Photo courtesy THE RUDY CALVO COLLECTION CACHE AGENCY
Happy Birthday to the “First Lady of Song,” jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald, who was born on this day (April 25) in Newport News, Virginia, in 1917. Celebrate with this version of “How High the Moon” from 1947, released on the 1956 compilation album Lullabies of Birdland. The arrangement begins at a casual stroll, then clicks into high gear just in time for Fitzgerald’s epic scat solo, which references licks from Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and other giants of the bebop era.