Anita Rigins

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 the mid-1950s and early 1960s, the great Anita O’Day recorded several glorious albums for jazz entrepreneur and producer Norman Granz, among them some of the most celebrated of her long career. The LP The Jazz Stylings of Anita O’Day (Verve VLP 9125), presented here in its entirety, consists of a selection of the best songs from those years, and finds her in the company of great jazz soloists and conductors. Eight additional tracks from the same period have been included as a bonus to the original album.

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."

Here is Anita O'Day in excellent vocal form joining forces with Billy May, one of the most prolific arrangers of the Hollywood recording studios in the 50s and 60s. To back her, May led three big-sized groups staffed by top musicians, and provided the swinging, tasteful charts in these two excellent albums dedicated to the songbooks of Cole Porter and Rodgers & Hart. Miss O'Day treats this handful of great evergreen songs in her usual compelling manner and with innate musicianship. She was gifted with a wide vocal range and a level head: that is to say, she sang smoothly without panic or strain at either extreme of her range, and remained consistently impressive in projection, phrasing, and flexibility. There is much to groove within this set and, be it for pop or jazz fans, listening to this great singer is sure to be an incomparable musical pleasure.

The Krupa band of 1941 to 1943 had two great forces in it with the addition of trumpeter Roy Eldridge and vocalist Anita O'Day replacing Irene Day. Eldridge almost singlehandedly transformed the orchestra from a pop-based dance band to a more jazz-inspired one, and O'Day was simply the most swinging singer Krupa ever had in the fold. Highlights include a wild "After You've Gone," "Stop! The Red Light's On," "Let Me Off Uptown," "Thanks for the Boogie Ride," "Knock Me a Kiss," "Bop Boogie," and the previously unissued "Barrelhouse Bessie From Basin Street." Those interested in Krupa's career as a bandleader should start with this one.