The Two Best Movies of the Past Year Come from Abroad.

Show: FRESH AIR
Date: MARCH 27, 1998
Time: 12:00
Tran: 032701NP.217
Type: FEATURE
Head: Ella Fitzgerald Bio
Sect: News; Domestic
Time: 12:06

TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross.

The Smithsonian has a new exhibition called "Ella Fitzgerald: First Lady of Song." It includes costumes, awards, photos, recordings, sheet music and personal memorabilia. On this archive edition, we're going to look back on Ella Fitzgerald's life and music.

We have an interview with Stuart Nicholson, author of a 1993 biography of her. He's also the author of a book about Billie Holliday. Our interview was recorded shortly after Ella Fitzgerald's death at the age of 79 in June of 1996.

Perhaps her greatest recorded legacy is her songbook series, which collected her renditions of songs by some of America's brightest composers, including Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin and Duke Ellington. This is from her Gershwin songbook.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP, MUSIC FROM GERSHWIN SONGBOOK)

ELLA FITZGERALD, SINGER, SINGING: How glad the many millions
Of Timothys and Williams would be
To capture me

But you had such persistence
You wore down my resistance
I fell and it was swell

You're my big and brave and handsome Romeo
How I won you I shall never, never know

It's not that you're attractive
But oh my heart grew active
When you came into view

I've got a crush on you
Sweetie pie
All the day and night time
Hear me sigh

I never had the least notion
That I could fall
With so much emotion

Could you coo?
Could you care?
For a cunning cottage
We could share?

The world will pardon my mush
'Cause I've got a crush
My baby on you

GROSS: I asked Stuart Nicholson how he came to write a biography of Ella Fitzgerald.

STUART NICHOLSON, JAZZ WRITER, MUSICIAN, AUTHOR, "ELLA FITZGERALD: A BIOGRAPHY OF THE FIRST LADY OF JAZZ": I wrote a book called "Jazz: The 1980s Resurgence" and in that, I did a chapter on singers. And the firm's publishers in this country approached me to see if I'd like to do a biography on Ella to celebrate her 75th year, which was upcoming at the time.

But the more that I kind of dug into Ella Fitzgerald, the more that I realized that really no one really knew an awful lot about Ella. It was really the product of her press office. Ella wasn't really interested in giving interviews, and she was off-hand and gave simple straightforward answers. Sometimes, she would ask a question -- answer questions with just one word, you know, and it was left then for the journalist to fill in the blanks.

And I think if you transpose this over a whole lifetime of evasion, if you like -- so to paraphrase the man who shot Liberty Valance, when Ella became a legend, they printed the legend. And that has really stuck through her lifetime and now, when I sat down to do the biography, I was just astounded how little had been unearthed. And really what I did was put all previous research aside and start again from scratch.

GROSS: Did you ever get a personal interview with her?

NICHOLSON: No, no. Very few people did. And certainly not in her later life. But I was very fortunate because when the book was upcoming for American publication, Norman Grants (ph) contacted me and was very kind in helping me re-jig the book for American publication. And so, he -- he spent a lot of time with me going over stuff and giving it a different spin.

So, I think the English version greatly benefited from his input. And of course, as you would recall from reading it yourself, I tried to home in on key musicians who knew Ella right away through her career. I tracked down members of the original Chick Webb (ph) band; musicians whom she played with during the 1940s, 1950s and so on. And really got a perspective of Ella, you know, from the bandstand -- from the people who really who she was closest to, because really she was always close to musicians rather than people.

GROSS: Stuart Nicholson is my guest, and he's written a biography of Ella Fitzgerald. Tell us about the circumstances of her birth -- when she was born, where, who her parents were.

NICHOLSON: Well, Anna was born in Newport News, Virginia on the 25th of April, 1917. Her father was William Fitzgerald and her mother was formerly Temperance Williams -- Temperance Fitzgerald -- and she was known as "Tempy." And it seems that William and Tempy split up fairly shortly after Ella was born, and Tempy made her way to New York, which was -- you know, the streets were paved with gold and greater employment prospects there and so forth.

And she shows up, first of all, in New York at 72 School Street in Yonkers. And what I discovered was that no one really had ever traced her family friends, school friends, so we didn't have a perspective of Ella's early life.

And so with the help of Marsha Dennis (ph), we put an advert in the local Yonkers press. And three people actually responded, and we cross-checked their names on census for the appropriate years, and it -- they all cross-checked, so we knew that these people were quite genuine.

