar with the course of Ella's career, this book would likely already contain a lot of things they already knew, but for someone like me who's new to the story of her life, I found it a well-researched, comprehensive record of a woman who completely reinvented the music industry. Her story is incredibly important, and if you're not familiar with it, definitely pick up this book.
My one criticism is more to do with the editing of the text itself. I noticed a few clear errors that should have been easy to spot, including, for example, an entire paragraph reprinted word-for-word a page later. I certainly don't consider myself an editor, but it did catch me off guard a few times.
Overall, a great read! Glad I got the opportunity to review it!
I've always been a fan of Ella's music but didn't know a lot about her life behind the music, so reading this was a thrilling opportunity! I echo what a lot of other reviewers have said regarding the book not delving very deep into her personal life, although if this book has taught me one thing, it's that Ella kept her privacy and kept it well. For someone already familiar with the course of Ella's career, this book would likely already contain a lot of things they already knew, but for someone like me who's new to the story of her life, I found it a well-researched, comprehensive record of a woman who completely reinvented the music industry. Her story is incredibly important, and if you're not familiar with it, definitely pick up this book.
My one criticism is more to do with the editing of the text itself. I noticed a few clear errors that should have been easy to spot, including, for example, an entire paragraph reprinted word-for-word a page later. I certainly don't consider myself an editor, but it did catch me off guard a few times.
Overall, a great read! Glad I got the opportunity to review it!
June 9, 2024
I love Ella Fitzgerald's voice. I admit I do not love reading biographies.
Some sections of Tick's book are engrossing -- generally, when there's an actual tension in the storyline. Will these musicians be able to work together? Will this album sell?
But some sections are dull and lack any clear point other than just summarizing where, what, and with whom Ella sang in those years. The opening few chapters were the slowest in my opinion.
There's obviously a lot of great research here and probably some connections that have never been made before. Also, it's nice that there were a few personal interviews, always hard to do when a biography is published 30-ish years after its subject's death.
I liked Tick's concise and clear style. She generally uses quotations smoothy, which I always appreciate.
Some sections of Tick's book are engrossing -- generally, when there's an actual tension in the storyline. Will these musicians be able to work together? Will this album sell?
But some sections are dull and lack any clear point other than just summarizing where, what, and with whom Ella sang in those years. The opening few chapters were the slowest in my opinion.
There's obviously a lot of great research here and probably some connections that have never been made before. Also, it's nice that there were a few personal interviews, always hard to do when a biography is published 30-ish years after its subject's death.
I liked Tick's concise and clear style. She generally uses quotations smoothy, which I always appreciate.
January 3, 2024
I was lucky enough to receive a copy of the audio book from NetGalley in return for my honest review. Becoming Ella Fitzgerald: The Jazz Singer Who Transformed American Song, was a great listen! I didn’t know much about Ella Fitzgerald before listening to this book, so all of this was new information for me. I enjoyed all of the details about her career. I particularly found interesting the parts where it talked about race relations during her lifetime. I thought that the person narrating the audiobook did a fantastic job and the story had a good pace that kept me interested. Thanks for sharing this with me, I am so glad I read it. Now, I need to go and re-listen to her music for the next few weeks!
January 8, 2024
3.5 stars rounded to 4. Great research and a one stop shop for progressing through the recordings and tours throughout her illustrious career. But it's missing a lot on the personal side of things, maybe because that's the way Fitzgerald wanted it. Guarding her privacy.
It's sad that a lot of these books have to wait to be written after the subject and everyone around her has passed from the scene. The "interviews" included here are mostly whatever was available from periodicals back in the day. So much more enlightenment may have been had by interviewing directly those who were crucial connections in her life. That said, this does a good job of documenting those written sources and the various TV shows, movies, etc that Fitzgerald was involved in.
It's sad that a lot of these books have to wait to be written after the subject and everyone around her has passed from the scene. The "interviews" included here are mostly whatever was available from periodicals back in the day. So much more enlightenment may have been had by interviewing directly those who were crucial connections in her life. That said, this does a good job of documenting those written sources and the various TV shows, movies, etc that Fitzgerald was involved in.
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