All language subtitles for Ella.Fitzgerald.Just.One.Of.Those.Things.2019.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC5.1-[YTS.MX]

[scatting]

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♪ I'm going out ♪

♪ I'm gonna rave and shout ♪

♪ I wanna go out,
I wanna go out ♪

♪ We're gonna go way out ♪

♪ Way out with the boys ♪

♪ From Ipanema ♪

[scatting]

♪ Fly me to the moon ♪

♪ And let me see
What's way up there ♪

♪ Take me to the moon ♪

♪ I wanna go
Way, way up there ♪

♪ I wanna see
What's up there ♪

♪ Way, way, way, way, way
Way up in the moon, yeah ♪

♪ We're gonna do the moonwalk ♪

♪ Got to do the moonwalk ♪

♪ Got to do the moonwalk ♪

♪ Got to do the moonwalk ♪

[music fades]

[engine runs]

["If Dreams Come True"
by Chick Webb plays]

All the greats came
here, everyone.

♪♪

And we went
through these doors,

and you were aware
you were in Harlem!

Harlem.

[narrator] It was
November of 1934

when Norma Miller, who is
100 years old now,

first heard a skinny
teenage girl sing.

A shabby street kid entered
'Amateur Night' at the Apollo.

The girl has never
sung in public.

She's shaking.

Her dress is dirty.

The audience laughed at her.

[laughter]

They introduced this new girl

called Ella Fitzgerald.

We booed her!

'Cause they were introducing
somebody we didn't know.

We were all kids, a bunch of
rowdy teenagers in the balcony.

Oh, we were mad anyway.
"Boo"!

Say, can you imagine,
we booed Ella Fitzgerald?

We went to the Apollo and
I was the one that was chosen.

My legs were so skinny,
I used to wear boots

so nobody could see
the bottom of my legs.

[narrator]
She's just 16.

Ella has survived the death
of her beloved mother,

a brutal reform school,

and a homeless life
in the Harlem streets.

But she's tough.
She likes a dare.

And she wants to dance.

At the Apollo,
she takes her chances.

[Ella] I was what they called

you know, the greatest
little dancer in Yonkers.

And there were two sisters

who were the dancing-est
sisters in the world,

called The Edwards Sisters.

And they were starring
at the Apollo.

And when I saw
those ladies dance,

I said, "No way I'm going
out there and try to dance,

'cause they'd stop the show".

-[audience laughs]
-[Ella laughs]

The man said, "You're out
here", he says, "Well,
do something".

And I sang,

♪ If her voice can bring ♪

♪ Every hope of the spring ♪

♪ That's Judy ♪

And everybody says,
"Oh, that girl can sing".

-[applause]
-[man] Oh, that's funny.

[Ray Brown, Jr.] It was like
one of those defining moments

where, "I'm here,
I have to do something",

something has
to be accomplished.

And to be able to pull
out of you, out of yourself,

something that's magical,

you know, that's pretty amazing.

And we heard a sound,

I'm telling you,
it was so perfect.

I said, "She shut us up
so quick,

you can hear
a rat piss on cotton".

That was the story
of Ella Fitzgerald.

♪ It was just ♪

♪ One of those things ♪

♪ Just one of those
Crazy flings ♪

I was always looking for heroes.

♪ Bells that now
and then ring ♪

[Mvula] Icons that
looked like me.

♪ Just one of those things ♪

A black woman
that was really black.

♪ It was great fun
But it was... ♪

[Mvula] She made it seem
like anything is possible.

♪ ...those things ♪

There's no other Ella, sorry.

♪ One of those ♪

♪ Things ♪

-[music ends]
-[crowd applauds]

["Billie's Blues" by
Billy Holiday plays]

[narrator] Ella Fitzgerald's
life was always about
moving on.

In 1919, when Ella was two,

the family left Virginia
for New York.

They joined
the Great Migration,

tens of millions of African
Americans who fled the racism

and the poverty of the South.

[Margo Jefferson] The Great
Migration was bringing

so many people,
like Ella's mother,

all with economic dreams,

cultural dreams,
social dreams.

The world would
have been opening up.

[narrator] Ella's mother,
'Tempie',

settled the family in Yonkers,

a few miles north of Harlem.

[Newscaster] Heart of Harlem,

the largest coloured city
in the world,

with a population of 220,000.

[narrator] The action for
black teenagers is in Harlem.

From Yonkers, it's only a tram

and a five-cent subway train
to get there.

[children clamouring]

♪ Hurry, hurry, hurry ♪

♪ Get, get, get, get
Get, get, get, get ♪

♪ Come on ♪

♪ You must take the 'A' train ♪

♪ If you really want to go
To Harlem ♪

-[applause]
-♪ Come on and take ♪

♪ Take the 'A' train ♪
Thank you.

♪ Find the quickest way
To get to Harlem ♪

♪ Hurry, hurry, boy
It's comin' ♪

♪ Can't you hear
those engines strumming? ♪

♪ All aboard
Get on the 'A' train ♪

♪ You'll find the quickest way
To get to Harlem ♪

[scatting]

[Gregg Field] The earliest
story I have,

from her lips to my ears,

she said she used to dance

on the street corners in Harlem
for nickels,

she and her friend Charles.

I wanted to be a dancer,
and I ran away from home.

But I got out there
and I got hungry

and I was glad to
get back home,

and I was glad when
my mother whipped me.

I was just so glad to know
that I had a home to come to,

a warm bed and,
brother, that was it.

[upbeat jazz music]

[Will Friedwald] Ella
Fitzgerald is coming
into Harlem

when it was the high point

of what we now call
the Black Renaissance,

the Harlem Renaissance.

There were all these theatres

and there were
fully staged revues.

It was this very
unique occurrence

that never really happened
anywhere else,

or in any other time.

It was just this
incredible flowering

of African-American musical
talent that was concentrated

in this very small specific
area of just a few blocks.

One of the lovely things
about the Renaissance

is this mixture of music.

Okay, so of course
you're hearing blues,

of course you're hearing
original jazz compositions.

You're also hearing
musical theatre,

songs of the day, and those
are all in the mix.

["Dinah" by
Louis Armstrong plays]

So Ella is taking it in
and getting ready
to join the swing age.

[Friedwald] All the bands
were on the radio.

Duke Ellington made
a point to be on the radio,

and Louis Armstrong
was all over the airwaves.

♪ Dinah
With her Dixie eyes blazin' ♪

♪ Love to sit and gaze in ♪

♪ To the eyes of Dinah Lee ♪

♪ Yet, every night ♪

♪ My, how I shake with fright
Oh ♪

♪ 'Cause my Dinah might ♪

♪ Change her mind ♪

[scatting]

[Friedwald] Louis Armstrong is
the only major scat singer

before Ella Fitzgerald.

He definitely was
a big influence on Ella.

["Girl Crazy: I Got Rhythm"
by Fred Rich plays]

[narrator] The Broadway
theatres are lit up
with new musicals.

Everyone listens to
the songs on the radio,

including a teenage Ella.

Everybody calls it to this day
the Great American Songbook,

That's Gershwin, Irving Berlin
and Cole Porter,

and all the great ones.

♪ They're writing songs
of love ♪

♪ But not for me ♪

[Bennett] All the greatest
songs that everybody loves

to this day.