And the surprising thing about speaking to people who knew Ella as a child was they'd been waiting all this time for someone to contact them, you know, and it was kind of like "well so here you are at last," you know, and they were so kind in giving me a perspective of Ella as a child.

And that perspective was one of a kid who was really wanting to do better for herself, but she wanted to do it as a dancer and not as a singer.

GROSS: I found that really interesting, and it gives you a sense of how early she must have had that wonderful sense of rhythm, but she was expressing it with her body, and not her voice.

NICHOLSON: That's absolutely right, yes, yes.

GROSS: Which is also interesting considering her body blew out so much as a more mature woman. She must have had a very different kind of body as a young girl.

NICHOLSON: Apparently, she was as skinny as a rake, and of course she -- I mean, the one thing that came across was that she was living in quite desperate poverty.

GROSS: Mm-hmm.

NICHOLSON: And her friend at that particular time was a guy called Charles Miller (ph) who -- and he was dancing mad and he and Ella used to sneak into Harlem to pick up the latest steps -- dance steps. And they used to go in and do little one-night stands in local talent shows in and around Yonkers, you know Elks Clubs things and pick up a few dollars here, just for dancing with, you know, the trio or quartet or something like that.

GROSS: And we should mention here that Ella Fitzgerald's mother died in 1932 at the age of 38 of a heart attack. And Ella Fitzgerald left her stepfather, who you think may have been abusing her, and joined her Aunt Virginia and the family in Harlem.

NICHOLSON: Well, the interesting thing there is that each -- each person who knew her said that suddenly she was gone. Her aunt just came and took her, and certainly Charles Miller said that -- you know, her father, a guy called DeSilva (ph), was abusing her. He wasn't letting her out and this sort of thing. And it's significant that in later in life, in 1977, Ella formed the -- a child care center in the Lynnwood (ph) section of Watts. And her principal concern with that child center was for abused children.

GROSS: Now, Ella Fitzgerald's aunt was a numbers runner, and Ella Fitzgerald brought in some extra money by being a lookout at a whorehouse?

NICHOLSON: That's right. That's right. And the striking thing is here that -- is that how similar in many respects Billie Holiday's early years were and how similar Ella Fitzgerald's was. And we always tend to think of Ella as the puritan and Billie, who led life to the full. But their early lives were kind of -- you know, very, very similar. Certainly, Billie Holliday was raped as a child and for the first time I -- ever -- I named the rapist from the files in Baltimore; from the trial files.

And certainly, here we have Ella with a very strong possibility of being abused as a child and living life around a whorehouse keeping -- keeping cave, you know, for police coming. Similar to Billie Holliday -- she used to earn money cleaning rooms in a whorehouse.

So both had terribly deprived backgrounds, and yet led completely different lifestyles.

GROSS: Ella Fitzgerald ran away from home and from school when she was a young teenager.

NICHOLSON: That's right.

GROSS: Why did she run away? Where did she run away from?

NICHOLSON: Well who knows, really. She went into a home on the Hudson River.

GROSS: This is after staying with her aunt.

NICHOLSON: Yes, that's right. She had behavioral problems and she was put into a home. But certainly, it was from the home for Negro children that she ran away from, and she certainly didn't like it. And it's interesting that this particular home had benefit concerts given for it by Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong -- lots of name performers.

But Ella Fitzgerald never gave one concert for it. Whether she was approached, we'll never know, but it's significant that she must have really hated that place and by the time she was discovered in 1934, 1935 she was actually living on the streets, according to Charles Linton (ph) the vocalist with the Chick Webb band.

GROSS: And he's the person who actually discovered her and convinced Chick Webb to hire her as the singer. So, what were the conditions of her life at that time? She was nearly homeless? Or was homeless?

NICHOLSON: She was homeless. She was living life on the street and she was unwashed. She had men's shoes on. And she was a bit of a spectacle.

Chick Webb recalled in horror when he saw what he was confronted with, as did lots of guys in the band who started teasing Ella initially, but she quickly got into shape and fell into line and realized what an opportunity she had. And she took it with both hands.

GROSS: How did Charles Linton, the singer from the Chick Webb band, discover Ella Fitzgerald?

NICHOLSON: Well, Chick Webb's band was kind of in the doldrums. Chick Webb was a very, very, you know, very keen to -- a very ambitious bandleader and he could see that Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway were earning far more than he was.

And the manager Moe Gail (ph) convinced him that really he ought to get a girl vocalist -- that might be the link between the bandstand, because of course Chick was a dwarfish figure and he had a terrible hunched back, and really not the kind of guy which would sort of be a link between the bandstand and the audience.

