Ella Fitzgerald /

This highly adulatory biography in the Black Americans of Achievement series integrates the story of the great jazz singer with an account of the development of jazz and the leading bands, soloists, and music promoters of her time. The author focuses on her career and her extraordinary range of musical styles, from swing to bebop. He reveals little of her personal life or character, though he gives some information about those who helped her, including Chick Webb, her guardian and mentor when she started in Harlem at the age of 16, and Dizzy Gillespie, who encouraged her to use her voice as a musical instrument. Even more profusely illustrated than most other volumes in the series, the treatment has photographs of Fitzgerald and other musicians on almost every page. Discography, chronology, bibliography, and index appended. No source notes. Gr. 6-12. HR.

Another entry in the fine Black Americans of Achievement series, this biography does a good job of setting its subject in the context of American jazz history. For 50 years, Fitzgerald has been considered one of the finest jazz singers, and she has been one of the most popular. She began her singing career as a nervous teenager at an amateur night at the Harlem Opera House, and after several false starts was heard by Chick Webb at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom. After her mother's sudden death, Webb--and later her manager, Norman Granz--helped her to become the beloved personality she is. Kliment ably describes scenes important in the swing era; but his statement that black jazz bands such as Duke Ellington's were popular only among blacks until Benny Goodman hired black musicians and arrangers for his band. thereby making black bands popular with whites, is inaccurate. Ellington's band became the most popular band in the nation by playing to whites-only audiences at the Cotton Club in Harlem and through unsegregated radio broadcasts. All in all, though, this will serve YA readers looking for information on a major black musician. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.