https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw0yhWhmLNw&list=RDlw0yhWhmLNw&start_radio=1

Ella Fitzgerald is “one of the most celebrated jazz musicians of all time”. Historians have commented on the fact that Fitzgerald was heavily influenced by other artists such as Louis Armstrong, Connie Boswell and Dizzy Gillespie. She would often be inspired by these artists and invent complex melodic lines as she sang, which also put her in the category of great instrumental improvisers. One such case is her recording of “Flying Home” in 1945, the breakout recording that showcased her incredible ability to vocally improvise. Even more importantly, this recording showed that Ella was aligning herself with a new style of music at the time: bebop, which would turn out to be one of the most important career moves of her life (Nicholson, 2004, p. 83).

“Flying Home” already existed as a jazz standard before Fitzgerald recorded it in 1945. Originally whistled by Lionel Hampton on a flight from Los Angeles to Atlantic City, "Flying Home" was first performed later that night with the Goodman Quartet. As such, “Flying Home” had already developed an identity surrounded by instrumental performance and improvisation long before Fitzgerald took to perform it. The song was first recorded by the Benny Goodman Sextet later that year and featured a legendary electric guitar solo from Charlie Christian (Rickert, 2005). Fitzgerald had been deep into singing pop songs with jazz inflections until “Flying Home”, where her scat performance allowed her to take on a role similar to that of a trumpet or a horn soloist. In the 1940s, there was a transitional moment in jazz where a new musical vocabulary was built around higher rhythmic complexity, improvisation and more intricate harmonic thinking. This form of African-American jazz is known as bebop. This makes "Flying Home" a key marker in understanding the changing relationship between singer and instrumentalist in 1940s jazz, as well as Ella’s first of many bebop recordings (Nicholson, 2004, p. 90). While Ella did not invent scat singing, the 1945 recording of "Flying Home" expanded its possibilities and its reach by showcasing how a human voice could function as an improvisational instrument as well. This blurs the distinction between singer and instrumental soloist while also developing a style that was heavily influenced by bebop, which became part of her musical identity.

Ella Jane Fitzgerald was born on April 25th 1917 in Newport News in Virginia. Her family later moved to Yonkers in Westchester County, New York, which is North of Harlem, which exposed her to a rapidly developing Black musical culture and inspiredmuch of her musical career (Reid, 2002, p. 28). In the early 1930's Harlem was an epicenter for jazz and swing music, and eventually became the birthplace of bebop (p. 33). Fitzgerald’s musical background was not expansive; she encountered music through Church, but also mentions she never paid much attention to music and instead wanted to be a dancer (p. 30). She had a tough adolescence after her mother's death and suffered a large amount of instability before her debut at the Apollo Theater. In 1934, Ella entered an amateur contest at the Apollo Theater as a dancer but got cold feet when she saw the dancing act before her. She ended up singing instead and took home 1st place. She eventually got connected with Chick Webb who invited her to perform with his band. During this time, Ella underwent a great deal of "on the job training", where she learned from other musicians inside a jazz orchestra (p. 35). Learning from musicians inside a jazz orchestra coupled with her “innate gift for mimicry”, without a doubt contributed to her ability to sing like an instrumentalist (p. 34). Fitzgerald started as a swing-era vocalist but eventually transitioned to a virtuosic jazz improviser and became a master of scat in the 1940s.

In the mid 1940s, jazz was undergoing a big transition, from the big band swing era to the emergence of bebop in Harlem. Bebop consisted of more complex harmonies, intricate melodies and rhythms, faster tempo and a larger emphasis on improvisation. This stark contrast can be seen in Ella’s reinterpretation of “Flying Home” versus previous recordings. lllinois Jaquet's tenor saxophone solo in 1942 recording of “Flying Home” with Lionel Hampton and his orchestra is widely considered the first rhythm and blues saxophone solo and a turning point in jazz history, “Flying Home” had therefore previously been established as a vehicle for virtuosic solo improvisation.

Rather than remaining separate from the more complex instrumental developments of bebop, Fitzgerald builds upon them by translating the language of instrumental jazz into her own vocal performance. She had an incredible ability to mimic the characteristics that are typically associated with instruments such as: articulation, melodic runs, accents, and rhythmic patterns. Drawing inspiration from Jacquet’s solo she uses her vocal abilities to reproduce an instrumental-adjacent solo with highly complex rhythmic articulation and phrasing, as well as melodic ideas. In this recording, Ella moves beyond the role of the jazz vocalist by positioning her voice as an instrument within the full jazz ensemble. This is particularly important in the context of jazz at the time and the direction it was going, as it shows how the increased emphasis on instrumental improvisation and complexity was also able to be expressed through the human voice.

Musically, Fitzgerald’s full scat performance of “Flying Home” was entirely made up of non-lexical syllables - she is often described as having “bopped” her way through the song. At times, she enters in a pattern of call and response with the orchestra as she is imposing melodic lines of her own. Her singing is highly syncopated and is made up of syllables that have different sonic features, which forms the basis to allow her to make complex rhythmic patterns with her voice. This characteristic is what allows Fitzgerald’s singing to undertake the role of different instruments in one song, for example, a shorter syllable could sound more like a percussion hit, whereas a longer syllable could resemble a sax or a horn. Therefore, this recording of ”Flying Home” demonstrates that the human voice can carry the same improvisational responsibility as an instrument, and this recording showcased the true potential of the human voice.

"Flying Home" captures Fitzgerald at an important moment where she is developing an independent career and constructing an improvisational style that was intrinsic to her musical imprint. Her influence can be heard in future jazz singers, especially those who also use scat singing as a vehicle for instrumental-style improvisation. An analysis on scat singing conducted by William R. Bauer suggests that Betty Carter’s use of alternating consonants “ n” and “d” may have been influenced by Fitzgerarld (Bauer, 2001, p. 321). In this way, Ella’s contribution to jazz and bebop extended beyond her own performances, and her improvisation techniques and articulation have become part of the musical vocabulary adopted by modern jazz singers.

Ultimately, Ella was a pioneering Black female artist who toured internationally and whose influence was globally felt. Fitzgerald’s achievements were significant in the context of the racial and gender discrimination faced by Black female musicians in the mid 1900s. Although jazz was one of America's most visible Black-created art forms, Black musicians faced immense segregation and discrimination. In addition, the music industry itself was also heavily dominated by male instrumentalists and bandleaders. Against these odds, Fitzgerald was able to establish herself successfully as a respected vocal improviser with her 1945 recording of “Flying Home”, making this a landmark in her artistic career. In doing so, Fitzgerald not only challenged traditional expectations of women’s roles in music, but also expanded the possibilities of using one’s own voice as an improvisational instrument in jazz.

References

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Nicholson, Stuart. Ella Fitzgerald: The Complete Biography. New York: Routledge, 2004. Print

Reid, K. I. (2002). An exploration of the lineage of jazz vocal improvisation through the analysis

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