Pure Love: The Voice of Ella Fitzgerald

The story

Ella Fitzgerald's voice is a phenomenon and unrivalled to this day. She had the perfect pitch and perfect intonation. Ella's voice spanned three octaves, her phrasing seemed effortless. There is almost no style of music, in which she did not excel, and her numerous - now legendary - recordings of the 'Great American Songbook' with pieces of US composers such as George and Ira Gershwin, Harald Arlen, Cole Porter or Duke Ellington, remained a benchmark for the "right" interpretation of those songs for generations of singers. In the film the focus will be on the voice of Ella Fitzgerald. We want to unravel the secret of her voice through many different people (musicians, singers, critics etc.), who will tell about what impact her voice had on them and still has. We want to learn more about Ella´s life to find out what made her sing like she did and only she could.

Cast

E Ella FitzgeraldSelf (archive footage) J Jim BlackmanSelf - Ella Fitzgerald's friend and road manager T Theo BleckmannSelf R Regina CarterSelf D Dee Dee BridgewaterSelf T Terri Lyne CarringtonSelf W Will FriedwaldSelf - music critic T Tad HershornSelf - archivist, Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University S Sheila JordanSelf D Dianne ReevesSelf J Judith TickSelf - professor of music history, Northeastern University