It's the birthday of Ella Fitzgerald - "The First Lady of Song," "The Queen of Jazz," "Lady Ella."

Click Ella to hear her first hit, "A-Tisket, A-Tasket." She co-wrote the lyrics. (The Chick Webb Band, 1938)

Born April 25, 1917, Ella Fitzgerald was noted for her pure tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, and intonation, and a fluent improvisational ability, particularly in her inventive scat singing. 

A special treat: Count Basie dueting with the walking  bass of Keter Betts on Fats Waller's "Honeysuckle Rose." And Ella soars! But dig the musical intimacy between the Count and The First Lady!

This "clickble" Ella opens to her singing-swinging-scattin' her 1936 hit "(If You Can't Sing It) You'll Have to Swing It (Mr. Paganini)."

Ella was noted for her interpretation of The Great American Songbook, i.e., "standards." Here she makes "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" her own. And her swingin' tribute to Louis Armstrong is right-on!

Ella recorded three albums with Louis Armstrong. This "clickable" image connects to their collaboration on "Cheek to Cheek."

Ella recorded four albums with Duke Ellington. His "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" could have been written just for her. Duke and Ella! A mutual groove! 

Her rendition of "Mack the Knife" was a Grammy-winner. Viewing this live performance from Stockholm, Sweden, what hits me is the power of her delivery. Ella had a strong heart! We also get treated again to an Ella-as-Louis impersonation.

Bonus: The link connects to another live performance with Count Basie. The First Lady sings "Lady Be Good."  https://youtu.be/AfMja4l58-k

It's "Lady Day's" day. Billie Holiday - born April 7, 1915.

Clicking this image of Billie admiring the sweet sound of Lester "Prez" Young's sax connects to the classic performance of "Fine and Mellow" from the 1957 TV special, The Sound of Jazz. The line-up included several jazz legends (the first six are listed in the order of their solos): Billie Holiday singing with Ben Webster - tenor saxophone, Lester Young - tenor saxophone, Vic Dickenson - trombone, Gerry Mulligan - baritone saxophone, Coleman Hawkins - tenor saxophone, Roy Eldridge - trumpet, Doc Cheatham - trumpet, Danny Barker - guitar, Milt Hinton - double bass, Mal Waldron - piano, and Osie Johnson - drums. Music and lyrics by Billie Holiday.

This 'clickable' Billie image connects to "I Can’t Get Started" with her musical love, Lester "Prez" Young on tenor, and Austinite Teddy Wilson, piano. In my opinion this is one of the best groupings in all of jazz! (Lyrics by Ira Gershwin, music: Vernon Duke.)

Her voice had a fragile, worldly quality with each note tinged with blues shadings. It was so compelling it influenced the jazz and pop singers who came after her. Frank Sinatra said of her,

"With few exceptions, every major pop singer in the US during her generation has been touched in some way by her genius. It is Billie Holiday who was, and still remains, the greatest single musical influence on me. Lady Day is unquestionably the most important influence on American popular singing in the last twenty years."

"Any Old Time" - This is my all-time favorite Billie Holiday song. (It is not easy picking just one song from her repertoire - and this isn't even one with Lester Young or Count Basie!) But it is with Artie Shaw's band.

When Shaw hired her immediately after she left the Basie band, it was highly unusual at the time because it was an all-white orchestra. This was the first time a black female singer toured the segregated South with a white composer. Shaw defended her as they toured, but it was too much for her. When she was made to use the service elevator at one of their hotels because of guest complaints, she left the group for good.

Click Billie with "Mister" to hear "All of Me." (The Teddy Wilson band with Teddy on piano.)

This Billie "clickable" opens to her recording of "Easy Living."

Clicking this pic connects to Billie singing her biggest hit,"God Bless the Child" (1941, written by Billie and her then pianist Arthur Herzog). It became her most covered number, selling over a million records.  In 1976, the song was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame. Billie got the title for the song when she was having an argument with her mother over money. Before she left the scene, she shouted angrily, "God bless the child that's got his own."

Click Billie's image to hear her sing the protest song, "Strange Fruit."

"Strange Fruit" is a song-poem" by teacher Abel Meeropolis and his singer-wife Laura Duncan. Published in 1937,  they performed it as an anti-lynching protest song in New York City venues in the late 1930s, including Madison Square Garden. Billie Holiday first sang and recorded it in 1939.

Lynchings reached a peak in the South at the turn of the century, but continued there and in other regions of the United States. According to the Tuskegee Institute, 1,953 Americans were lynched, about three quarters of them black. The lyrics are a metaphor linking a tree’s fruit with lynching victims.

Barney Josephson, founder of Café Society in Greenwich Village, New York's first integrated nightclub, heard the song and introduced it to Billie. She said that singing it made her fearful of retaliation but, because its imagery reminded of her of her father, who was denied medical treatment for a fatal lung disorder because of racial prejudice, she continued to sing the piece, making it a regular part of her live performances.

Because of the power of the song, Josephson drew up some rules:

• Holiday would close with it,
• the waiters would stop all service in advance,
• the room would be in darkness except for a spotlight on Billie's face,
• there would be no encore.

During the musical introduction, Billie stood with her eyes shut, as if in prayer.

On July 17, 1959, she died in Metropolitan Hospital, New York, of pulmonary edema and heart failure caused by cirrhosis of the liver. As she lay dying, The Federal Bureau of Narcotics, who had been targeting her since at least 1939, arrested for drug possession and handcuffed her to her bed. Her hospital room was raided and she was placed under police guard.

In 1978, Holiday's version of "Strange Fruit" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

It's Merle Haggard's birthday (April 6, 1937). He died on his birthday 2016 and I miss him!

Click Merle to see him perform his "Sing Me Back Home." The song was based on his three-year stint in San Quentin and his relationships with Caryl Chessman, the "first modern American executed for a non-lethal kidnapping," and James "Rabbit" Kendrick, who was executed in 1961 for killing a California Highway Patrolman after escaping from prison, having failed to persuade Merle to escape with him.

As a kid, he was a rail-ridin', hitchhikin', thieving vagabond. He wound up in San Quentin at 21 years of age. Seeing Johnny Cash perform there inspired him to get serious about music. Twelve years after he was released in 1972, and after launching a successful performing career, Governor Ronald Reagan gave him an unconditional pardon.  Later, as a top-selling recording artist, it was Johnny Cash who would persuade Merle to go public about his criminal past.

This 'clickable' connects to "Mama Tried."

Clickin ol' Merle opens to one of his signature songs, "Working Man Blues." It's a tribute to a core group of his fans: the American blue-collared working man. The strong electric guitar beat typifies the Bakersfield Sound.

Along with Buck Owens, Merle and his band, The Strangers, helped create the Bakersfield sound, which is characterized by the twang of Fender Telecaster and the unique mix with the traditional country steel guitar sound. He scored over 10 Number One albums during his career.

When Merle toured with Bob Dylan, Dylan wrote "Workingman's Blues #2" as a tribute to Merle. It appears on Dylan's Modern Times album (2006). (Austin's own Denny Freeman is on lead guitar. Tony Garnier, Dylan's longest-running sideman and fellow Minnesotan on bass guitar and cello.) 

"Are the Good Times Really Over (I Wish a Buck Was Still Silver)" [with Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel"]

"Silver Wings." One of my favorites of his.

"If I Could Only Fly." It's a Blaze Foley song, but it's a good one to say, "So long, Merle" on. Still missing you, man!