Few female singers matched the hard-swinging Anita O'Day for sheer exuberance and skill in all areas of jazz vocals: her splendid improvising, wide range, dynamic tone, and innate sense of rhythm made her one of the most enjoyable singer of the age. O'Day's first appearances in a big band shattered the traditional image of a demure female vocalist by swinging just as hard as the other musicians on the bandstand, best heard on her vocal trading with Roy Eldridge on the Gene Krupa recording "Let Me Off Uptown." After making her solo debut in the mid-'40s, she incorporated bop modernism into her vocals and recorded over a dozen of the best vocal LPs of the era for Verve during the 1950s and '60s. Though hampered during her peak period by heavy drinking and, later, drug addiction, she made a comeback and continued singing into the new millennium. Born Anita Belle Colton in Chicago, she was raised largely by her mother and entered her first marathon-dance contest while barely a teenager. She spent time on the road and occasionally back at home, later moving from dancing to singing at the contests. After bad experiences amid brief tenures with Benny Goodman and even Raymond Scott, O'Day earned a place in Gene Krupa's band in 1941.

The Spanish Jazz Factory label assembled this collection of Anita O'Day sides recorded between 1942 and 1950, with a variety of orchestras led by Stan Kenton, Gene Krupa, Alvy West, Will Bradley, Abbey Brown, Paul Jordan, Jack Pleis, and Ben Homer. Though the liner notes definitely aren't up to the quality of an average major-label compilation, collectors will be overjoyed to see so much attention to detail regarding the early career of an important jazz singer, from evergreens like "And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine" to novelty fare like "Tennessee Waltz" and "Yeah Boo."

This is a live recording of Anita O'Day in her mature stage, where you can enjoy her favorite standard numbers. The ending song, "Tea for Two," a recreation of the movie "A Midsummer Night's Dream," is a must-listen.

A combination of three sessions with three different small backing groups available currently on a Japanese CD - this is an early revealing example of Anita O'Day's growth as a jazz artist since her days as a big band thrush. Her virtuosity at fast tempos is right on the dot, and she is fearlessly willing to take wide-open liberties with the melodies. The tune of "The Man I Love," and for instance, is completely taken apart and personalized; you wouldn't even recognize it were it not for the words. O'Day also shows us her vulnerable side in a remarkable on-the-edge performance of "You Don't Know What Love Is," and she gives listeners a rare taste of her songwriting in "Anita's Blues." Barney Kessel and Tal Farlow sit in on guitar on four tracks apiece; the other four are with piano trio. Low-key, modestly produced, this is best heard as directed - in the evening.

Legendary jazz vocalist Anita O'Day performs with, among others, her life-long musical partner, John Poole. Acknowledged by many as the world's most inventive jazz singer, she performs a number of classics such as "On Green Dolphin Street," "My Funny Valentine" and "They Can't Take That Away from Me."

When Anita O'Day left Norman Granz and the Verve label, her next major recording stop was her own company, Emily, for which she recorded a number of swinging live LPs. This is the latest of them to be reissued on CD, and while the packaging and liner notes leave a little to be desired, the music itself is classic Anita. This live session from Basin Street West in 1964 includes a number of Anita's personal favorites from that era, including "Get Out of Town," "'S Wonderful," "Street of Dreams" and "Honeysuckle Rose," along with other tunes like the lesser known "Try Your Wings."

This album is very similar to "The Essential Anita O'Day - Basin Street West 1964" on the Emily label. It is from the same stream of gigs and may even be a different set recorded on the same day. Anita is in absolutely top form. Her performance is excellent. However the quality of the recording is fairly poor; it sounds tinny and Anita's voice has a pronounced echo on many tracks. The recording was likely something that Anita and/or John Poole recorded themselves to review the performance (especially since it is being issued by Poole's wife and son). If you can handle the sound quality, you'll get some top notch Anita.

The Classics volume on Anita O'Day covering 1945 through 1950 takes her through the first five years of her solo career - after her breakout with Gene Krupa (and "Let Me Off Uptown"), but before the immense success of her Verve years. The only hit present is the bright novelty "Hi Ho Trailus Boot Whip," but fortunately O'Day didn't record many castoffs then; instead, par for the course during the late '40s was her bluesy romp version of "What Is This Thing Called Love?," another Cole Porter tune recorded at the same session. Her sweetly swinging versions of "Them There Eyes" and "I Told Ya I Love You, Now Get Out" are excellent, and the backing includes high-caliber musicians Benny Carter, Dave Barbour, and pianist/arranger Ralph Burns.