It was thought really that a girl singer might do the trick, and quite simply Charles Linton started asking around. He was a very good looking man -- a ladies man. And he was thought, you know, to be the guy, perhaps, to find a girl singer. And that's what he did. A friend of his said, you know, why don't you try Ella? She's just won the talent contest at the Harlem Apollo, which she did on the 21st of November 1934; incidentally, a week after Billie Holliday made her debut at the Apollo.

GROSS: Hmm.

NICHOLSON: So already their careers are inter-linking.

GROSS: There's just an interesting sidebar here that you mention in your biography of Ella Fitzgerald. When she performed at the Apollo amateur night, she intended to dance, but she thought the competition would be too stiff, and that's why she sang instead.

NICHOLSON: Well that's right. The Wednesday before the Friday night talent contest, there was a run-through and she realized the competition that she was up against, and she realized that her personal appearance really was not going to compete with girls in sequined gowns and dancing pumps.

And it was at that point, it wasn't before she actually went on the stage, it was at that point that she decided that she would sing a song.

GROSS: Stuart Nicholson is my guest, and he's written a biography of Ella Fitzgerald which is now out in paperback. We'll talk more about her life and hear more of her music after we take a short break.

This is FRESH AIR.

Back with Stuart Nicholson, author of a 1993 biography of Ella Fitzgerald.

Now, let's get back to Ella Fitzgerald's story with the Chick Webb band. So the Chick Webb band hired her when she was homeless, unwashed. The musicians complained that she smelled. What was -- how did they transform her into, you know, a singer who's going to be on stage and you know, be like attractive and well dressed?

NICHOLSON: Well one of the band members took Ella under her wing. Charles Linton was paying -- paid for a room for her. And gradually, she -- she realized, you know, that what an opportunity that she had presented to her, and people in the Savoy Ballroom kind of rallied 'round. The woman who was on the ladies room sort of took her aside. And it was a great -- you know, everyone sort of -- sort of rallied 'round and tried to help her as best they could.

And Ella took the opportunity and within weeks of trying out at the Savoy Ballroom, she was in the recording studio making her recording debut, with very, very little -- very, very, little previous experience. You know, whereas Billie Holliday had been doing the clubs, the night clubs and working, you know -- from -- really started at the bottom and gradually worked her way up around the bar and grill circuits in Harlem, Ella kind of stepped, you know, from nowhere into the big time in one step.

I mean, she did one or two amateur hour contests in the Harlem Opera House and the Harlem Apollo, but that's about all. She sang a couple of times with a bandleader, but this really didn't amount to the depth of experience that Billie Holliday was getting. It was just that she did it on talent alone.

GROSS: One of the recordings that really put Ella Fitzgerald on the map was "A Tisket, A Tasket" (ph). Tell us the story behind how this was recorded.

NICHOLSON: Well, that -- that was a million-seller of course, and it was -- Ella had the idea come to her when the band was playing in Boston, and a guy called Van Alexander (ph) was doing a lot of arranging for Chick Webb at that particular time.

And Ella kind of said well, I've got this idea of a song -- here's the song; sang it; they worked it out at the piano; worked out the chords. And Van Alexander said: "yes, well, I'll do something." You know, and Ella about a couple of weeks later kept pushing him and pushing him.

Eventually, they came up with a -- he came up with an arrangement. Chick Webb liked it. And it's significant that when Ella got into the Chick Webb band, really she became the focal point of the Chick Webb band on broadcasts. Chick Webb played less instrumentals. It was more featuring Ella, perhaps featuring Charles Linton in the early stages.

So he listened to what Ella said and -- Decca really didn't want to record it. They thought it was too silly, and Chick Webb forced the issue. He said, well, if you're not going to record it, we'll pack up the band and leave. And the recording engineer acquiesced and the rest is history.

GROSS: Well why don't we hear A Tisket, A Tasket -- Ella Fitzgerald and the Chick Webb Orchestra.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP, "A TISKET, A TASKET")

FITZGERALD, SINGING: A tisket, a tasket
A brown and yellow basket
I send a letter
To my mommy
On the way I dropped it

I dropped it, I dropped it
Yes, on the way I dropped it
A little girlie picked it up
And put it in her pocket

She was trucking on down the avenue
With not a single thing to do
She went peck, peck, pecking all around
When she spied it on the ground

She took it, she took it
My little yellow basket
And if she doesn't bring it back
I think that I will die

GROSS: That's Ella Fitzgerald, and my guest is Stuart Nicholson, the author of a biography of Ella Fitzgerald.

