On April 29th, the Galen Center will host a birthday party for the first lady of song, Ella Fitzgerald.

Vocalists Natalie Cole, Nancy Wilson, Wynonna Judd and Patti Austin as well as musicians Quincy Jones, James Moody and many others will perform with the USC Thornton Jazz Orchestra and members of the USC Thornton Symphony, directed by Shelly Berg, on what would have been the late Fitzgerald’s 90th birthday.

The origins of this event go back to a meeting Berg had a couple of years ago with Mike Garrett, USC’s athletic director.

Garrett told Berg he wanted to fund “huge jazz concerts” in the new Galen Center and that Lou Galen, a big jazz fan, was enthusiastic about the idea.

“We’ve been thinking about doing this for years,” Garrett said. “It has been part of the overall plan for the Galen Center from the beginning. Shelly is an unbelievable musician, and I thought it would be great to do an event every year with him and the Thornton School of Music to showcase the school.”

Two renowned producers, Phil Ramone and Gregg Field, organized the concert. A winner of 14 Grammy awards, Ramone is one of the most respected producers in the recording industry, and Field is a highly regarded drummer and producer as well as a member of Thornton’s board of councilors.

The producers brought PBS on board to record the concert for “Great Performances” in addition to two record labels, Verve Records and Concord Records, which have provided financial support for the event.

With financial commitment, producers, location and TV coverage in place, the list of artists that wanted to be included began to grow.

“We were already working with Patti Austin (as part of Spectrum’s Jazz Week), and there was talk that she would come back for the event, and then over the next couple of weeks, it kept ballooning as the artist list grew,” said Bobby Jamieson, alto saxophonist in the jazz orchestra.

The USC Thornton Jazz Orchestra works with famous musicians several times each school year, and once the concert began to take shape, the students reacted with the savvy of musicians who have been through an event like this before.

“We all feel prepared to do it,” said Colin Koproske, drummer for the jazz orchestra. “Part of the appeal of this band is playing with big-name artists and doing things how they are done in the real world. The point of this band – and the school, really – is to give you experience playing in professional situations like this.

“We play big gigs all the time, but this is something special,” Koproske added. “A lot of us have family members that are coming to town for this event. I’ve got four relatives coming in from Orange County, and my parents are coming in from Missouri.”

It will be a special night, notable as well for the fact that Fitzgerald gave one of her last performances at USC.

At a fund-raiser for the USC Thornton School in 1992, another legendary singer, Joe Williams, was performing a tribute to Fitzgerald when he stopped and said, “I can’t do this without you, Ella.” He coaxed her up on stage, in her slippers, and the two sang a duet, which would be one of her last before her death four years later.

“Little did we know that our inaugural event would be one of the main cultural happenings of the year,” Berg said. “With the support of the Athletic Department and the provost’s office, we are setting a new standard for what university music schools can do in the concert arena. And this is only the beginning.”

Other performers scheduled to appear at the concert: kd lang, Cyndi Lauper, Take 6, Ruben Studdard, Lizz Wright, Monica Mancini, Dave Koz and George Duke.