If Ella Fitzgeral sounds more like an excellent interpreter of popular songs and less like a jazz singer, it’s a tribute to her ability to disguise the artifice that lies behind the art.
While jazz vocalists such as Sarah Vaughan and Betty Carter made you aware of their technique, of the wheels in motion required to bring complex melodic and rhythmic effects into being, Fitzgerald revealed only a perfect voice and – despite all the heartache, real and imaginary – an essentially sunny disposition. Billie Hiliday (two years her senior) seemed to sing for herself, the address to the notional listener tuned increasingly inwards, but Fitzgerald appeared to sing especially for you. Her purity of tone, immaculate timing and unique sensitivity to the meaning of a lyric combined to produce the most marvelous of understatements.
Though it was the incomparable string of ‘songbook’ albums from 1955 to 1964 on which her fame deservedly rests, almost everything she recorded is worth hearing.
1. What does the writer say about Ella Fitzgerald's talents as a jazz singer?
A. Her technique was superior to other female jazz vocalists.
B. She was more suited to singing popular songs than jazz.
C. She was able to hide the skill of her technique while singing.
D. Her temperament was ideally suited to jazz.
2. The writer compares Ella Fitzgerald to Billie Holiday with regard to
A. their experience of life.
B. their attitude when singing.
C. their vocal quality.
D. their interpretation of songs.
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