Customer Reviews

Anita O'Day's Finest Hour

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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)

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!

This is my favorite of all her albums. What a voice and the arrangements, well they don't do it like that anymore.

If you've never given Anita o'Day a try, then this is the perfect introduction to one of the great singers of the 20th century, alot of people will know who ella,sarah vaughan or billie holliay are and sound like, yet when you mention Anita you're likely to get a blank stare. Anita deserves and should be mentioned with all of the above, she was a great singer, had a totally distinctive voice, swung with the best of them and looked fantastic, if you've never seen it watch Jazz on a Summer's Day she steals the show. On this cd you get to hear some of the best versions of jazz standards recorded, believe me you won't regret buying this and once you've heard her, you'll want to hear more.

Anita O'Day is one of the greatest jazz singers of all time. This is one of the best sinble CD presentations of her work, remembering that a single CD cannot do her justice. Nevertheless, this is aptly named, Anita O'Day's Finest Hour.

This CD gives a great overview of Anita's very productive years with Verve. Everything she did was top notch and full of her sexy, sultry, smart ass attitude that makes her so special. The sound quality is fantastic and the variety of settings from big band to trio explode with Anita lighting the fuse. After listening to this CD I am ordering several of the original complete LPs.