♪ A lucky star's above ♪

Ella is hearing
the young composers

whose music she'll be doing
in song books years later.

♪ With love to lead the way

[Jefferson] She's hearing
Irving Berlin songs,

she's hearing Rodgers and Hart,

she's hearing the wonderful
Harold Arlen.

She's hearing all of that

being sung by black singers
as well as white.

♪ Than any Russian play ♪

♪ Could guarantee ♪

[Friedwald] And people would
think, "Oh, those little

dumb little 'Tin Pan Alley',

'Moon June Spoon' songs,

but this became not only the
soundtrack of the 20th Century,

but helped to define it
in a sense

that it became the American
equivalent of classical music.

You know, where the Europeans
have Bach and Beethoven,

we have Jerome Kern and
Cole Porter and Duke Ellington.

♪ I guess he's not ♪

♪ For ♪

♪ Me ♪

-[song ends]
-[train screeches on rails]

["Harlem Shout" by
Jimmie Lunceford plays]

[Miller] I was raised
with the jazz age,

so all I ever heard was jazz.

So, it was natural for me.

Me and jazz came up together.

[narrator] For kids
like Ella and Norma,

the jazz music and the dancing

are an escape from lives
shaped by poverty and racism.

[Miller] Now my mother
got two babies,

20 years old, unskilled,
never had a job.

You had to find a way
of getting money.

You can't work for nobody,
'cause remember,

slavery is over,
you don't have jobs.

How do you pay the rent?

My mother used to give
house rent parties.

"Norma could dance".
She threw me out on the stage

so I can entertain her people

so she can charge for pig feet
and potato salad.

And that's how
I started in showbiz,

in my mother's living room.

Everything was race.

You couldn't go to Woolworth
across the street.

If you were a black person
and you wanted to buy a hat,

you couldn't try it on.

They wouldn't have black
girls on the cash registers.

You couldn't go
out of your zone.

Right up the street
was the Cotton Club.

We couldn't go in
the Cotton Club.

We could work at the Cotton
Club, but you couldn't go in.

So the confinement left you.

What you had to do, you had
to do it amongst yourselves.

♪♪

[narrator] Ella told
a schoolfriend

"One day, you're gonna
see my name in lights".

[music ends]

[slow jazz music]

In 1929, the stock
market crashes.

The Great Depression hammers
the country for a decade.

Millions are devastated.

By 1932, half of black
Americans are out of work.

There are whites who insist
black workers are fired,

the whites given their jobs.

For Ella Fitzgerald,
there is also personal tragedy.

The big divide in Ella's life

was the tragedy
of losing her mother

when she was 13 years old.

She describes her mother
in very loving terms,

and kept a picture of
her mother in her home.

Tempie was a formidable woman,
and it was a devastating blow,

because her mother had been
the continuity in her life.

And Ella was lost.

[narrator] Friends said Ella's
stepfather neglected her,

and there were
rumours of abuse.

Her aunt in Harlem took her in.

Ella, hurt, angry, lost,
ran away.

Cops picked her up
off the street.

She runs away from home,
she's a truant.

She gets caught and does time
in a state reformatory
for girls.

This is brutal.

It was the combination
of reform school cruelties

and the particular abuses
and insults

handed out to
the young black girls.

[narrator] The Training
School for Girls

had begun 30 years earlier

as a home for unwed mothers.

In Ella's time, it's
a reformatory for
young truants.

Ella is locked up here in 1933,
more than 100 miles from home.

Like other black girls,
she is beaten by male staff

and held in solitary
confinement.

Ella never spoke about it.

A report noted Ella Fitzgerald
is "ungovernable"

and "will not obey
lawful commands".

She is a "judged delinquent".

Before long, she runs away,
back to the streets of Harlem.

She hits the street,
sleeping in little nothings,

you know, doing what we see
any homeless person doing

under little piles of refuse.

And she wants to be
a dancer, which I love.

You know, "I will be a dancer,

even though I'm this
unglamorous little critter".

["One O'clock Jump"
by Count Basie plays]

[narrator] Ella is back
in Harlem.

It's the Apollo's
first amateur night.

She takes the gamble.

This is her one shot.

It changes the rest
of her life.

-[audience claps]
-[music continues]

[applause and music fade]

[Tick] She used to say
"I kept on", that is it.

"I kept on".

In the end, once she started,
she never stopped.

She lived, she survived,
she became famous,

so she kept on keeping on.

At what inner price?
We don't know.

["My Wild Irish Rose" by
Chick Webb plays]

[Newscaster] Chick Webb,
king of the drums!

[narrator] At the
Savoy Ballroom,

Chick Webb is Harlem's
top bandleader.

Swing is all the rage.

Good time dance music,
a break from hard lives.

Chick Webb just had a beat
that was like no other.

[drum solo]

He swung his arse off.

Just an incredibly swinging
musical drummer and bandleader.

[Friedwald] He really knew
how to lead a band

with his personality and
with his musicianship.

But he was kind of faded

just because of
his physical handicap.

He was, you know, a dwarf
and he was a hunchback.

[narrator] One of his
musicians tells Chick

he has to hear the girl
who won at the Apollo.

The guy says, "She's
scuffling on the street".

[Miller] Chick Webb
didn't want no girl

travelling with the band,
'cause you've got 16 guys.

He said, "I'm not going to be
taking no girl on the road, 16,

and got a bunch of horny guys,
I'm not going to have it".

They had to fight to have Ella
sing with the band.

[narrator] "I don't want that
ugly old thing", Webb says

when he sees Ella wearing
a shabby dress

and workman's boots.

You would think that a man
with a tubercular spine

might not be so careless

with his put-downs
of Ella's looks.

But he gave her a huge start.

There are some people who were
born with God-given talent,

and then there are
the rest of us.

My mother had
God-given talent

and obviously that was the
little seed that was planted,

and someone said, "Well,
let's help this garden grow".

And so that was Chick,
who was a fabulous mentor.

["I'm Just A Jitterbug" by
Fitzgerald & Chick Webb plays]

[narrator] Ella joins
Chick Webb in early 1935.

Singing with Chick's band
gives her a future.

She's on a roll.

[Miller] She wanted to escape
the life that she had,

and the way she could escape it
was in show business.

♪ I'm just a jitterbug ♪

A naive kid.

♪ A happy jitterbug ♪

She was not cultured, she was
not haute couture at all.

She was Ella.

♪ I'm not a corny hick ♪

[scatting]

♪ 'Cause I'm a jitterbug
Might glad that I'm alive ♪

♪ Give me a solid ascender ♪

♪ Not just an elbow bender ♪

♪ Don't want no old-time jazz
No razzamatazz ♪

♪ Just swing ♪

♪ 'Cause I'm just a jitterbug ♪

♪ A happy jitterbug ♪

♪ A little jitter
Jitter jitterbug ♪

♪ Lookin' for a place to jive ♪

[narrator] The audience
loves Ella.

She plugs into their
excitement and gives it
back tenfold.

♪ The trumpet's goin' crazy ♪

Chick knew he had something
very special with Ella.

He took her on the road
with the band.

Norma Miller and half a dozen
Lindy Hoppers

were the opening act.

See, we were the
young generation.

She impressed us.

