Contact information:
Catalog Record:
To find locations of arrangements within this finding aid, consult the Songs Index and Arrangers Index under Index Terms. The Songs Index provides an alphabetical title list of song arrangements that includes box/folder locations for each title. The Arrangers Index provides an alphabetical list of arrangers that includes their respective arrangements contained in this collection.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein.
This collection was a gift in 1997 from the Fitzgerald 1989 Trust.
No further accruals are expected.
The Ella Fitzgerald Collection was processed by Mark Eden Horowitz, senior music specialist, in 2005. George Kipper, music specialist, coded the finding aid for EAD in 2010.
Videocassettes have been transferred to the Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division.
The collection is a shared acquisition with the Smithsonian Institution. The Smithsonian holds the following materials: twenty-six boxes of photographs, scripts, correspondence (mostly fan mail), business papers, song lists, honorary degrees and awards, concert programs and announcements, audiovisual materials, and costumes. For more information, contact the Archives Center, National Museum of American History; or via email at “archivescenter@si.edu.” Appointments are required. Some items from this collection have been loaned to and are on exhibit at their affiliated institution, the American Jazz Museum, in Kansas City, Missouri, (816) 474-8463.
In 1996, a portion of Fitzgerald’s papers were given to the University of California, Los Angeles. The Ella Fitzgerald Sheet Music Collection (Collection 135) is available through the Music Library Special Collections UCLA, but is stored off-site and advance notice is required for access. The collection includes about 4,600 music sheets, some accompanying correspondence to Fitzgerald, and fourteen photographs. For additional information call (310) 825-1665, or email “music-spec@library.ucla.edu.”
In addition, in 1965, Ella Fitzgerald gave a small collection to Boston University. This material includes seventy scores arranged by Buddy Bregman, twenty-five scores arranged by Nelson Riddle, twenty-four scores arranged by Billy May, and fifteen photographs. For more information contact Special Collections, Boston University, 771 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215; (617) 353-3696, fax (617) 353-2838, or via email at “speccol@bu.edu.” Appointments must be made two days in advance.
Materials from the Ella Fitzgerald Collection are governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.) and other applicable international copyright laws.
The Ella Fitzgerald Collection is open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Music Division prior to visiting in order to determine whether the desired materials will be available at that time.
Before items may be copied from the collection, prior written permission must be obtained from the Fitzgerald 1989 Trust (c/o Richard D. Rosman, Esq., Trustee of the Fitzgerald 1989 Trust, LeWinter & Rosman, A Professional Corporation, 16255 Ventura Boulevard, Suite 600, Encino CA 91436-2311) and/or the appropriate third-party owner(s) of the intellectual property. The materials in the collection may not be used for commercial purposes without additional prior written permission of the Fitzgerald 1989 Trust and/or the appropriate third-party owner(s) of the intangible property interests, and before copies can be made the requestor must sign a form accepting those conditions and indemnifying the Donor (and any assignee) and the Library.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [item, date, container number], Ella Fitzgerald Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Known as the “First Lady of Song,” Ella Fitzgerald sang professionally over a career that spanned some fifty-seven years. More than 2,300 recordings are known to exist of over 1,000 songs; Fitzgerald is thought to be more recorded than any other singer. Her repertoire included works from various genres, including musical theater, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, religious works, and Latin-American songs. Under the guidance of manager and producer, Norman Granz, Fitzgerald recorded several “songbooks” of the works of individual composers and lyricists.
The core of the Ella Fitzgerald Collection in the Library of Congress is the arrangements that were made for her by a group of more than fifty arrangers and orchestrators. The arrangers whose works are included in the collection include: Buddy Bregman, Benny Carter, Frank DeVol, Russ Garcia, Billy May, Marty Paich, Gerald Wilson, and, with the greatest number, Nelson Riddle.
Most arrangements in the collection are represented by a combination of full scores and parts, often with the addition of some combination of a piano-conductor short score, a reduced score, and a lead sheet or lyric sheet. The collection came to the Library with materials for each arrangement kept together in an envelope marked with a song title, a number (or numbers) assigned to that arrangement and, usually, the name of the arranger. These envelopes were kept in numeric order, which appears, for the most part, to represent a chronological filing system, with each new song arrangement being placed after the last. There are a few exceptions, however, where different arrangements of the same title were filed together but had been assigned different numbers.
There are both unnumbered arrangements in the collection and missing arrangements for which numbers are given in the index cards; we assume many of these are held at the other institutions mentioned in the introduction.
Folders may contain a combination of manuscript, printed music, photocopies or ozalids – sometimes multiples in different versions. If there is either some version of a full score and/or what appears to be a complete set of parts, then no particular note is made about a folder’s contents.
To find locations of arrangements within this finding aid, consult the Songs Index and Arrangers Index under Index Terms. The Songs Index provides an alphabetical title list of song arrangements that includes box/folder locations for each title. The Arrangers Index provides an alphabetical list of arrangers that includes their respective arrangements contained in this collection.
The Ella Fitzgerald Collection is organized into ten series:
Includes boxes 35A, 71A, 84A-D, 118A, 119A, 120A, 121A, 154A, 158A, 174A.
Arranged in numeric order.
Lead sheets, parts, chord charts.
Arranged in alphabetical order.
Separated by parts.
Piano-vocal scores (published and otherwise), lead sheets, photocopies, printed parts.
Arranged in alphabetical order.
Loose pages from parts, full scores & lead sheets; unidentified.
Arranged in alphabetical order.
Lyric sheets, song listings, notes, repertoire and program lists, content listings, correspondence, addresses, cassette inventories.
Loose pages from parts, full scores & lead sheets; unidentified.
Arranged in numeric order.