The Bebop Shop : Body & Soul: Billie, Ella & The Great Jazz Voices : Anita O'Day
This box features 89 tracks and follows her early adventures with Gene Krupa from 1941-42 and moves through the rest of the 40's with her work with Stan Kenton, and her first solo sides. The booklet tells her story and provides track and session details as well as including many archive images. (Proper Records) Price: £15.49
Born in Chicago, Anita O’Day cut her musical teeth in the 1940’s playing with the Gene Krupa Band and the Stan Kenton Band during which time she had her first widespread successes with ‘And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine’ and ‘Tampico’ which allowed her to head out on her own as a single act.
Using a wide range of musical accompanists including the Oscar Peterson Trio, Barney Kessel Jimmy Rowles, Tal Farlow and Roy Eldridge, our four classic albums highlight a unique singing talent that put Anita up there with Billie, Ella and Mildred Bailey and went on to influence such great singers as June Christy and Chris Connor. All four albums have been digitally re-mastered for probably the finest sound quality ever! (AVID Entertainment) Price: £8.99
Two talented and utterly dissimilar arrangers contributed the imaginatively varied scores for these sessions, the first two by Buddy Bregman, the last three by Jimmy Giuffre. Reveling in the settings - the difference between hot and cool - Anita O’Day has a great time, not only on the swinging tunes, to which she contributes some trademark, zestful, inventive scatting, but also in singing ballads with a sure touch.
Backing her, Bregman and Giuffre used some of the finest Hollywood jazzmen, with Stan Getz particularly warm and lyrical on ‘I Never Had a Chance’. These are probably the best jazz sides recorded by Anita O’Day in the Fifties, and if you enjoy vocal records in the slightest bit, do yourself a favour and get this one. (Discovery Records) Price: £11.99
