Jazz Articles

Anita O'Day: Anita O'Day Live in Tokyo '63

by Andrew Velez
April 4, 2008

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 ...

Anita O: Live in Tokyo

by C. Michael Bailey
April 8, 2007

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 ...

Anita O'Day: Indestructible!

by Jim Santella
April 19, 2006

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 ...

Anita O'Day: Indestructible!

by R. Emmet Sweeney
April 8, 2006

Nostalgia can be a dangerous thing. Take, for example, Anita O'Day's new album. The 86 year-old, who made her name as the lead vocalist for the Gene Krupa Orchestra, hasn't released an album for thirteen years, and the results on Indestructible! are a clear indication why. Her voice has been ravaged by decades of hard living, and her attempts at singing behind the beat show the strain of effort. The shadow of her talent is there, but it's ...

Anita O'Day: Indestructible!

by Todd S. Jenkins
February 22, 2006

Anita O'Day Indestructible! Kayo Stereophonic 2006

In 2003 View Video put out a DVD of one of cabaret singer Mabel Mercer's last performances. She was in the twilight of her life, and every minute of her advanced age was reflected in her loving, yet passionless and cursory delivery of songs she must have sung thousands of times each. The audience was wrapped around her little finger in bittersweet attention, witnessing the denouement of a ...

Anita O'Day: Indestructible!

by C. Michael Bailey
February 22, 2006

Writer's Note: This is not the original article I submitted for publication. That article lacked a critical compass. I have taken advantage of the Internet and recast my opinions more thoughtfully. I have revised the article to better reflect my active rather than reactive feelings toward Indestructible!. After all, Anita O'Day is a National Treasure. Anita O'Day was born October 18, 1919 as the former Anita Belle Colton in Chicago, Illinois. She began singing in her ...