Ella Fitzgerald's career in pictures

Ella Fitzgerald was one of the great voices of jazz. Throughout her career spanning over five decades, she contributed to defining different styles, such as swing and bebop, and recorded over 100 albums. She was the first African-American singer to obtain a Grammy Award.

Her technique was exceptional: She could modulate her voice like a musical instrument. At the beginning of her career, Ella Fitzgerald's voice was still girlish and gentle, but she already demonstrated an impressive range. Critics, however, felt she didn't express enough passion. Her mentor therefore let her sing pop songs instead of ballads.

Ella Fitzgerald was described as a very shy, yet warm performer. She gladly fulfilled her fans' wishes. Ella's love life was passionate, but not very stable. Her first marriage ended after a year, her second one, with bassist Ray Brown, lasted six years. Together they adopted a son. She is said to have had a third husband for a brief period afterwards.

In 1938, Americans were still affected by the Great Depression and direly needed some cheering up. Ella Fitzgerald's light song "A-Tisket, A-Tasket," inspired by a nursery rhyme, achieved this perfectly - and it became her first big hit. The summer single stayed in the US music charts for 17 weeks; one million albums were sold.

Trumpet player and singer Louis Armstrong was one of Ella Fitzgerald's greatest role models. Already as a child, Ella used to imitate his deep, rough voice. She would later refine a vocal style he had popularized - scat singing, in which the singer improvises by aligning nonsense syllables. In the 1950s, Ella and Louis recorded three albums together as a duo.

Fitzgerald also occasionally appeared on the silver screen. In 1942, she was the singing housemaid in "Ride 'Em Cowboy." Her roles were, however, restricted to short appearances, as film studios feared censorship based on the racial politics of the southern states. In 1955, she played the singer Maggie Jackson in "Pete Kelly's Blues," starring Jack Webb (pictured).

Discrimination due to the color of her skin was an undermining issue throughout Fitzgerald's career. Especially in the American South, restrictions were imposed on her tours. Racial segregation started to crumble in the 1950s thanks to the Civil Rights Movement. With the help of Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe, the Black jazz singer could also perform in the nightclubs of the rich.

Like Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington is one of the great names of jazz. Their long collaboration, including several albums and tours, was extremely successful. Their album "Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book" from 1957 is a milestone in music history. It also includes something unusual: a musical portrait of Ella Fitzgerald performed by Duke Ellington.

The aging jazz diva kept returning to the stage despite health problems. In her later years, her voice became deeper and raspier, but it remained just as agile. She gave her last concert at the age of 74 and died in 1996.