♪ And now a-listen, folks
And you will hear ♪

♪ Of the drummer of the band ♪

♪ Now, I know that
He's the drummer ♪

♪ By that drumstick
in his hand ♪

[drum solo]

[Miller] She was
a girl of her time.

It's something amazing
about life: your time.

She reached all of us.
We were the kids coming up.

♪ Love and kisses
never misses ♪

♪ Making a heaven for two ♪

[narrator] Within six months,
every band wants her.

She's cutting records,

singing on Benny Goodman's
'Coast to Coast' radio show,

playing nightclubs and
ballrooms from Boston
to Philly,

Chicago to New Orleans.

[Patti Austin] Guys
would finish a show,
have a little drink

and they'd bring a big spliff on
the bus and they'd all get high.

And Ella never wanted to get
high, she didn't do drugs,

and she would always go all
the way to the back of the bus.

She would take her coat
and put it over her head

and create her own
personal filtration system.

[laughs]

So, that's the way she
took care of herself.

♪ Mr Paganini, please play
my rhapsody, and if... ♪

[narrator] Then,
in October 1936,

one of Ella's records
became a hit.

♪ You simply have to swing it ♪

♪ I said, "Swing it" ♪

♪ Oh, swing it ♪

[narrator] She recorded
"Mr. Paganini" with Chick Webb

when she was 19.

It stayed a favourite in her
concerts for decades.

♪ With wild applause ♪

♪ But what a great ovation ♪

[narrator] Chick Webb
and his wife looked after Ella,

[scatting]

but she's making her own money.

She has her own room,
new clothes, even furs.

A girl on the town,
Ella has plenty of admirers,

including one of President
Roosevelt's sons.

["A-Tisket A-Tasket"
by Ella Fitzgerald plays]

I was trying to remember
what was the first song

I ever remember hearing
by Ella Fitzgerald.

♪ A-tisket a-tasket

♪ A brown and yellow basket

[Robinson]
It was "A-Tisket A-Tasket".

And my sisters used to play
that all day long, every day.

"A-Tisket A-Tasket".

"A-Tisket A-Tasket"
was her idea,

and it became
this blockbuster hit.

♪ Picked it up
and put it in her pocket ♪

[narrator] "A-Tisket A-Tasket"
went to number one

on the American Hit Parade.

It made Ella a national star,

and it earned her a role
in a Hollywood movie.

♪ She was truckin' on down
The avenue ♪

♪ With not a single thing
to do ♪

♪ She went a-peck, peck
Pecking all around ♪

I listened to my voice then,

and it sounds like, well,
what I was, a little girl.

♪ A yellow basket
and if she... ♪

[Ella] I laugh because my voice
was so thin and small.

But I guess it's like
anything else, you mature

and I'm grateful for those
thin, small, childish voice,

because without that,
nothing could have happened.

♪ Oh, dear, I wish
That little girl I could see ♪

She was no different
from her singing.

She was understated, she was
shy, she was like a little girl.

♪ A-tisket a-tasket ♪

♪ Love my little... ♪

♪ My little yellow basket ♪

As Lena Horne famously said,

"After that record, a whole
generation of us girl singers

went looking for that
damn yellow basket".

[applause]

["Chew, Chew, Chew
(Your Bubble Gum)" by
Ella Fitzgerald plays]

Yeah!

[narrator] Ella was voted
America's number one vocalist.

Just four years after
he first met the teenager,

Chick's fortunes were
also skyrocketing.

And Chick knew
it was because of Ella.

Together, they recorded
a string of novelty numbers.

[Newscaster]
Ella really goes to town

with "Chew Chew
Your Bubble Gum".

♪ Chew, chew, chew, chew
Your bubble gum ♪

♪ Chew, chew, chew, chew
Your bubble gum ♪

♪ Chew, chew, chew, chew
Your bubble gum ♪

♪♪

[newscaster's voice fades]

[narrator] But Chick Webb
is struggling with health
problems.

He was a feisty individual.

He was the meanest...

See, we didn't understand,
he was just always mean,

but because he was
always in pain.

We just didn't know it.

All those years, his playing,
and the back...

It must have been very painful.

Sometimes they had to carry him
off the bandstand,

and we just didn't know that.

We said, "What the fuck's wrong
with him?" you know.

We didn't have sympathy
for Chick

until we saw him in the casket.

[narrator]
In the early summer of 1939,

Chick Webb knows he can't
hang on much longer,

but he's still concerned about
his young singer.

He says to one of his guys,

"Anything happens to me,
take care of Ella".

["I Never Knew Heaven Could
Speak" by Chick Webb plays]

He died a few days later,
aged just 30.

Thousands of mourners
lined the streets

for Webb's funeral
in Baltimore.

Traffic was halted
across the city.

At the church, Chick's body
was viewed by crowds of fans.

Ella sings "My Buddy".

["My Buddy" by
Ella Fitzgerald plays]

[upbeat jazz music]

[Newscaster] From the
home of happy feet,

the famous Savoy Ballroom,

Uptown Harlem
along Lenox Avenue,

it's music by Ella Fitzgerald
And Her Famous Orchestra.

When Chick Webb died, it was
announced as her band.

And I know she wasn't hiring
and firing the musicians,

but she was in charge,
and she was the leader.

She was the star.

♪ I've paid my tuition
For my one ambition ♪

[Cullum]
Probably deep within her

was an immense amount of
ambition and drive,

which came out entirely
in her undeniable singing.

♪ Shall dance with glee ♪

[scatting]

[Cullum] She wasn't
dazzling them

with the dress she was
wearing, or dancing.

You know, she did it with
her voice and her humour
and her humanity.

♪ Oh, boy, I'm in the groove ♪

♪ Oh, boy, I'm in the groove ♪

♪ Oh, boy, I'm in the groove ♪

There was particular pressures
there that any woman performer

and, most particularly,
for black women,

the demands of glamour
of sexuality.

All of those were
coursing through the culture,

and Ella Fitzgerald did not fit
any of those expectations.

["Crazy Rhythm" by
Chick Webb plays]

[narrator] From her late teens,

Ella's weight
made her miserable.

Reporters called her
the 'Plump Chanteuse'.

They laughed when she was
trapped in an elevator

and wrote, "220 pounds
of songstress hauled out
by three men".

[Jefferson]
She was probably ashamed

of some of those earlier
humiliations and cruelties.

She was made fun of for being
not glamorous, for being hefty.

And, coming from a rough life,

could be turned against
a performer by the press,

particularly if you were
a woman.

♪ Crazy rhythm
Here's the doorway ♪

♪ I'll go my way
You go your way ♪

♪ Crazy rhythm
From now on, we're through ♪

♪ Here is where
We have a showdown ♪

♪ I'm too high-hat
You're tow low-down ♪

♪ Crazy rhythm
It's goodbye to you ♪

♪ I know that when a highbrow
Meets a lowbrow ♪

♪ Walking along Broadway ♪

♪ Soon a highbrow
He has no brow ♪

♪ Ain't it a shame?
And you're to blame ♪

She worked so hard when she was
singing that she often sweated.

She's drenched
after, like, two songs,

because it involves
all of who she is.

♪ Crazy, crazy ♪

[Mvula]
There's some real stuff, man.

