International Jazz Day 2019

Ben “Bear” Brown Jr., owner
www.aospdx.com

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A very special thank you to my Husbear Travis, Baby Boy Ron, Gypsy Girl and the staff of the Beaverton City Library for, well, everything.

On this installment for my fourth annual UNESCO International Jazz Day Program, I am saluting The First Lady of Song, Ms. Ella Fitzgerald. These are the albums that were part of several firsts:

First Woman to win a Grammy Award
First Black artist to win multiple Grammy Awards
First album ever to be released on Verve Records.

But awards are only part of the story. If you only knew Ella Fitzgerald from these recordings out the scores of albums and singles she recorded over her lifetime, you could not do much better. This music, with the exception of one release, is part of what is known as the Great American Songbook. These recordings are a testament to the power and versatility of Jazz music and what it can achieve, as many of the compositions were written by White or Jewish men and were originally Pop songs and Broadway show tunes.

In lesser hands, it could have been a total disaster. These recordings are also a testament to the gifts of our featured artist, who truly was in a class all her own. As an added bonus, one more unofficial selection into the Songbook Series, Ella Abraca Jobim, was recorded in 1981 and was her only bossa nova album.