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• A fascinating tribute to a resilient jazz legend and survivor

A self proclaimed “song stylist”, Anita O’Day was a feisty 87 years old when directors Robbie Cavolina and Ian McCrudden finished shooting their documentary, Anita O’Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer; she would die within a month in late 2006. This 90 minute film is a fascinating documentary look into the career of a jazz singer, who throughout her troubled career was favorably mentioned with the likes of legends as Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn and Billie Holiday.

Using standard contemporary interviews with former colleagues, agents, music experts and compilations of old film and television footage, Anita O’Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer tells the often happy, rocky and successful times of a big bang singer discovered by drummer/band leader Gene Krupa, through several troubled marriages, addiction to heroin, numerous rebounds in the US and tours of Europe and Asia. Singing signature renditions of “Sweet Georgia Brown”, “Let’s Fall in Love” and “Honeysuckle Rose”, O’Day used a skilled variety of smooth interpretation, improvisation, be-bop and scat. She was one of the only a few Caucasian singers to regularly sing at the Apollo Theater with mostly African-American artists and was one of the first jazz artists to help launch Verve Records in the mid 1950s.

Combing frequently busy, split screen images, filmmakers Cavolina and McCrudden let O’Day, with all her wrinkles and emotional scars, reveal in intriguing detail discussions of her unique vocal style, troubles on the road, professional triumphs and conquering a fifteen year drug addiction, including the experience of a false fatal overdose. For many people unaware of this amazing jazz legend, whose remarkable career extended over 50 years, Anita O’Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer provides an interesting education.