JAZZ

Ella Fitzgerald, who will celebrate her 71st birthday April 25, will be honored April 28 in a gala tribute at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Bill Cosby will host the event, which will raise funds for the Society of Singers, an organization launched in 1984 to offer financial and other assistance to singers in need. Among the performers set to participate are Mel Torme, Joe Williams, Dionne Warwick, George Shearing, the Pointer Sisters, Manhattan Transfer, Patti Austin, Carol Burnett, the Frank Capp/Nat Pierce Juggernaut big band, and an all-star jazz group led by the saxophonist Benny Carter, who discovered Fitzgerald when she was 15. During the evening the first of a series of annual trophies honoring lifetime achievements, to be known as “The Ellas,” will be awarded. The first recipient will be Ella Fitzgerald herself; the award is tentatively set to be presented by Clint Eastwood.