All That Jazz

Icon: Ella Fitzgerald

By Will Friedwald, eMusic Contributor

"Man, woman, or child, Ella is the most!" Bing Crosby's much-quoted praise of Ella Fitzgerald is suspiciously similar to Duke Ellington's equally famous observation that Fitzgerald was "beyond category." They were both right: Fitzgerald was much greater than any other jazz singer or any other female singer; over the course of a career that lasted 60 years, she consistently transcended genre, gender and just about everything else. How amazing is it that Fitzgerald was unquestionably… more »