[.ca] Anita O Days Finest Hour

From Amazon.co.uk:
Though born in 1919 Anita O'Day still apparently occasionally performs near her US home and throughout her long career she has always had the qualities necessary to make her one of the small group of great jazz singers. A very personal, warm and slightly husky vocal timbre and her ability to improvise and swing strongly are evident throughout this selection from her Verve recordings of the 1950s and early 1960s. Variety is the keynote, with blues and ballads mingled, slow tempos balanced by fast ones and accompaniments ranging from big band to trio. Her versions here of "Tea For Two" and "Sweet Georgia Brown" recall her stunning performances of those songs in the famous film Jazz On A Summer's Day. The accompanists include Oscar Peterson and Barney Kessel and Kessel's guitar is her only support in a version of "God Bless The Child". This pays tribute to Billie Holiday but shows how distinctively Anita could fashion her own interpretations, using her own tougher, less vulnerable approach. --Graham Colombé

Great collection by a peerless singer:
Anita O'Day's recorded output includes quite a few undisputed masterpieces, and this collection brings just about all of them together on one CD. O'Day's supreme mastery of time and swing makes her one of the great jazz singers of the bop era, up there with Sarah Vaughn, Carmen MacRae and Little Jimmy Scott. Her sly, sexy cover of "Peel Me a Grape" is a classic. Her big band roots serve her well as she belts out "Sing, Sing, Sing", "Four Brothers" (completely scatted) and (of course) "Let Me Off Uptown" (with Roy Eldridge, her old Gene Krupa bandmate). And her Mach 4 romp through "Them There Eyes" (propelled by Oscar Peterson's stunning Lisztian piano solo work) will have you gasping in amazement-- she pushes every word out for a few lines, then jettisons whole lines to make room for scatting, then re-works the whole lyric into a relaxed half-time line while the rhythm sections furiously keeps up the bop beat underneath. Well worth a listen!

Anita the Lionheart:
She may have been overshadowed by Ella Fitzgerald in Norman Granz's "Verve" company but to my ears Anita O'Day belongs to pantheon of all-time great jazz singers.This compilation presents the cream of 14 albums she recorded for "Verve",and as 8 of them are out of print,this is the only way to hear some otherwise rare and forgotten gems.If her voice mirrors her soul,Anita O'Day must have been very cool,ironic lady but just when you think she never let herself go,she surprises with poignant version of "God Bless The Child" (from her loving tribute to Billie Holiday) which she sings with real understanding and feeling.After all the vocal fireworks,her worldless vocalising and fast-scatting,it came as surprise to notice that O'Day was actually NOT born with big/pretty/beautiful voice,but its a sheer power of her personality that somehow works for her.There is something of a "bad girl" in her,which I find very appealing and while so many of commercialy succesful singers of her time had vanished together with their cheerful smiles,work of cynical and cool Anita O'Day stands the test of time perfectly.(Note: the drummer John Poole,who worked with her for decades is present on a few selections.With so many great musicians behind her,O'Day still sounds more ballsy than all of them)

• Honeysuckle Rose
• Little Girl Blue - Billy May Orchestra, Anita O'Day
• Let Me Off Uptown - Gene Krupa, Anita O'Day
• Occasional Man
• Four Brothers - Anita O'Day, Marty Paich
• Tea for Two
• Boogie Blues
• God Bless the Child
• What Is This Thing Called Love? - Billy May Orchestra, Anita O'Day
• Ballad of the Sad Young Men
• Way You Look Tonight
• When Sunny Gets Blue
• Peel Me a Grape
• Sing, Sing, Sing
• Them There Eyes
• Anita's Blues
• Sweet Georgia Brown
• Party's Over