♪ Crazy ♪

Seeing a woman that looks like
my grandma and my aunty in one,

that's, like, the coolest thing.

♪ Give me that rhy-thm ♪

[Mvula] And then she's this
pioneer as a musician.

♪ Soon a highbrow he has
no brow, ain't it a shame? ♪

She made it seem like
anything is possible.

♪ Got rock, we got roll ♪

♪ We want to try
To satisfy your soul ♪

♪ We'd like to try
To do the kind of song ♪

♪ You know, the kind
That you like to hear ♪

♪ Like old song, new song ♪

[Mvula] When you listen to
Ella's voice and her music,

there are no limits.

She can go to places

that we can't even imagine,

which, to me, is what is part
of the mystery of music making.

[scatting]

♪ Crazy rhythm ♪

There she is, this stocky woman

who looked like
she could be a piano teacher

or a librarian
or a schoolteacher.

That's not what anyone expected

of the girl who was
fronting the Chick Webb Band.

["My Wubba Dolly" by
Ella Fitzgerald plays]

[narrator] Those years
when Ella had her own band,

some of the guys resented her
as the leader.

A few said she was tough,

sometimes downright nasty.

After all, a girl's role was
to sing, shut up and sit down.

["Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" by
The Andrews Sisters plays]

In December 1941, America
entered World War II.

♪ He was a famous trumpet man
From out Chicago way ♪

♪ He had a boogie style
That no one else could play ♪

[narrator] Many musicians
were drafted.

♪ But then his number came up ♪

♪ And he was gone
with the draft ♪

♪ He's in the army now ♪

♪ A-blowin' reveille ♪

♪ He's the boogie woogie bugle
Boy of Company B ♪

[narrator] Within months,
Ella Fitzgerald's

Famous Orchestra disbanded.

Ballads by a soulful
young Sinatra

and Glenn Miller's
sentimental swing

reflected the subdued mood
of a country at war.

[explosions boom]

Ella slipped from
the Hit Parade.

Ebony magazine asked, "What is
Ella Fitzgerald's style today?"

["Flying Home" by
Ella Fitzgerald plays]

[scatting]

She gave her astonishing
answer in 1944,

when she embraced
the bop revolution.

[scatting]

Fitzgerald's fascination
with bebop started
in the early '40s,

but now she was ready
to plunge in.

[scatting]

The heart of the new music is
Minton's Playhouse in Harlem,

where Ella sometimes
bopped with the boys.

[trumpet solo]

[Cullum] She hung out
with Dizzy Gillespie

for two tours,
and two tours later

she was improvising
like a bebop musician.

[scatting]

I can sum Ella up in one word...

Wow.

[scatting]

Ella was doing something that
hadn't been done before,

and not to that level.

She could solo using her voice

to the same level,
with the same ease

that a trumpeter or
a saxophonist could.

[scatting]

[giggles]

And I thought,
"How is this humanly possible?"

[hums]

It's a feat of nature,
it's a freak of nature.

["Sweet Georgia Brown"
by Charlie Parker plays]

[narrator] Bop laid
new territory for jazz.

The heady cocktail
of tearaway tempos
and complex new harmonies

blew away the conventions
of swing music.

[trumpet solo]

[Jefferson] That speaks to
her musical adventurousness

and her performer's awareness

that she had to locate herself
on a new and exciting landscape.

It had to feel powerful,

moving from being a girl singer,

you know, to being the woman
singer as musician.

[scatting]

That had to be fantastic.

[plays tune]

[narrator] In 1989,

40 years after Ella
was hanging out at Minton's,

Kenny Barron would play
on her final album.

It was called 'All That Jazz'.

She had great ears, you know.

'Cause sometimes
it's not just about

knowing harmony and theory,
intellectually,

but it's also about
what you can hear.

And great singers
have great ears.

Even if they're not learned,
they have great ears.

They can hear where you're going
and where the music should go.

The beboppers use a harmonic
vocabulary that was not known

before Charlie Parker
and Dizzy Gillespie.

[scatting]

And things like
"How High The Moon"

were very much informed by
the bebop movement.

[scatting]

♪ Somewhere there's heaven ♪

♪ It's where you are ♪

[narrator] Ella Fitzgerald
married bass player Ray Brown,

one of the key figures
in bebop.

They had fallen in love
on tour with Dizzy Gillespie.

♪ Until you will
How still my heart ♪

♪ How high the moon ♪

[Cullum] She came into
this world with that voice.

She could just sing.

But although her sound
and her abilities

were set in stone
from the beginning,

she developed hugely
as a singer.

♪ How high the moon ♪

♪ Does it touch the stars ♪

[Cullum] She kept up with
the boys, there's no question,

and most of the time
she outplayed them.

She was improvising bebop
like a great bebop musician.

[scatting]

[Friedwald]
Ella had this genius way

of incorporating other
kinds of songs

into the main body
of her scat singing.

It's not just, 'scatty
wah, dot, dot, dot'.

Every note she sings
is harmonically sound,

it fits within a certain
pre-ordinated chord structure.

And when she does these quotes,

they're also from
the same chord structure.

And that's the thing
that's so genius,

that she could be able to pull
that stuff out of the air.

[scatting]

[Mvula]
It's that part of singing

that's just the most
joyous place to sing from.

You know,
skipping through puddles

that could be six feet deep
and never sinking.

It's like a rollercoaster ride.

♪ Though the words
may be wrong to this song ♪

♪ We hope to make high, high
High, high ♪

[Cullum]
It's one thing to sing,

it's another thing to improvise
singing or scatting,

because you're using
a musical language

that is so different
to straight singing.

[scatting]

[narrator] During a memorable
concert in Berlin in 1960,

Ella explodes with
a five minute scat version

of "How High The Moon".

[scatting]

These are the songs
that she quotes:

"Poinciana", "Deep Purple",

"Love In Bloom", "Ornithology",
"I Cover the Waterfront"...

[scatting]

"The Irish Washerwoman",
"Hawaiian War Chant"...

"The Peanut Vendor".

[scatting]

"Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater",

which is another swinging
nursery rhyme.

[scatting]

[narrator] Quoting from
more than 40 songs,

nursery rhymes, symphonies,

folk tunes, jigs, bop solos,
show hits,

a joyous torrent of invention.

"Stormy Weather",

"Yes We Have No Bananas",
although in minor,

usually played in major,

a little bit of
"Flight of the Bumblebee",

another few notes of
"Deep Purple".

"Did You Ever See
A Dream Walking".

"Got To Be This Or That",

which was a novelty song
from about 1946.

A few notes of the
"Rhapsody in Blue". "Idaho".

♪ I guess these people wonder
What I'm singing ♪

After that there's
"A-Tisket A-Tasket".

♪ Dream walking
Well, I did ♪

♪ A-tisket a-tasket
I lost my yellow basket ♪

♪ Guess I'd better quit
While I'm ahead ♪

And then she ends the scat with
"Smoke Gets In Your Eyes".

♪ They ask me how I knew
My true love was true ♪

She sings "as sweat
gets in my eyes",

because by that point
she's really perspiring.

♪ Sweat gets in my eyes ♪

♪ High, high, high,
high, high ♪

♪ Is the moon ♪

[Friedwald] Her mind just went
from one song to another.

What kind of a catalogue do you
have in your head to do that?

