Music

Greta Matassa's Life With Ella Fitzgerald

KNKX Public Radio | By Dick Stein,

Published April 25, 2017 at 5:00 AM PDT

Since she was 14, Seattle jazz singer Greta Matassa has been drawn to the music of Ella Fitzgerald. She considers Ella a major influence and uses her singing as a teaching tool for her voice students.

Tuesday is Ella's 100th birthday. To celebrate, Matassa sat down with KNKX to talk about her life with Ella.

Matassa and her band will be performing a birthday tribute to Ella Tuesday night at Bake's Place in Bellevue.

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Dick Stein

Dick Stein joined KNKX in January 1992. He retired in 2020 after three decades on air. During his storied radio career, he hosted the morning jazz show, co-hosted and produced "Food for Thought" with Nancy Leson and wrote and directed the Jimmy Jazzoid live radio musical comedies and 100 episodes of Jazz Kitchen.

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Nick Morrison

Nick began working at KNKX as a program host in the late 1980’s and, except for a relatively brief hiatus, spent the next three decades with the station. He worked as a jazz and blues host, music director and production manager. Nick retired from KNKX in 2024.

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