Ella, Eternal: A Centenary Celebration

Our love for Ella Fitzgerald literally knows no bounds. No one did more with their life to preserve and sanctify the American pop music than did Ella. It's conceivable that without her, there would be no "Great American Songbook". She is the source, the archive, the oracle. If you want to know how a song is meant to sound, simply turn to Ella. Furthermore, her life story reads like something from Joseph Campbell's "Power of Myth" — if it were being sung by the most beautiful voice you'd ever heard: Ella's.

With her honest, effortless and supernatural capacity to channel the essence of a song, Ella Fitzgerald gave everyone else permission to explore, explode and experiment. And she did so with an elan, purpose, joy and style that are unmistakable and unmatched. She's the Rosetta Stone of pop music.

Celebrate the 100th anniversary of Ella's birth with host and unreconstructed Ella fanatic Julian Fleisher, genuine jazz giant Dee Dee Bridgewater, cabaret legend Marilyn Maye, the Harlem School for the Art's Dorothy Maynor Singers and keyboard phenom Tedd Firth, this Monday night, April 24th at WNYC and WQXR's Greene Space. There will be song, story and celebration to honor the spirit of perhaps the greatest of the great: The Eternal Ella Fitzgerald.