I can't even begin
to think about that.

And again, in the '70s,

right here on this stage
at Ronnie Scott's.

♪ No girl made has got a shade
On sweet Georgia Brown ♪

♪ Two left feet ♪

[Cullum] The way she plays

with that ancient song,
"Sweet Georgia Brown",

it swings so hard.

That's the
other thing about her.

Her sense of swing, it makes you
do that swing face.

It's like it almost hurts you
it swings so hard.

♪ No gal, not a gal ♪

♪ Got a shade
on Georgia Brown ♪

♪ Two feet, so neat ♪

♪ Hey, that Georgia Brown ♪

♪ They sigh, and want to cry ♪

♪ For Georgia Brown ♪

♪ Listen, while I tell ya ♪

♪ You know, you know,
you know, you know ♪

♪ You know I don't lie ♪

[Cullum] You can't help
but be reeled in

by that level of joy
and excellence.

It's one of the reasons

it's worth being
on this planet, right?

[chuckles]

["Miss Blandish" by
John Scott plays]

[narrator] From 1947,

Herman Leonard
began documenting jazz,

and especially
the rise of bebop.

He photographed Ella,
and their friendship

produced some of her
most lasting images.

♪♪

Ella adored children.

She had always wanted kids,
but she couldn't have her own.

In 1949, Ray and Ella adopted
her half-sister's infant son.

They called him Ray Junior.

I grew up in this business

seeing people
who had huge careers

and they all had
one thing in common,

they all had very screwed up
private lives

because they all
led that dual existence.

[narrator] Ella and her
husband struggled

to reconcile a non-stop touring
schedule with their marriage.

I saw the collateral damage
from women in the business

who had said,
"I'm going to have a career

and I'll be back in a minute",
to the kids,

and "I'll be back in a couple
of weeks", to the husband.

And after a while, it's like,

"Who's this woman coming
into our house?"

[narrator] By 1953,
Ray and Ella were divorced,

but they never stopped
playing and touring together.

[Cleo Laine] When
I first met her,

I think her marriage
had broken up with Ray

and she never seemed to have
a strong love life in her life.

It gives you strength,

when you've got a bloke
that will support you.

You always need a bloke
to support you.

In 1941, when I started Jazz
at the Philharmonic,

I used many of the musicians
from the Chick Webb Orchestra,

that was then led
by Ella Fitzgerald.

To show you how bad
my taste was,

I used everyone in
the orchestra but the singer.

And so now I'd like
to correct that

and introduce the best
singer there is in jazz today,

the great Ella Fitzgerald.

-[band plays]
-[audience applauds]

Thank you.

Thank you.

♪ Love ♪

♪ For sale ♪

♪ Advertising young love ♪

♪ For sale ♪

[narrator] Ella's life
and her music

took another new direction
in the 1950s.

It brought her international
acclaim and enduring fame.

Her new manager,
Norman Granz,

was determined to take her out
of the little jazz clubs

and on to the world's great
concert stages.

♪ A foggy day ♪

♪ In London town ♪

Had me low, had me down ♪

♪ I viewed the morning ♪

[narrator] Granz matched
Ella's voice

with the music of
the Great American Songbook.

♪ The weather is frightening ♪

♪ The thunder and lightning
Seem to be having their way ♪

♪ But as far as I'm concerned ♪

♪ It's a lovely day ♪

[narrator] The records are
the heart of Granz'
new Verve label,

that he'd created for Ella.

♪ A fine romance ♪

♪ With no kisses ♪

[narrator] An affluent post-war
America can afford the new LPs

and the hi-fis to play them on.

[Field]
Norman Granz had this idea

to have her do
these Songbook albums,

which were sophisticated
records with orchestras.

It wasn't "A-Tisket A-Tasket"
or "When I Get Low I Get High".

It wasn't novelty tunes,

it was her as a more mature
woman, as a more mature artist,

and now reinventing herself.

So, Norman Granz
is responsible for that.

♪ Every time ♪

♪ We say goodbye ♪

♪ I die a little ♪

[Ella] First I thought, I said,

"My gosh, what is Norman doing?

He's taking me away
from my jazz

and who wants to listen to me
singing this?"

♪ Heaven, I'm in heaven ♪

♪ And my heart beats
So that I can hardly speak ♪

But it was funny, I just
gained oh so many fans
all over the world,

so it was like a new beginning.

♪ Let's do it ♪

♪ Let's fall in love ♪

[George Wein] Norman Granz
took Ella out of the jazz clubs

and put her in the world of
the American Songbook.

And he took her out of
"A-Tisket A-Tasket" world

into another world.

♪ There is nothing for me ♪

♪ But to love you ♪

I liked Ella when she sang
ballads, I must say, very much.

I found them very
touching, very moving,

and I thought she knew
what she was talking about.

♪ Just the way you look ♪

♪ Tonight ♪

[Friedwald] Norman seized
that moment,

using not only
the definitive songwriters,

but Ella Fitzgerald,
who he realised

was the definitive interpreter

of that music, and helped
to establish her as that

with these great
Songbook packages.

♪ It's very fancy ♪

♪ On old Delancey Street
You know ♪

People did not take these songs
seriously before Ella,

they just thought that
they were ephemeral.

♪ When Broadway breezes blow ♪

♪ To and fro ♪

[Friedwald] But for Norman
and Ella, to come along
and preserve these songs

and say, "This is what
Americans should be proud of

and this is the way
to present them",

was really a radical move.

♪ Gliding by ♪

To think that this girl that
sang "A-Tisket A-Tasket",

20 years after that, was making
the definitive Songbook

of George Gershwin, of Richard
Rodgers, of Jerome Kern,

and the one who would be taking
jazz and the American Songbook

to Berlin, to Helsinki,
to Tokyo.

You know, to think that she
would go from that beginning

to be the one who defined
the Songbook,

to me, is just miraculous.

♪ We'll go to Coney
And eat baloney ♪

[narrator] Ella's Songbooks
confirmed her as a superstar.

♪ In Central Park
we'll stroll ♪

♪ Where our first kiss
we stole ♪

[narrator] But the reluctance
of music promoters

and TV and radio producers
to book black artists

remained a frustration
for both Granz and Fitzgerald.

♪ We both may see it close ♪

♪ Someday ♪

♪ The city's clamour
Can never spoil ♪

♪ The dreams of
a boy and goil ♪

I got that line right.

♪ We'll turn Manhattan ♪

♪ Into an isle of joy ♪

-[song ends]
-[applause and cheers]

[narrator] Fancy nightclubs
were also unwilling

to offend white customers
by booking black stars.

[Friedwald] Norman Granz was
trying to get her booked

in these high class,

very, very white upper-crusty
Hollywood establishments.

And at that point
they were very hesitant

to hire African Americans.

♪ You're just too marvellous ♪

♪ Too marvellous for words ♪

[Austin] Marilyn Monroe
loved Ella Fitzgerald,

and said, "Whatever you need,
however I can help you,

I am going to do that".

And she went to
the owner at a club,

she said, "If you don't open
these doors to everybody,

I'll make sure nobody
shows up".

And she came
to the club every night,

and half the reason
people showed up

was because Marilyn Monroe is
sitting in the front row going,

[whistles, then laughs]

"Yo, Ella!"

