Profile America — Saturday, November 21st. Just about every jazz critic’s short list of top singers includes Ella Fitzgerald. It was 75 years ago this evening that her career got its start. Appearing at one of the Apollo Theater’s famous amateur nights. She fumbled her first song, but starting over, impressed the audience and won first prize. This led to her first professional gigs and one of the most astonishing careers in jazz history was on its way. Her recording career lasted 53 years, and she won 13 Grammys and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Jazz accounts for about 3 percent of recordings sold each year — among them some of the hundreds of songs Ella Fitzgerald recorded, which are still in print.
