Piece description from the artist
Ella Jane Fitzgerald was an American jazz singer often referred to as the First Lady of Song, Queen of Jazz and Lady Ella. Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996) was an African-American jazz singer sometimes referred to as the First Lady of Song, Queen of Jazz, and Lady Ella. She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.
After a tumultuous adolescence, Fitzgerald found stability in musical success with the Chick Webb Orchestra, performing across the country but most often associated with the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. Her rendition of the nursery rhyme "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" helped boost both her and Webb to national fame. After taking over the band when Webb died, Fitzgerald left it behind in 1942 to start her solo career.
Her manager was Moe Gale, co-founder of the Savoy,1 until she turned the rest of her career over to Norman Granz, who founded Verve Records to produce new records by Fitzgerald. With Verve she recorded some of her more widely noted works, particularly her interpretations of the Great American Songbook.
While Fitzgerald appeared in movies and as a guest on popular television shows in the second half of the twentieth century, her musical collaborations with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and The Ink Spots were some of her most notable acts outside of her solo career. These partnerships produced some of her best-known songs such as "Dream a Little Dream of Me", "Cheek to Cheek", "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall", and "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)".
In 1993, she ended her nearly 60-year career with her last public performance. Three years later, she died at the age of 79 after years of declining health. Her accolades included fourteen Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Everett Spruill b. 1954 Birmingham, AL. – American painter, photographer, and printmaker. Spruill graduated from Berea College, (class of 76) where he earned a degree in Business Management. Born in a creative household where classical music and piano lessons were the norm, Everett was drawing and painting at a very early age. Spending lots of afternoons in the Birmingham Museum of art drawing the African artifacts fueled his fascination with all things African and helped to shape the direction of all his future creations. It was during this time that he painted loose watercolors of landscapes and portraits in the tradition of the French Impressionist, but didn't seriously entertain the idea of a career in the arts. While managing a Hotel in Miami, and with frequent visits to the Miami Museum, a Picasso exhibition changed his mind as he was inspired by the simplicity and the grandeur of the work and the geometric patterns that formed the images, not to mention the African influence in Picasso's work. After relocating to Orlando, Spruill took up painting seriously in 1988. Known as The Old School Jazz and Blues series Everett created collages out of magazine cut-outs in the spirit of Romare Bearden. From that time on Spruill consistently created works using an increasingly complex variation of recycled and repurposed materials focusing on Jazz as a central theme. His first radical shift came in 1995, when he combined the principals of serigraphy and graffiti techniques, using spray paint with hand-cut stencils. From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, Spruill created a large body of work that responded in a general way to his love of stained glass. During this time, the increasing mixture of recycled materials gave way to full three-dimensionality, with sculptural forms derived from discarded electronic parts and wire. Postage Stamps, seashells, and fabric are used to create decorative architectural elements.
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