♪ And so I'm borrowing ♪

♪ A love song from the birds ♪

♪ To tell you that
You're marvellous ♪

♪ Too marvelous for words ♪

[narrator] But in the South,

Fitzgerald and Granz faced
the harsh realities of racism.

One night, there were
three Houston detectives

who said they wanted
to be backstage,

and ended up busting
into Ella's dressing room.

[Ella] Somebody was shooting
dice and I got arrested.

And they took me
to the jail.

And they took all of us
to the jail, right.

[Hershon] The detective
pulled a gun on Norman

and said, "I ought
to shoot you".

Norman said,
"I'll cancel this show,

and that's 2,000 people".

"That's your problem,
you deal with that".

But he'd been pushing it
from the very beginning

when he came in
the afternoon of the concert

and personally took down the
'white' and 'coloured' signs

from the doors.

[Ella] It was so funny,
they wouldn't want us

to go in a restaurant
or have something to eat.

And yet, the moment
I walked in to jail,

they were all asking
for my autograph.

[Hershon] By the time
they got down to the station,

the press was there.

He just knew that yes,
this really was a set-up,

and ended up suing
the police department
to get the bail back.

If you messed with Norman Granz,
you swallowed the hook whole.

[crowd applauds]

[narrator] Ella Fitzgerald
joined Norman Granz

and his musicians
on long international tours

under the banner
Jazz at the Philharmonic.

And now Miss Fitzgerald,
Roy Eldridge, Oscar Peterson,

the rest of the show combined
to give you a jazz classic

called "It Don't Mean A Thing
If It Ain't Got That Swing".

[music begins]

[narrator] JATP was
celebrated for its
uproarious jam sessions,

sometimes dismissed by purists
as a circus.

♪ It don't mean a thing ♪

♪ If you ain't got that swing ♪

[scatting]

♪ It don't mean a thing ♪

[narrator] Ella was
an essential presence,

bringing her Songbook ballads

-and up-tempo scat to the mix.
-[crowd chatter]

♪ It makes no difference
if it's sweet or hot ♪

[Ella] We travel, almost...

Every day we're playing
a different country or city.

Sometimes we play
two cities a day.

[scatting]

[narrator] Norman Granz
was always obsessed

with his jazz concerts

as a way
of fighting prejudice.

He called JATP "a race blind
democracy of talent".

[scatting]

As a character, Norman Granz
was a righteous man.

He really saw evils of
segregation and was determined

to campaign against segregation
within jazz music.

[scatting]

[Friedwald] When Granz
emerges and says,

"I believe in equality,

I believe that black musicians
and white musicians

should be
equally presented.

They should be able to stay in
the same hotels,

they should be able to share
the same bandstand".

It's not only radical
in the period,

but it certainly earned
some of the respect

of a lot of musicians,
both black and white.

Norman Granz produced
the very first tour
I did to Europe,

I was with Dizzy at the time.

But one of the things that
Norman did there was,

mid-way through the tour he
gave all sidemen a $100 bill,

which was a lot of money then.

And he said, "Look, this is just

for being on time
and doing your job".

Which I thought was great.

[narrator] The relationship
between Norman Granz

and Ella Fitzgerald
wasn't always easy.

He was dictating
many of her music choices,

but his urge to control
could be stifling.

[Field] Norman,
whenever he was around
either Basie or Ella,

he would tell them, "You're
gonna open with this,

you're gonna do this,
you're gonna play this".

He was almost like Svengali.

[Wein] Norman could be nasty

and control was his
total direction in life,

to control his world.

[Field] Frank Sinatra was
talking to Ella ,

and Norman Granz comes up
and starts telling Frank

what he thinks Frank
should open with,

and Frank had him thrown out
of the theatre.

Norman was a proud guy,
and at that point he said,

"OK, Ella Fitzgerald doesn't
work with Frank Sinatra
anymore".

[narrator] But always,
Ella remained Ella.

[Hershon] Norman Granz
was a voluminous collector
of Picasso.

He also knew Picasso,
hung with Picasso.

And he asked Ella if she would
like to go and meet Picasso

and she said, "No, I'm darning
socks this afternoon".

♪ All you've gotta do
is swing ♪

[Brown Jr.] He did his job.

He had a goal in mind.

He was focused on that goal,

and they reached
that goal together.

So, it was a good marriage
in that way.

[Newscaster] One of the
all-time greats of
popular music

is a wonderful lady
by the name of Ella Fitzgerald.

In between her tours,
Ella Fitzgerald and her son

live in this house
on a quiet street

in Los Angeles, California.

-Hello, Ella.
-Hi, Charles.

[narrator] It was the 1950s.

Beverly Hills was not happy

about African Americans
moving in.

Ella was a global star,

but Norman Granz had to buy
her house in his name.

[Newscaster] I know how busy
you are,

I'm glad we caught you
between tours.

Thank you. Yes, you're right
when you say between tours.

We just finished
a 6-weeks tour in Europe

and we're about ready to go to
South America for 6 weeks.

[Newscaster] With your
schedule, it sounds to me

as though you don't get
to spend much time

at home here in California.

I wish I could.
Unfortunately I don't, Charles.

But I would love to,
especially because of my son.

Here's my son, Raymond Brown Jr.

[Newscaster] Ray, are you
planning a career in music

like your mother
or haven't you decided yet?

Well, I like piano, but I think
I'd rather be a baseball player.

[Brown Jr.] Musicians that
my mother worked with

would let me play their horns
or play drums.

Yeah, there are some really,
really nice moments.

Roy Eldridge used to
let me play his trumpet.

We went to Basie's house,

and he had this huge table
with a train set on it,

and it was just spectacular.

[mimics train engine chugging]

Occasionally, my mum
would call me out on stage

and we'd dance together
on stage.

I loved my mum.

We had the usual turmoils
that go on in family life.

I can remember
having those moments

when I was very upset
with my mother, and
I ran up to my room.

And I had my little turntable,

and I would put on
The Who's "My Generation".

I'd just crank it
as loud as I could

'cause that's
how I felt about it.

[grunts] Yeah.

There was a couple
that she had hired,

Chester and Juanita Matlock,

and it was Chester's job

to keep me
on the straight and narrow.

At some point,
they told my mother

that I needed a little
more discipline in my life.

And so they recommended
a Catholic military school.

The joy of getting up every
morning and going to Mass,

I got to fight every day
with my fellow classmates.

Marching, fight time.

I tried out for the orchestra,

and they said,
"What do you wanna play?"

I said,
"I wanna play trumpet".

So the band master looked at me
and he said,

"Well, you can't play trumpet,
your lips are too big".

So they gave me a trombone.

Because you have such
long periods of being apart,

and who knows how long
it'll be before you see
each other again,

there are times that's lonely
and I think music really helps.

It's something that helps
settle the heart.

♪ I could cry salty tears ♪

♪ Where have I been ♪

♪ All these years? ♪

♪ Little wow ♪

♪ Tell me now ♪

♪ How long has this
Been going on? ♪

["A House Is Not A Home"
by Ella Fitzgerald plays]

[Ella] Now my son is at the age
where I would really like

to spend a little
more time at home.

And I am a woman,
and you do get lonesome.

And I don't care how much
singing you do,

and I don't care how much
audience you have,

there are times when you go
home, it's kinda lonesome

without that one person
that you could tell
those troubles to.

