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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
No jazz singer has ever swung harder or scatted with more infectious enthusiasm than Anita O'Day. This selection of her Verve recordings from 1954 to 1962 shows just how many contexts O'Day could enliven with her presence. Some of her earliest hits are heard here in reprised but still effective form. The 1956 version of "Let Me Off Uptown," with partners Gene Krupa and Roy Eldridge, rekindles its original energy, and arranger Gary McFarland creates a driving 1961 revision of "Boogie Blues." She's clearly comfortable at the fastest tempos, singing "Tea for Two" and "Them There Eyes" at breakneck speed, enjoying matching improvisational wits with an elite assortment of musicians including Oscar Peterson and Phil Woods. A few ballads, like "God Bless the Child" with just Barney Kessel's guitar for accompaniment, provide effective contrast. O'Day is terrific, also, on two wittily steamy selections with Cal Tjader from 1962, "An Occasional Man" and "Peel Me a Grape." --Stuart Broomer
Product Description
O´DAY ANITA O DAY S FINEST HOUR
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Anita the Lionheart,
By
This review is from: Anita O'Day's Finest Hour (Audio CD)
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)
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great collection by a peerless singer,
By LB RJ "lb_rj" (Long Beach CA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Anita O'Day's Finest Hour (Audio CD)
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!
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Anita O'Days Finest hour,
By PERSIA MATINE (Mill Valley, Ca.) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Anita O'Day's Finest Hour (Audio CD)
This is my favorite of all her albums. What a voice and the arrangements, well they don't do it like that anymore.
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