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Quotation


"I want them to listen to me, not look at me. I want to be treated like another musician. I believe you remember longer and better what you hear than what you see. Agree?"
Anita O'Day

Read and listen


Anita's top 5:
1) "Let me off uptown"
(OK 6210, May 8, 1941)
2) "Anita" (Verve MGV-2000, 1956)
3) "Pick yourself up"
(Verve MGV 2043, 1956)
4) "Anita O'Day sings the winners"
(Verve MGV 8283, 1958)
5) "Waiter, make mine blues"
(Verve MGV 2145, 1960)

- and watch out for "Indestructible!" (Kayo, 2006)

Find out more


Hightimes, hard times
Anita O'Day (with George Eells), 1981

Official web site
www.anitaoday.com/homepage.html

Archives



 
Hard Rain    No 20    October 16, 2006
Anita O'Day - top swinger
"Anita O'Day. The Life of a Jazz Singer" promises to be something out of the ordinary - the long awaited documentary on the life of the legendary jazz vocalist.
 
Anita Belle Colton, better known as Anita O’Day, was born in Chicago, Illinois on October 18, 1919. Having followed her career of ups and downs over an unbelievable number of decades, it comes as no surprise that a new album was completed on her 86th birthday. The title is of course ”Indestructible!”.

Anita’s many breakthroughs over the years are indeed jazz history. Joining Gene Krupa in 1941, with trumpeter Roy Eldridge in the band, boosted her career as ”one of the top five big band singers”. But it was recording with Norman Granz and the young arranger Buddy Bregman in the 1950s that gave her star status.



”Anita” was the first album on the new label Verve 2000. Every track on the album is a hit in itself. There is not a jazz vocalist today who can beat the 1955 versions of ”You’re the top” and ”Honeysuckle rose”. Anita O’Day’s phrasing and treatment of lyrics is without parallel. Her swing is irresistible.

  Success continued with ”Pick yourself up” and other memorable recordings, before the cooperation with Granz started to get rusty. You can read about it all in her autobiography ”High times, hard times”, first published in 1981.This is one of the best in its genre – brutal and straightforward as it is.

Now we are up for a real treat! The first, definitive documentary on the life of the legendary jazz vocalist is around the corner. In Anita's own words we will hear the tale of a ”musical genius who broke race barriers and lived her life boldly, unconventionally, without looking back”.

”Anita O’Day – The Life of a Jazz Singer” promises to be something out of the ordinary. And as we wait for this: Let’s face the music and dance!