Ella Fitzgerald early in her career recorded a lot of novelty tunes, and a lot of very light pop tunes. How did she end up going so much in that direction earlier in her career?

NICHOLSON: Well, she was making the most of an opportunity that was given to her, and it was during the time that she was with Chick Webb that she became known as the "First Lady of Song," simply because Chick Webb had quite a bit of air time in those years.

GROSS: On the radio.

NICHOLSON: That's right, yes, which was unusual. He had more air time than practically any band at that particular time in America. So, music publishers were hanging around him like flies, and Ella had a first crack at practically any tune that was upcoming from the music publishing houses.

And that was how the name The First Lady of Song came about because she was, you know, the first in with her version of lots and lots of songs, which were broadcast -- which is -- it was more important then to broadcast songs than it was to have hit records at that particular time.

GROSS: And the publishers wanted Ella Fitzgerald to sing the song because it would help sell the song.

NICHOLSON: That's right. And unlike Billie Holliday, for example, who would improvise with a song, distort the original melody line to her own particular requirements, Ella sang it straight. And really she was a music publisher's dream because you got the perfect version in one hit with -- of a song with Ella.

GROSS: But unfortunately early in her career, a lot of the songs she did were really lightweight -- trivial songs.

NICHOLSON: Well the -- one of the things I say in the book is that really you could not say that Ella Fitzgerald was a jazz singer during that period, and certainly not until really I guess during the mid-19 -- or the early 1940s, when she started getting interested in be-bop.

And she was singing "Flying Home" as early as 1942 with be-bop inflections, and this was made very clear by a couple of reviews which I unearthed, which surprised me, but mind you be-bop had been fermenting, you know, perhaps a year or two years beforehand and it was really only because of the AFM (ph) strike that it suddenly seemed to burst on the world fully formed in 1945. But lots of magicians were experimenting with extended changes, with new rhythmic nuance, and Ella was up there in Harlem. She was listening and she was fascinated by the latest musical trend.

GROSS: Stuart Nicholson is the author of a biography of Ella Fitzgerald. We'll hear more from Nicholson in the second half of the show.

I'm Terry Gross and this is FRESH AIR.

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross.

Back with more of our 1996 interview with British writer Stuart Nicholson, author of a biography of Ella Fitzgerald. The occasion for this rebroadcast is a new exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution called Ella Fitzgerald: First Lady of Song.

One of the things Ella Fitzgerald became very known for was her scatting. And one of the earlier examples on that is her 1947 recording of "Lady Be Good," which we're going to hear in a moment. But tell us what you know about how she started scatting.

NICHOLSON: Well I think that scatting was her way of getting closer to what the big band musicians -- Taf Jordan (ph) and people like that around her were playing. And it's a natural thing for a singer to imitate instrumental voices around her.

And she'd been singing from an early age, surrounded by some of the greatest musicians of the swing era. And it's only natural that she should want to emulate them. And Leo Watson (ph), really was very popular at that time -- a crazy -- a crazy scat singer who -- who was, you know, it would take a program on its own to talk about Leo Watson, a much-neglected figure in jazz.

And Ella took a little bit of Leo Watson and took a little bit of what she was hearing around her in the be-bop -- be-bop and came up with her own version of it.

GROSS: Let's hear her 1947 recording of Lady Be Good with the Bob Haggard (ph) Orchestra. What is so special about this recording in her career?

NICHOLSON: Well, this was the time that Ella really came into her own right as a jazz singer, and a "Jazz Singer" in capital letters. The arrangement behind her is kind of old hat. It had swing-era musicians, but Ella soars above that and here we have the blossoming of one of the great 20th century music talents.

GROSS: This is Ella Fitzgerald recorded in 1947.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP, "LADY BE GOOD")

FITZGERALD, SINGING: Sweet lovely lady be good
Oh lady be good to me
'Cause I am so often misunderstood
Oh lady, oh lady, oh lady
Be good to me

Say I'm all alone in this big city of New York
Won't somebody please have pity
Pity, pity, pity on me

Just a lonesome babe
Babe in the woods
Oh lady, oh lady, oh lady
Be good to me

SOUNDBITE OF FITZGERALD SCATTING

GROSS: That's Ella Fitzgerald. My guest is Stuart Nicholson, who's the author of a biography of Ella Fitzgerald.