Someone that you just feel you
can say something to them,

the little intimate
things that you

wouldn't think of saying
to anyone else.

I've got this big house,

but a house isn't a house
without a man.

♪ A chair is still a chair ♪

♪ Even when there's no one ♪

♪ Sitting there ♪

[Ella] I love my work.

I guess that's one reason why
I haven't gotten married again,

because I don't think
I would ever want

to really just stop
singing altogether.

It would have to be
someone that realised
I love what I'm doing.

♪ And no one there
you can kiss ♪

♪ Goodnight ♪

I would have to maybe cut the
jobs down and be a housewife,

because I think it can be done.

And if you don't have
that experience,

life just doesn't
mean anything.

A woman's got to have
that kind of experience.

I miss it now more and more,
and as I see my son grow up,

I realise that I want
to spend more time at home.

♪ And a house is not a home ♪

♪ When the two of us
Are far apart ♪

♪ And one of us ♪

♪ Has a broken heart ♪

I just love to sing,

I don't know, I just feel that
if I couldn't sing,

I don't know what I would do.

♪ And suddenly
your face appears ♪

As soon as I have had
that first week off,

I'm ready to hit the road
again. It's like well, gee,

that's part of my family.

I've got to get out to see
how my family's doing.

♪ It's so nice to have a man ♪

♪ Moon round the house ♪

♪ It's so nice ♪

♪ To have a man
Around the house ♪

♪ I'm not meant to live alone ♪

♪ Turn this house into a home ♪

♪ When I climb the stairs ♪

♪ And turn the key ♪

♪ Oh, please be there ♪

♪ Still in love with ♪

♪ Me ♪

♪ A house is not a home ♪

♪ A home is not a house ♪

♪ A house is not a home
And a home is not a house ♪

♪ Without a man ♪

♪ Without a man ♪

[crowd applauds]

[Ella] Thank you.

We'd like to do something
for you now.

We haven't heard a girl
sing it, and since
it's so popular,

we'd like to try it and do it
for you.

We hope we remember
all the words.

[Wein] Well, Ella was
a road rat.

You know, if she wasn't working
what was she was doing?

She was sitting home alone.

I don't think Ella
could ever stay home,

and do the cooking for a man.

I think she would prefer
to sing for a man.

[Wein] She was always in
a rush to go somewhere.

That's when she was happiest:

in front of people screaming
out, "We love you Ella".

I think that
meant everything to her.

♪ Oh, the shark has ♪

♪ Pearly teeth, dear ♪

♪ And he shows them
Pearly white ♪

[narrator] For decades,
from the late 1950s,

Ella embarked on an endless
series of concert tours,

performing in dozens of
countries around the world,

from Germany to Brazil
and Japan.

♪ Oh, the shark bites ♪

♪ With its teeth, dear ♪

[Friedwald] One concert was
in Berlin in 1960,

and it was a year
before the Wall went up,

and this was as far at the
boundaries of the Soviet Union

as a major American artist
had come.

♪ So there's not
Not a trace of red ♪

[narrator] Norman Granz
suggested

Ella should try a recent Bobby
Darin hit, "Mack the Knife".

♪ Round the corner
Tell me, could it be ♪

[Hershon] She said
she was going to do it,

but she wasn't sure she
remembered all the lyrics.

♪ Oh, what's the next chorus ♪

♪ To this song now? ♪

♪ This is the one now
I don't know ♪

♪ But it was
the swinging tune ♪

♪ And it's a hit tune ♪

♪ So we tried to do
"Mack The Knife" ♪

♪ Ah, Louis Miller ♪

♪ Oh, somethin' 'bout cash ♪

♪ Yeah, Miller ♪

♪ He was spendin' that trash ♪

[Friedwald] The way
she covers up

forgetting the words
was just so brilliant

and so inventive and innovative
that it didn't matter.

♪ Yes, we sung it ♪

[Friedwald] It worked
brilliantly.

♪ You won't recognise it ♪

♪ It's a surprise tune ♪

♪ We told you look out
Look out, look out ♪

♪ Old Macheath's back in town ♪

[crowd shrieks]

[Newscaster] There's a
super-charged atmosphere,

lots of racial antagonism
flared into violence.

Firemen turned their hoses
on the angry crowd.

Police dogs were brought in
to disperse shouting Negros.

[narrator] The civil rights
struggles of the early 1960s

became the background to Ella
Fitzgerald's overseas tours.

[Ella] Travelling,
you'll be surprised at things

that people
in other countries say

when they read the papers
about it,

"My gosh, what is
this going on?"

And you feel embarrassed,
really you do,

because you say, "Well, gee,
what can you say?"

What can you say?
There's nothing,
and it's really pitiful.

[narrator] During a radio
interview in 1963

with Fred Robbins,

a prominent radio show host
and trusted friend,

Ella surprisingly spoke out
about prejudice in America.

[police siren blares]

[Ella] Maybe I'm stepping out,

but I have to say because
it's in my heart,

but it makes you feel
so bad to think

that we can't go down to
certain parts of the South

and give a concert
like we do overseas,

and have everybody just
come to hear the music
and enjoy the music,

because of the prejudice thing
that's going on.

[sombre music]

I used to always like
to clam up,
because you say,

"Well, gee, show people
should stay out of politics".

But we have travelled so much
and been embarrassed so much.

They can't understand why
we don't play in Alabama,
"You don't play there.

Why can't you have a concert?
Music is music".

She never made
a political statement

except the one that I heard her
say was only three words,

and it was the most
complete definition

of the ignorance
of the world

in the way they
treat African Americans.

She said,
"Tony, we're all here".

In three words,
she said the whole thing.

[sombre piano music]

[Ella] The diehards,
they're going to just die hard,

they're not going to give in.

And then you've got to try to
convince the younger ones,

they're the ones that
have got to make the future.

And those are the ones
we gotta worry about,
not those diehards.

[sombre piano music]

I really ran my mouth.

-[Robbins] Really?
-Where does this go?

[Robbins]
This goes all over the world.

-[Ella] It does?
-[Robbins] Yes, it does.

-[Ella] Is it going down...
-It's going down South, too.

[Ella] You think they're gonna
break my records up
when they hear it?

-[Ella laughs]
-[Robbins] No, they won't.

[Ella] This is unusual for me,

but I'm so happy
that you had me,

because instead of singing,
for a change,

I got the chance to get
a few things off my chest.

I'm just a human being.

[narrator] The interview
was never broadcast.

[Robinson] Back in the day
when Ella was coming up,

it had to be horrible.

I've been through horror.

I've been through
the Civil Rights Movement,

I was there for that, the
sit-ins and the marching,
and the this and the that.

Going and sitting at the
counter in the restaurants,

where, first of all, they
didn't want you
to come in there.

You sit there for an hour,
an hour and a half

before somebody would come and
say, "We wish you would leave".

We were travelling
in the South many times.

We couldn't stay at any
of the major hotels.

Gosh, and this is
in the '60s and the '70s.

We couldn't stay
in the major hotels.

We had to go to the black side
of town and stay in...

They had rooming
houses over there.

But artists like Ella
fought that fight

to break down those doors
and break down those barriers

for people like me.

