High Times Hard Times

September 22, 2008 3:03 PM

Last month, a wonderful documentary entitled simply Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer debuted in NYC and LA and was very warmly received. It tells the story of a singer regarded by many jazz fans to be among the greatest who ever lived (her strikingly modern small-group recordings from the 1950s attest to a singer whose talent grew far beyond her Big Band days), and who, despite living an incredibly self-destructive life, lived and performed well into her 80's. Here's Anita from her famous 1958 Newport performance, and here are some other notable clips: Honeysuckle Rose, Let Me Off Uptown (w/Gene Krupa and feat. Roy Eldridge; a huge hit in 1941), Love for Sale, and more from the film here.
posted by ornate insect (25 comments total)

I love Anita O'Day. "Sometimes I'm Happy" is a wonderful song. Thanks for the link.
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 3:18 PM on September 22, 2008

Wow, thanks for introducing me to this person!
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 3:21 PM on September 22, 2008

excellent post, ornate insect, thanks!
posted by madamjujujive at 3:27 PM on September 22, 2008

Great post. What a great singer! I can't wait to see the documentary.

Comical -- the drummer in Gene Krupa's band on 'Let Me Off Uptown' is smiling and jerking around etc very similar to the guy in Reefer Madness -- let's pray for him that he was not on that evil stuff...

How in the hell did we live before the internets? Why?
posted by dancestoblue at 3:33 PM on September 22, 2008

the drummer in Gene Krupa's band on 'Let Me Off Uptown' is smiling and jerking around etc very similar to the guy in Reefer Madness

Krupa was the drummer, and was also famously busted for pot.
posted by ornate insect at 3:35 PM on September 22, 2008

Anyone care to recommend a favorite cd or compilation?
posted by Morrigan at 3:43 PM on September 22, 2008

the drummer in Gene Krupa's band on 'Let Me Off Uptown' is smiling and jerking around etc very similar to the guy in Reefer Madness

Krupa was the drummer, and was also famously busted for pot.
posted by ornate insect at 5:35 PM

Doh! Now you all can see my lack of Google-fu etc.

Thanx for the heads up OI.
posted by dancestoblue at 3:55 PM on September 22, 2008

morrigan--here's a discography. I can recommend w/out equivocation all the Verve records she did in the 1950s, but I'm especially fond of Anita Sings the Most (w/Oscar Peterson) and Time for Two (w/Cal Tjader). All the Verve/Clef stuff was compiled as a Mosaic box set, which is superb, but that's out of print now.
posted by ornate insect at 4:03 PM on September 22, 2008

also highly recommended from the Verve years:
Anita O'Day and the Three Sounds
Trav'lin' Light
Waiter, Make Mine Blues
All the Sad Young Men
posted by ornate insect at 4:15 PM on September 22, 2008

Anyone care to recommend a favorite cd or compilation?

A nice compliation CD is Classics -- Anita O'Day 1945-1950.
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 4:20 PM on September 22, 2008

I have to give a woman credit for power, of a kind, if her singing has always had the curious effect of making me run screaming into the night.
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 5:44 PM on September 22, 2008

Love, love, love Anita O'Day. So many other female performers owe her a lot of credit.
posted by katillathehun at 7:06 PM on September 22, 2008 [1 favorite]

The purists may hate this, but I really like the Verve Remix version of her "Sing, Sing, Sing".
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 7:24 PM on September 22, 2008

she's good but nobody even comes close to Ella.
posted by brandz at 7:37 PM on September 22, 2008

she's good but nobody even comes close to Ella.

Thankfully we don't have to choose, and can enjoy them both for their very different qualities. Art is not a horse race.
posted by ornate insect at 7:40 PM on September 22, 2008

I really hope that doc comes to my town; I don't feel like waiting for the DVD to hit Netflix. Thanks for this; I've loved her albums for years but had never seen the footage of "Tea For Two" at Newport. Amazing.

ornate insect: I'm especially fond of Anita Sings the Most (w/Oscar Peterson) and Time for Two (w/Cal Tjader)

Yes yes yes. Both fabulous records, with the Peterson quartet album being the absolute favorite stuff I've heard from O'Day (tho the Tjader is great, too).
posted by mediareport at 7:43 PM on September 22, 2008

she's good but nobody even comes close to Ella.

Actually, if you want to debate taste, Sarah Vaughan kicks both their asses (especially this album). But to my ears, Anita's voice is much more engaging than Ella's and not quite as achingly gorgeous as Billie's, but any of those four in a small group setting is the best vocal jazz you can possibly hear, so who gives a fuck how you rank them, really.
posted by mediareport at 7:50 PM on September 22, 2008

mediareport--if you like the Anita clip from Newport, check out the documentary Jazz on a Summer's Day (1958), from whence the Anita clip is taken. It's available DVD, and features great performances from a whole bunch of jazz heavyweights.
posted by ornate insect at 7:51 PM on September 22, 2008

Fun Anita O'Day fact: She changed her surname from Colton to O'Day, pig Latin for "dough," slang for money.
posted by twoleftfeet at 8:14 PM on September 22, 2008

Thanks, ornate insect; I should have put that at the top of my queue long ago. I can't decide if I like the way the camera lingers on the crowd or not; some of the audience are awesomely cool and interesting-looking, but others, like the bored lady eating an ice cream bar, seem like they should have remained on the cutting room floor to leave room for more footage of Anita. But it looks like a fascinating documentary - one I'm sure I'll like.

Thanks again for the post!
posted by mediareport at 8:29 PM on September 22, 2008

Yeah, the Newport crowd scenes are almost as fascinating as the music. What a cool slice of life. I"ll check out the full documentary, but I have to say, nine out of ten music docs have to over edit the performances. I prefer to read a good book with youtube handy, where a surprising amount of footage has been dumped in the past couple of years. I read Joe Boyd's "White Bicycles" recently, and for about nine out of ten artists or events he mentions there are great unedited clips on line.
Thanks for a swell post.
-j
posted by jetsetsc at 9:25 PM on September 22, 2008

A friend of the family was one of the talking heads...I knew that he was in the closet, but I did NOT know that he was a heroin addict.
posted by brujita at 9:36 PM on September 22, 2008

Anita's Newport show and Billie Holiday's Sound of Jazz show are both like going to church for me.
posted by Camofrog at 10:09 PM on September 22, 2008

A friend of the family was one of the talking heads...I knew that he was in the closet, but I did NOT know that he was a heroin addict.

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... ?
posted by katillathehun at 10:28 PM on September 22, 2008

Translation: one of the people interviewed.
posted by brujita at 10:43 PM on September 22, 2008