When Ella Fitzgerald started recording with Chick Webb, she was best-known for her novelty songs. Of course, what we remember her for best now is her songbooks and her beautiful renderings of classic American popular song.

Let's talk about -- a little bit about her transition into that form of American popular song. This happens in the early 1950s, with a series of recordings she made with the fine pianist Ellis Larkins (ph). What was behind those recordings?

NICHOLSON: Well her record producer at that time was a guy called Milt Gegler (ph) at Decca Records. And he had just released an album -- a composite album of artists each doing a song from the then very popular South Pacific.

And it occurred to Gegler that he might do just an album by Ella concentrating on the songs of George Gershwin, just as an experiment. And the very sophisticated pianist Ellis Larkins was chosen. And here we have Ella exploring the songs with the freedom to do whatever really she wanted to. She -- the only limit was her imagination.

GROSS: And she did two sets of sessions with Ellis Larkins. One was all Gershwin songs and the other was a mix of songs.

NICHOLSON: That's right.

GROSS: Let's hear a 1954 recording with him of "Until The Real Thing Comes Along."

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP, "UNTIL THE REAL THING COMES ALONG")

FITZGERALD, SINGING: I'd work for you
I'd slave for you
I'd be a beggar or a knave for you
If that isn't love
It will have to do
Until the real thing comes along

I'd gladly move the Earth for you
To prove my love, dear
And its worth for you
If that isn't love
It will have to do
Until the real thing comes along

With all the words, dear
At my command
I just can't make you understand

I'll always love you
Darlin', come what may
My heart is yours
What more can I say?

I'd sigh for you
I'd cry for you
I'd tear the stars down
From the sky for you

If that isn't love
Well, if that isn't love
It will have to do
Until the real thing comes along
Until the real thing comes along

GROSS: Ella Fitzgerald and pianist Ellis Larkins. We'll talk more with Ella Fitzgerald's biographer Stuart Nicholson after a break.

This is FRESH AIR.

Back with Stuart Nicholson, author of a 1993 biography of Ella Fitzgerald.

Many of the records that really define Ella Fitzgerald and define a certain kind of singing are her recordings on Verve Records -- the Songbook records for example. Those records were produced by Norman Grants (ph). How did Norman Grants decide to record Ella in the songbook settings -- "Ella Fitzgerald Sings Cole Porter," "George Gershwin," "Rodgers and Hart?"

NICHOLSON: Well, he'd only done this with Oscar Peterson (ph) on one of his subsidiary labels a few years before. Oscar Peterson had recorded I think about five or six albums of the great Broadway composers and one by Duke Ellington. So the idea was at the forefront of his mind.

And really what he did was take it that stage further, and get, you know, a big studio orchestra to back her up. And really, the first one of these was the Cole Porter Songbook which was released -- the first one of the songbook series. And really what we have here is parts -- part jazz leader and part cocktail music. It was really middle-of-the-road music meant for middle-of-the-road America. The sort of music that doesn't get in the way of conversations. It was a kind of the new age music of its time.

GROSS: Let's listen to a track from her Gershwin Songbook. I thought we could play "The Man I Love." I think the Gershwin Songbook is one of your favorites of the songbook series.

NICHOLSON: Absolutely. Yes. Arrangements here by Nelson Riddle. It was the first time that Norman Grants, who from -- actually wanted Nelson Riddle for the Cole Porter Songbook, but he finally was able to get Nelson Riddle, who was doing great work with Frank Sinatra at this particular time, and that was one of the reasons why Norman Grants wanted him to, I suppose, to be -- act as direct competition to Frank Sinatra and his great work on Capitol.

GROSS: This is Ella Fitzgerald.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP, "THE MAN I LOVE")

FITZGERALD, SINGING: Some day he'll come along
The man I love
And he'll be big and strong
The man I love

And when he comes my way
I'll do my best
To make him stay

He'll look at me and smile
I'll understand
And in a little while
He'll take my hand

And though it seems absurd
I know we both
Won't say a word

Maybe I shall meet him Sunday
Maybe Monday, maybe now
Still I'm sure to meet him
One day, maybe Tuesday will be
My good news day

He'll build a little home
Just meant for two
From which I'll never roam
Who would? Would you?

And so all else above
I'm waiting for
The man I love

GROSS: That's Ella Fitzgerald and my guest Stuart Nicholson is the author of the biography of Ella Fitzgerald. You know, I love her songbook records, and I found it interesting reading in your book that so many of the songbook recordings were made really quickly -- one take on a lot of the records. And some of the musicians you interviewed refer to these songs as being kind of ground out -- you say, she even just like learned some of the songs for the session.