Compilations abound that center on Anita O'Day's work of the '40s and early '50s, before she set about recording one of the liveliest string of LPs ever seen on the planet (from 1955's This Is Anita to 1962's That Is Anita). With 1950-1952, the seminal Classics label reissued a string of titles that haven't seen light very often, a selection of her recordings for labels including London, Clef, and Norgran (the last two were Verve-associated labels). While they stand nowhere near the twin pinnacles of her career - her big-band heyday and her solo revival yet to come - O'Day recorded much wonderful music during these two years. In 1952 alone, she recorded three excellent sessions (the final two-thirds of the program), including a swinging date with her Krupa bandmate Roy Eldridge in New York and a sublime Chicago appearance with Roy Kral.

Anita O'Day celebrated her 50th year as a professional singer at Carnegie Hall on Friday evening with a program that reviewed her big-band years with Gene Krupa and Stan Kenton and her work with small groups over the past 30 years.
Miss O'Day was relaxed and casually high-spirited, cutting through the formality that a performance in Carnegie Hall suggests.
And when she and Roy Eldridge remembered what they once did with ''Let Me Off Uptown'' with Gene Krupa's band, they both showed that the spirit that created that performance was still there, even though Mr. Eldridge now only sings his part and no longer blows the crackling trumpet he once did since a heart attack five years ago forced him to give it up…

In 1993 the Giants of Jazz label released a collection drawing upon seven different Verve albums by Anita O'Day (1919-2006), a skilled and at times somewhat formidable vocalist who had the kind of chops and temperament usually associated with trumpeters, drummers, and booking agents. Recorded in early December 1955, "Honeysuckle Rose" first appeared on the album This Is Anita; technically speaking, this track falls outside of this collection's stated timeframe of 1956-1962. "Stompin' at the Savoy" and "Don't Be That Way" come from Pick Yourself Up, an LP that took almost all of 1956 to create. "Star Eyes" as well as tracks one through seven were taken from Anita O'Day Sings the Winners, a 1958 release that found her backed by a somewhat slick orchestra under the direction of Russ Garcia. Anita O'Day seems to have spent a lot of time in the recording studios during April 1959; during that month she made a Cole Porter album with Billy May (cuts 13 through 21) and collaborated with Jimmy Giuffre on the Cool Heat album, from which "Hershey Bar" was extracted. During 1962 this stunning woman made an LP with Gene Harris and the Three Sounds (see track eight "Whisper Not") and teamed up with vibraphonist Cal Tjader on the marvelous Time for Two album, the source for her rendition of Dave Frishberg's pleasantly smutty opus, "Peel Me a Grape."

Spontaneous, engaging, joyful, this recording perfectly captured all that made Anita O'Day one of the best jazz singers of all time. This particular disc is also an excellent representation of her club work backed by a quartet led by her long time soul mate and drummer, John Poole. Poole was tremendously talented, his brush work was as good as I have ever heard, sympathetic, energetic and at times explosive he nevertheless knew how to stay out of the limelight and allow the incomparable O'Day to strut her stuff. Anita's presentation, led by an uncanny sense of timing, will make appreciative listeners sit on the edge of their chairs. Her interaction with the microphone, her audience, and her fellow musicians on this recording are captivating. Listen to how she plays with the words and wonder at how she did this night after night for years and years and never lost her sense of joy. Wonderful stuff.

One of the greatest of all female American jazz singers, Anita O'Day shattered the typical "girl singer" stereotype and presented herself instead as a hip jazz musician, and her skills in improvisation cemented her stature among the pioneers of be-bop and the West Coast "cool" school. Presented here is O'Day's classic 1978 album, "There's Only One" featuring Billy Webb (guitar); Al Bruno (guitar); Ed Holtz (piano); Silvio Tucciarone (steel guitar); Johnny Greer (drums) and Eddie Jo Downs (bass). All selections newly remastered.

Yet another raer gem by the late Anita O' Day from her "Skylark" recording which was found in the summer of 2006 while searching for footage for the documentary "Anita O'Day Life of a jazz Singer. Tracks 1-10 were recorded on June 15, 1978 live at Club Sometime in Tokyo, Japan. The extra 7 bonus tracks "Rock and Roll Rag", "Come Rain Or Shine", "Fly Me To The Moon", "Sunny" "Walk On By" and "That's Love" makes buying this CD all the more worth it, and for the Anita O'Day fan, will be a welcome addtion to their collection. This CD captures Anita during the late 70's where she was still going strong.

A solid album by vocalist Anita O'Day that was done in the mid-'70s, but was initially only available in Japan. She subsequently released it on her own label, but it's still not seen widespread distribution and may be tough to find. Her voice was once again in vivid, expressive form after her successful battle with drug and alcohol problems.