'First Lady of Song' celebrated in Palladium exhibit

The rich musical legacy of vocalist Ella Fitzgerald is the focus of a new installation in the Great American Songbook Foundation’s Exhibit Gallery at the Palladium.

Opening Jan. 19 and continuing through October, Ella Sings the Songbook includes historic photos, sheet music, magazines and other artifacts, some culled from the foundation’s own archives and others on loan from the Los Angeles-based Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation. Marking 100 years since the birth of America’s “First Lady of Song,” the exhibit also includes informational displays and an interactive multimedia station with video of live performances and more than 30 audio recordings.

The content focuses on a celebrated series of eight albums recorded for Verve Records in the 1950s and ’60s, when the respected jazz singer took a new and highly successful direction interpreting works by the most beloved composers of Tin Pan Alley, Broadway and Hollywood: Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hart, Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern and Johnny Mercer.

“The Songbook albums brought an entire new audience to worship at the shrine called Ella,” said Fran Morris Rosman, executive director of the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation. “We are so very pleased that the Great American Songbook Foundation is putting a spotlight on this important aspect of her legacy.”

Admission is free to the Songbook Exhibit Gallery, which is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays in the Palladium at the Center for the Performing Arts, 1 Center Green, Carmel.

In conjunction with the standing exhibit, the foundation also has assembled a traveling display with educational materials that will be available on loan to local schools and community groups. For more information, contact the foundation at (317) 844-2251 or info@TheSongbook.org.