NICHOLSON: Sometimes actually on the session, which is -- some of the more obscure, not everyday songs from the Broadway canon were actually learned on the session. She would run through it. But this goes back to her days as a popular music singer for Decca. Again, during her Decca years, she would not know what -- she would be called to recording session -- she would not know what she was going to be confronted with. And this is the way it was.

She made her living, you know, at least her recording income, just by singing songs that were given to her on the session. And it's quite phenomenal that musicians who are interviewed in the book say that, you know, she'd just hear the song once or twice. She would go through it once and sing it, and it'd be a take virtually, you know. And if you look through a discography, you know, she very seldom goes into two and three takes, you know, during her Decca years. It's probably first or second take.

And really, this was a continuation of the great professionalism that she had built up over the years. And so she was really, in a sense it seems extraordinary to us what she was achieving, but in fact it was really a continuation of the craft that she had learned through the years; through the 1940s and here into the 1950s.

GROSS: Now, I know one of your favorite recordings of Ella Fitzgerald is her 1958 concert in Rome, which was only released on record in 1987, after it was discovered in the Verve vaults.

NICHOLSON: That's right -- by Phil Shappa (ph), a great, great jazz aficionado and fan.

GROSS: And radio DJ in New York.

NICHOLSON: That's right.

GROSS: Well, tell me what you love about this particular concert?

NICHOLSON: Well, I think the whole essence of Ella Fitzgerald is the one place in the world that she really wanted to be is on stage singing. And really she dedicated her whole life to this. I mean, she -- everything went by the board.

You know, a stable family life; friends -- you know, she made very few friends because she was on the road touring all over -- throughout her life. And even when she could have retired in Beverly Hills luxury in the 1960s, and don't forget she was a millionairess then, she really wanted to be on the road singing.

And this is where the real Ella Fitzgerald -- the exuberance, just the sheer joy of music making comes out. And I think really this is -- this is really the real Ella Fitzgerald. Because really, that's what Ella wanted herself and she was very much an in-person artist.

GROSS: I thought I'd play "Squeeze Me" from that concert. This is not a song that I usually love, but her recording of it, as you say, it just has such exuberance. She's -- she's snapping her fingers; there's this kind of uninhibited feeling on this, and a beautiful sense of rhythm. I just think this is just like absolutely jumps out of the turntable or the CD player. It's -- I love it. Do you want to say anything about this?

NICHOLSON: Well I think you've said it all, Terry. It -- I mean, this is -- Ella Fitzgerald performing in front of people was one of the great -- one of the great experiences in jazz and popular music in the 1950s, the 1960s, and the 1970s. She was a true performance artist.

GROSS: Ella Fitzgerald recorded in Rome in 1958. This is Squeeze Me.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP, "SQUEEZE ME")

FITZGERALD, SINGING:

I want you to know
I ain't no teaser
I want you to know
I go for your squeezing

I want to know
I'm aiming to pleasing

SOUNDBITE OF FITZGERALD SCATTING

FITZGERALD, SINGING: Treat me sweet and gentle
When you hold me tight
Just squeeze me
But please don't tease me

I get sentimental
When you hold me tight
Just squeeze me
But please don't tease me

Missin' you since you went away
Thinkin' about you through the day
Oh, that I'm longin' for you
I'm in a mood to let you know
I love you so
Please say you love me too

When I get that feeling
I'm in ecstasy
So, squeeze me
But please don't tease me

Missin' you since you went away
Thinkin' about you through the day
Hopin' and longin' for you

I'm in a mood to let you know
I love you so
Please say you love me, too

When I get this feelin'
I'm in ecstasy
So, squeeze me
But please don't tease me

Hear me talkin' honey
Squeeze me
But please don't tease me

Come on honey
And squeeze me
But please don't tease me

GROSS: That's Ella Fitzgerald. My guest Stuart Nicholson is the author of a biography of Ella Fitzgerald.

Hearing Ella Fitzgerald on that wonderful song we just heard -- her performance of Squeeze Me -- how -- how just free and uninhibited she sounds. It's interesting to think about how much performance anxiety she suffered, which you write about in your biography. How much of a problem was that for her?

NICHOLSON: Well it's always been a great mystery to me, someone who seemed to be so -- so wonderfully relaxed, so exuberant on stage.

GROSS: And so much utterly living in song.

