Ella Fitzgerald‘s contribution to jazz cannot be overstated. Beginning with her appearance in one of the earliest iterations of the storied Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater in 1934, and through a career lasting six decades, she is in many ways the archetypal jazz vocalist. Her interpretations of classic jazz standards and the Great American Songbook are the standard, casting a shadow over all vocalists following in her footsteps.

“There were so many great things about her, it’s too much to list,” said vocalist Janis Siegel, best known as a member of the seminal jazz vocal group, Manhattan Transfer. “The purity of her tone, the sweetness of her voice, her rhythmic invention and playfulness when she was improvising. Her simplicity, really. I never heard her sing an off note.”

On Sunday at the Kennedy Center, Siegel will take part in Ella!, an all-star tribute to the First Lady of Song. The concert will also feature celebrated vocalists Dee Dee Bridgewater and Al Jarreau, along with The Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band, under the direction of Antonio Hart.