For the month of September, National Public Radio published a series of stories on “The First Lady of Song” Ms. Ella Fitzgerald, that are just delightful and insightful. If you think you know Ella, you’ve got a lot to learn.

To get you in the mood, start of with this selected playlist of Ella’s music, reviewing her incredible career spanning several decades. Lots of incredible classics in there!

Ella is known for her ground-breaking improvisational singing and scatting style, that countless other singers have tried to emulate. Here is contemporary jazz artist Jazzmeia Horn’s explanation of what made Ella’s singing style so remarkable, and how she tries to bring that same energy into her own singing, with her rendition of “Blue Skies.”