NICHOLSON: That's right, who should be so tormented by it, but the fact nevertheless remains that before a performance, people say that she would -- she would be very snappy, very uptight before she went on. And people didn't dare address her even, even speak to her because they would get their heads bitten off.

And as soon as she walked on stage, everything -- you know, and particularly in her later years, people say that, you know, here was this woman, you know, in her late 60s, she may have been knitting before she went on stage, and she looked, you know, like a shriveled little old lady, but suddenly as soon as she put her foot on the boards, the years would shed away and suddenly, you know, she would look 20, 30 years younger in attitude and exuberance and energy, that just -- this was just what Ella wanted to do all her life, is just sing for "her people," as she put it.

GROSS: You write about Ella Fitzgerald as being very lonely for much of her life.

NICHOLSON: Well yes, I think we touched upon that very briefly earlier when I said that, you know, that because she wanted to sing, because it was consuming desire to perform in front of live audiences -- and don't forget as I said earlier that, you know, she could have retired in Beverly Hills luxury in the 1960s, but she didn't. I think that says a lot about Ella's desire to perform, which was there throughout her life.

And it meant, really, that relationships came second. She was married twice -- once in 1941 to a guy called Benny Corngay (ph) and again in 1947 on the 10th of December 1947 she married the bassist Ray Brown. But these marriages never lasted.

And the reason was that meeting a musician's life, a relationship becomes that of, you know, ships parting in the night. And in her 50s and in her 60s, Ella's life was really a matter of, you know, sort of simply discreet affairs with various, you know, people who she became friendly with.

But none of them ever really got anywhere. And really she -- in a sense she perhaps preferred her own company and (unintelligible) speaks of Ella being a great fan of soap operas and really, you know, a great television fan and in -- and a very close friend of Peggy Lee's, who -- with whom she used to, you know, confide in regularly.

GROSS: Stuart Nicholson, I want to thank you so much for sharing some of what you've learned about Ella Fitzgerald's life. It's a pleasure to have had you on the show.

NICHOLSON: Thank you, indeed.

GROSS: Stuart Nicholson is the author of a biography of Ella Fitzgerald published in paperback by DeCapo (ph). Our interview was recorded in June, 1996, shortly after Ella Fitzgerald's death at the age of 79. The Smithsonian has a new exhibition called Ella Fitzgerald: First Lady of Song.

Stuart Nicholson has a new book coming out in June called "Jazz Rock: A History."

Coming up, John Powers reviews two foreign films that have just come to the U.S.

This is FRESH AIR.

This is a rush transcript. This copy may not
be in its final form and may be updated.

Dateline: Terry Gross, Philadelphia
Guest: Stuart Nicholson
High: Author, jazz writer and musician, Stuart Nicholson. He is an expert on and biographer of late jazz great Ella Fitzgerald. Stuart Nicholson is the author of the 1994 book "Ella Fitzgerald: A Biography of the First Lady of Jazz." This month the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of American History opened its exhibit: Ella Fitzgerald: First Lady of Song. It examines Ella Fitzgerald's 60-year career and her rags-to-riches climb to international fame as a jazz and popular singer. The exhibition features the red, two-piece suit from an American Express ad, along with an Annie Liebovitz photograph used in the ad; the broken goblet from the "Is it Ella or is it Memorex?" ad; the Presidential Medal of Freedom received from then President George Bush. Fitzgerald died suffering from diabetes on June 15, 1996 at her home in California.
Spec: Music Industry; History; Media; Deaths; Ella Fitzgerald
Please note, this is not the final feed of record
Copy: Content and programming copyright 1998 WHYY, Inc. All rights reserved. Transcribed by FDCH, Inc. under license from WHYY, Inc. Formatting copyright 1998 FDCH, Inc. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to WHYY, Inc. This transcript may not be reproduced in whole or in part without prior written permission.
End-Story: Ella Fitzgerald Bio
Show: FRESH AIR
Date: MARCH 27, 1998
Time: 12:00
Tran: 032701NP.217
Type: FEATURE
Head: Kitano's Fireworks
Sect: News; International
Time: 12:55

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT
BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

TERRY GROSS, HOST: Two of the most acclaimed foreign films of the past year are just beginning to play in American theaters. "A Taste of Cherry" from Iran was last year's winner at Cannes, and the Japanese film "Fireworks" took the top prize at the Venice Film Festival.

John Powers has a review of both films.