Race was obviously
something that we lived with,

continue to live with.

♪ That's why the lady
is a tramp ♪

♪ Doesn't dig dice games
With barons and earls ♪

♪ I won't go to Harlem
In ermine and pearls ♪

♪ She won't dish the dirt
With the rest of those girls ♪

♪ That's why the lady
is a tramp ♪

♪ I love the free, fresh wind
In my hair ♪

♪ Life without care ♪

♪ I'm broke ♪

♪ That's OK ♪

♪ Sweet, lovely lady, be good ♪

♪ Oh, lady, be good to me ♪

♪ 'Cause I'm
So awfully misunderstood ♪

♪ Oh, lady, oh lady,
Oh, lady, be good to me ♪

[narrator] Ella was the
First Lady of Song.

Loved, admired, respected
by audiences and musicians.

♪ Oh, lady, oh lady,
Oh, lady, be good to me ♪

[scatting]

♪ I'm so lonesome today ♪

♪ And so, lady, oh, lady, lady
Won't you be so good to me? ♪

♪ Please, please ♪

♪ Oh, yeah ♪

[audience applauds]

[Jefferson] Ella had her own
sorrows, her own troubles,

and she had found her own way
to master suffering,

unhappiness, grief, shame
and make it something else.

And one of those things
is joy.

[audience cheering]

[narrator] She had been
singing for 60 years.

"The kids call me 'Mama Jazz'"
she said, "that's so cute".

The thing about Ella is, like,
perfection, great artistry.

Thank you.

There's only one
thing that you cannot teach,

and that's that certain magic.

You cannot teach magic.
You can't.

And then when Ella turns
a phrase, that's magic.

♪ He'll look at me and smile ♪

♪ And I will understand ♪

♪ And in a little while
You'll take my hand ♪

[narrator] Ella's punishing
tour schedule

kept her on the road
in to her seventh decade.

[Jim Blackman] Paul Smith,
the pianist, one time
he told me

she had worked something like
48 weeks out of 52.

He said he and Stan Levy,
who at the time was the drummer,

after that last concert
they took their tuxedos,

ripped them up and threw them
in the garbage can.

And they had had it.

♪ He'll build a little home ♪

♪ Just meant for two ♪

[narrator] One more tour
in the mid-'80s

seemed to be the end
of the road for Ella.

[Field] We were on the road
with Ella,

we had been out for
12 days, four concerts.

And I'm checking out of
the Hilton in Niagara Falls

and the elevator doors open up,
and Ella is standing there,

grasping her chest,

holding on to
her road manager, Pete,

saying, "I can't
catch my breath".

She was having
congestive heart failure.

["The Man I Love" by
Ella Fitzgerald]

We're coming up
to Ella's house right now.

[narrator] Jim Blackman

fell in love with Ella
Fitzgerald's music

when he was 15.

For half a century,
he was her most loyal fan.

He became her trusted friend
and her final road manager.

[Blackman] She knew
I was honest with her.

She knew that
she could trust me.

After her operation in '86,

when they thought she wouldn't
be able to sing again,

Ella wanted to rehearse.

She was raring to go
three months later.

♪ The way you wear your hat ♪

♪ The way you sip your tea ♪

[Bennett] I met her
at the airport,

and this was a time when
her doctor was saying,

"Ella, don't travel".

♪ They can't take that
Away from me ♪

[Bennett] I said,
"Where are you going?"

She said, "I can't wait,

I'm going to do a date".

She loved the audience,
she loved to perform that much

that thousands of miles away
from where she was going,

she couldn't wait
to get on that stage

to get that audience and give
them the time of their life.

♪ They can't take that away ♪

♪ Away ♪

♪ Can't take that
away from me ♪

-[music ends]
-[audience applauds]

Thank you.

[Blackman]
When she'd do a concert

people would be screaming
at the end

and then she'd come off and say
"Do you think they liked me?"

[audience applauds]

I mean, the woman was a genius
who had no idea,

no idea of her own genius.
None.

[audience screams and applauds]

[Brown Jr.]
People truly loved her.

I was in Ukraine doing
a concert.

It was cold, I mean it was cold.

We ran out of the venue
and we got on the bus.

The windows were
all frosted over.

[taps on table]

And this man,
standing outside the bus,

says, "I loved your mother,
she was so wonderful".

He had these flowers and
he wanted to give them to me.

[sighs]

[audience cheers and applauds]

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you.

And I'm so proud to be in class

with all of these younger ones
coming up.

They ain't going to leave me
behind, I'm learning how to rap.

[audience laughs]

Every now and then I said, "I'm
thinking about coming back".

She says, "I'll believe it
when I see it". You know.

So, I didn't come back
until I found out

that she was seriously ill.

[indistinct chatter]

[sombre piano music]

Of course, the dynamics in our
lives had changed tremendously.

But to see grace like
you'd never seen before,

in someone who knows
they have a limited lifespan...

-Did you say "thank you"?
-Thank you.

...to see the way that they
deal with people every day,

You want one, too?

and to see such kindness...

it was amazing.

Aww, you gave it to me.

Turn around,
Daddy is taking your picture.

[man] We've got to get
a picture. Alright, yeah.

[Ella] Okay, now let me
get in here.

[man] You've got to
get in there, too.

[woman]
Curtis, open your eyes!

You'd see a little baby,
'cause she loved kids,

and then she'd just go,
"How you doing, my little..."

and she'd just
start singing to the baby.

♪ Your daddy's rich ♪

♪ And your ma is good lookin' ♪

♪ So hush, little baby ♪

♪ Baby, don't ♪

♪ You cry ♪

[Brown Jr.] I remember
the funeral.

And I'd got all changed,

and I had to go
to the grocery store.

I'm in the grocery store.

and what comes on?

Her music.

♪ I could cry ♪

♪ Salty tears ♪

♪ Where have I been ♪

♪ All these years? ♪

♪ Little wow, tell me now ♪

♪ How long has this been
Occurrin'? ♪

♪ How long has this ♪

♪ Been going ♪

♪ On? ♪

-[music ends]
-[audience applauds]

[applause fades]

[Alexis Morrast]
Everything comes back around.

The way that Ella
was reserved,

and the way she was
poised and passionate,

you could never tell
what her feelings were

until she got to the music.

And then it was always
happiness and joy,

and everything else that
you could have ever hoped for.

♪ A-tisket a-tasket ♪

♪ A brown and yellow basket ♪

♪ I sent a letter to my mummy ♪

♪ And on the way I dropped it ♪

♪ I dropped it, I dropped it ♪

♪ My little yellow basket ♪

♪ A little girly
She picked it up ♪

♪ And put it in her pocket ♪

♪ Oh, gee, I wonder where
my basket could be ♪

♪ So do we, so do we
So do we, so do we, so do we ♪

♪ Oh, why was I so careless
With that basket of mine? ♪

♪ That itty-bitty basket ♪

♪ Was a joy of mine ♪

♪ A-tisket a-tasket ♪

♪ I lost my yellow basket ♪

♪ Oh, can somebody
Help me find it ♪

♪ And make me happy
again, again ♪

♪ Was it red? No, no, no, no ♪

♪ Was it blue? No, no, no, no ♪

♪ Was it green?
No, no, no, no ♪

♪ My little yellow basket ♪