Today, we’re continuing our series celebrating Women’s History Month with a trendsetter who didn’t just sing the Great American Songbook: she rewrote it in real time. 

Ella Fitzgerald was dubbed the First Lady of Song for her brilliant interpretations of popular songs of her day by composers such as Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, Rodgers and Hart, and more. Ira Gershwin once said, “I never knew how good our songs were until I heard Ella Fitzgerald sing them.”

As the National Women’s History Museum points out, Fitzgerald was lauded for her signature style that included “iconic vocal range, clear tone and ability to improvise with her hallmark scat singing.” We’re going to examine all three of those attributes in her version of the classic “Blue Skies.”

“Blue Skies” was written in 1926 by Irving Berlin for the musical “Betsy.” It became the best part of the show (which would close a month later) and gained even more popularity with a recording by Ben Selvin and His Orchestra in 1927. The song became a staple of the jazz idiom with further versions by Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey (featuring Frank Sinatra), Diana Krall, Count Basie, and even Willie Nelson.

Between 1956 and 1964, Fitzgerald put her stamp on music from the first half of the 20th century through her “Song Book” sessions, in which she recorded lengthy albums focusing on the top composers of the time. She recorded “Blue Skies” in 1958 for inclusion on the album “Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Songbook,” though it was released instead on 1959’s “Get Happy.”

The big-band arrangement by Paul Weston is the perfect vehicle for featuring Fitzgerald’s voice on the song’s melody and for an improvised solo section. It opens up with a dramatic intro as she vocalizes around horn stabs. Then she sings the lyrics directly, without straying from the original melody.

“This approach is what makes Ella’s catalogue one of the best ways to learn the Great American Songbook AND learn to understand jazz: she typically serves the melody directly one time through, and then shows you what a creative approach can do with it after that,” WYSO writes.

That’s when her genius really shines. Her scat solo blurs the lines between voice and instrument as she weaves between the chord changes. It starts small, even casual. However, she quickly begins to incorporate sophisticated rhythmic variation and creative harmonic approaches, akin to those of a bebop saxophonist.

Sixteenth-note runs and quarter-note triplets meet with a blend of arpeggios and chromaticism to capture the freedom and joy of the jazz spirit. Fitzgerald even quotes Wagner’s “Bridal Chorus” and “Rhapsody in Blue” with such impeccable feel and phrasing that you’d think they were naturally part of the song.

After a century of “Blue Skies” recordings, Ella Fitzgerald’s still feels like a revelation. She turned a beloved song into a fearless act of real-time composition. In the spirit of Women’s History Month, spending time with the transcription of her performance is more than a technical exercise – it’s a way to hear how one woman’s voice reshaped the sound of jazz.