JOHN POWERS, FRESH AIR COMMENTATOR: Although American movies are filled with people dying, 1,500 on the Titanic alone, they're still not about death. Foreign filmmakers are less afraid of this most dauntingly universal of topics. In fact, the two best movies I've seen in the last year both deal with the face-off between life and mortality.

In one, the hero struggles against death. In the other, he longs to embrace it. Fireworks is the latest movie by Takeshi Kitano, the comedian, columnist, TV MC, filmmaker and movie actor who's a Japanese superstar. Imagine Clint Eastwood and David Letterman rolled into one.

Although Kitano's a cult figure in Europe, his movies are almost completely unknown in the states. Fireworks should change all that, for this movie showcases his greatest gifts -- a supremely modern sense of time and mood; a visual style as majestically spare as a Basho haiku; and a screen persona riveting in its silence.

Kitano's stony face suggests an entire universe of feelings -- melancholy, peasant humor, shameless sentimentality, and a chilling capacity for violence. In Fireworks, he plays Nishi (ph), a taciturn police detective whose world starts to crumble. His daughter has just died. His wife has a terminal illness. And his sidekicks have been caught in a shootout that left one of them dead, the other in a wheelchair.

In order to discharge his responsibilities as a man, Nishi quits the police force and tries to take care of everyone -- supporting the dead cop's wife, giving his crippled friend oil paints to distract him from thoughts of suicide, and taking his wife on a second honeymoon that's heartbreaking in its sweetness.

This terribly silent man must learn to show his wife that he loves her. The original Japanese title of this film, "Hanna Bee" (ph) can be broken into two component words: "hanna" meaning flower, which is the metaphor for life and growth; and "bee" meaning fire, a metaphor for destruction.

It's precisely the inescapable conflict between destruction and life that gives this movie its mystery and emotional power. Nishi does everything he can to protect those he cares about. But do you ever really save anyone from loss or pain or the inexorable working of time?

One of the great '90s films, Fireworks is an elliptical meditation on life's struggle against death -- and to tell you the whole truth, it left me in tears.

I was moved in a very different way by A Taste of Cherry, the latest masterpiece from Abas Keristami (ph), the Iranian director who's probably the most important filmmaker now working anywhere. Keristami does all the things that our much-vaunted America independents should do, but never even seem to try.

He uses small budgets to explore enormous themes. He takes stories from daily life and wins wonderful performances from amateur actors. And he shoots in a style as transparent as a brand new windowpane -- never showy, but immaculately clear.

A Taste of Cherry begins with its hero driving through the dusty outskirts of Teheran looking for a man to help him with a task. From the initial reactions, we wonder if he's asking for sex. But eventually, we discover that the truth's far darker. He's contemplating suicide and he's searching for someone who will bury him if he succeeds, or rescue him if he fails.

In his search, he meets various ordinary Iranians -- a laborer, a soldier, a security guard, a seminarian, and finally an assistant taxidermist. All are decent, well-meaning men who argue against the man's desire to kill himself.

In a way, A Taste of Cherry could also be called Hanna Bee, for like Kitano's film, it's about the flower of life and the fire of destruction. Even as it treats suicide as a valid response to the world, in daring violation of Islamic doctrine, it makes an equally strong case for the glory of life. In fact, despite its grim theme, the movie features some wonderful bits of comedy in a lovely speech by the taxidermist, who explains why it's worth living for the taste of cherries alone.

From beginning to end, the movie's suffused with the reverence for life that has become this filmmaker's trademark. Abas Keristami looks at human beings with a gaze so tender that it makes your soul tremble, then soar.

GROSS: John Powers is film critic for Vogue.

Dateline: John Powers; Terry Gross, Philadelphia
Guest:
High: Film Critic John Powers reviews two of the most acclaimed foreign films of the past year that are just beginning to play in American theaters. "A Taste of Cherry," from Iran, last year's winner at Cannes and the Japanese film "Fireworks" which took the top prize at the Venice film Festival.
Spec: Movie Industry; Foreign Films; Fireworks; A Taste of Cherry; Iran; Japan; Takeshi Kitano
Please note, this is not the final feed of record
Copy: Content and programming copyright 1998 WHYY, Inc. All rights reserved. Transcribed by FDCH, Inc. under license from WHYY, Inc. Formatting copyright 1998 FDCH, Inc. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to WHYY, Inc. This transcript may not be reproduced in whole or in part without prior written permission.
End-Story: Kitano's Fireworks
Transcripts are created on a rush deadline, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of Fresh Air interviews and reviews are the audio recordings of each segment.