Ella Fitzgerald and the Mills Brothers - Big Boy Blue (1937)

Performed by: Ella Fitzgerald and the Mills Brothers

Vocalist: Ella Fitzgerald & the Mills Brothers are vocal mimicking instruments

Full Song Title: Big Boy Blue

Recorded in: January 14th 1937, New York

Flip side of:    • Ella Fitzgerald and the Mills Brothers - D...  

Ella Fitzgerald, in full Ella Jane Fitzgerald, (born April 25, 1917, Newport News, Virginia, U.S.— died June 15, 1996, Beverly Hills, California), was an American jazz singer who became world famous for the wide range & rare sweetness of her voice. She became an international legend during a career that spanned some six decades.

As a child, Fitzgerald wanted to be a dancer, but when she panicked at an amateur contest in 1934 at New York City’s Apollo Theatre & sang in a style influenced by the jazz vocalist Connee Boswell instead, she won first prize. The following year Fitzgerald joined the Chick Webb orchestra; Webb became the teenaged Fitzgerald’s guardian when her mother died. She made her first recording, “Love and Kisses,” in 1935, and her first hit, “A-Tisket, A-Tasket,” followed in 1938. After Webb’s death in 1939, she led his band until it broke up in 1942. She then soloed in cabarets & theatres & toured internationally with such pop and jazz stars as Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, the Mills Brothers, the Ink Spots, & Dizzy Gillespie. She also recorded prolifically.

During much of her early career she had been noted for singing & recording novelty songs. Her status rose dramatically in the 1950s when jazz impresario Norman Granz became her manager. From 1956 to 1964 she recorded a 19-volume series of “songbooks,” in which she interpreted nearly 250 outstanding songs by Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, & Johnny Mercer. This material, combined with the best jazz instrumental support, clearly demonstrated Fitzgerald’s remarkable interpretative skills. Although her diction was excellent, her rendition of lyrics was intuitive rather than studied. For many years the star attraction of Granz’s Jazz at the Philharmonic concert tours, she was also one of the best-selling jazz vocal recording artists in history.

Fitzgerald’s clear tone & wide vocal range were complemented by her mastery of rhythm, harmony, intonation, & diction. She was an excellent ballad singer, conveying a winsome, ingenuous quality. Her infectious scat singing brought excitement to such concert recordings as Mack the Knife: Ella in Berlin & was widely imitated by others. She garnered 14 Grammy Awards, including one for lifetime achievement. She also received a Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime achievement (1979) & the National Medal of Arts (1987).

In 1993, however, her career was curtailed following complications stemming from diabetes, which resulted in the amputation of both her legs below the knees.She died in her home from a stroke on June 15, 1996, at the age of 79.

The Mills Brothers, John Charles (b. Oct. 19, 1910, Piqua, Ohio, U.S.—d. Jan. 24, 1936, Bellefontaine, Ohio), Herbert (b. April 2, 1912, Piqua—d. April 12, 1989, Las Vegas, Nev.), Harry (b. Aug. 19, 1913, Piqua—d. June 28, 1982, Los Angeles, Calif.), and Donald (b. April 29, 1915, Piqua—d. Nov. 13, 1999, Los Angeles), American vocal quartet that was among the most unique & influential in the history of both jazz and mainstream popular music.

The Mills Brothers began as a barbershop quartet—which was perhaps only natural, as their father, John H. Mills (1882–1967), owned a barbershop. They gave their first public performances in variety shows on the radio in Cincinnati, Ohio. In about 1930 they moved to New York City, where they became the first African American singers to have their own national radio show. Billed as “Four Boys and a Guitar” and accompanied only by brother John’s guitar, they could sound like a full jazz band, particularly on such numbers as “Tiger Rag,” “St. Louis Blues,” and “Bugle Call Rag.” Each brother specialized in an “instrument”: they imitated two trumpets, a trombone, and a tuba. They were also a hit on records & in live performances, and they appeared in several films, including The Big Broadcast (1932) and Broadway Gondolier (1935).

John C. Mills’s sudden death in 1936 was a blow to the close-knit siblings, and they almost dissolved the act. Fortunately, their father took over his son’s role, and the group continued without any loss in popularity (although it was necessary to employ an outside guitarist).

John H. Mills retired in 1956, & the brothers continued as a trio, recording and performing regularly into the 1970s. The act came to an end after Harry’s death in 1982, but Donald Mills in his last years performed the group’s hits with his son, John H. Mills II.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
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