Trojan Guild Hears Ella Fitzgerald Expert

The Trojan Guild of Los Angeles, which provides active women’s support at the University of Southern California, held its May 4 meeting at the USC Davidson Center.

Professor Dr. Thom David Mason, founder of the Jazz Studies Program at the USC Thornton School of Music, which began in 1983, was the speaker. He created the school’s bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs in jazz studies.

The Trojan Guild program centered on the life and music of Ella Fitzgerald. Mason showed photographs of Fitzgerald and other great artists with whom she worked throughout her life. He explained that Fitzgerald, whose specialty was scat singing, was the most popular female jazz singer in the United States for more than a half century. She had purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing and intonation.