Jazz Articles about Anita O'Day
Mosaic Blow-Out, Anita @ 100 & More
by Marc Cohn
So, my log book reminded me it was time to play some Fats Waller, and the Savory box just arrived from Mosaic, which contains fabulous Waller airchecks. Done! Well, one thing lead to another, and as you see below, more Mosaics screamed for attention. Anita O'Day is 100 in the Fall--time for a warmup with Sings the Winners, which Will Friedwald considers one of the top 50 jazz vocal records of all-time; DrJ selected three tunes associated with Stan Getz ...
read moreAnita O'Day: The Life Of A Jazz Singer
by Victor L. Schermer
Anita O'Day Anita O'Day: The Life Of A Jazz Singer AOD Productions 2008Whatever else she was, Anita O'Day was a bundle of contradictions. Though one of the top four or five women jazz singers of her generation, she had little idea what she was doing with her life or where she was going with her art. She led a miserable though long life, was regularly addicted to drugs and alcohol, frequently disappeared ...
read moreAnita O'Day: Anita O'Day Live in Tokyo '63
by Andrew Velez
This is a never previously released live set from a highly successful 1963 television concert in Japan. Vocalist Anita O'Day came out of the Big Band Era and after memorable stints with the Gene Krupa and Stan Kenton bands she launched an enduring soloist career that was still going strong when she passed in 2007 at 87.This “new" O'Dayalbum is especially welcome because it is from her peak recording years. The snazzy arrangements by Buddy Bregman come directly ...
read moreAnita O: Live in Tokyo
by C. Michael Bailey
Inevitable with the upcoming screening of the documentary Anita O'Day The Life of a Jazz Singer at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival is the release of Live in Tokyo '63. This is the soundtrack to a televised concert in Japan during O'Day's fruitful association with Verve records that was to last the decade. This inevitability is good fortune for O'Day enthusiasts as this concert presents O'Day at the top of her game, still basking in the incandescence of her filmed ...
read moreWho's The Hippest Chick In Town? Anita.
by Rob Mariani
Who the hell shows up at a midnight jam session at the Loews Sheraton Theater in Greenwich Village wearing white, elbow-length gloves, a little, flowered print dress and a hat that looks like an inverted birdbath? Who dares to show up on stage like that where guys like Zoot Sims and Conte Candoli and Al Cohn are playing? And then proceeds to not merely hold her own on the scat vocals, but to actually kick some ass up there?
read moreAnita O: Keep the Coffee Coming
by C. Michael Bailey
Keep the Coffee Coming is a collection of eighteen small, medium and big band recordings fronted by Anita O'Day from 1952 to 1955. This is the period just prior to O'Day's climb toward her zenith with Verve records. During this period, O'Day was recording for the Norman Granz pre-Verve labels Clef and Norgram. It is not clear where these recordings came from. The selections are from the Anita O'Day book, to be sure.
The disc is kicked off ...
read moreAnita O'Day: Indestructible!
by Jim Santella
Recorded at several sessions during the last several years, this program of standards comes from the heart. Although Anita O'Day's voice has changed considerably, she still swings comfortably with a relaxed composure and a positive outlook. She interprets each of these golden chestnuts with the same confident spirit that she showed us many years ago during her own prime time.
O'Day and trumpeter Joe Wilder, both in their 80s, are almost the same age. Trombonist Roswell Rudd is ...
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