Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer (documentary)

When it comes to Jazz singers, everybody can name the big 3: Billie,Ella and Sarah.

But apparently only connoisseurs know Anita O'Day - sarcastic, hip, white Jazz chick who started in 1940s with some serious swing background, in bands by Gene Krupa and Stan Kenton, before building excellent and now classic discography for "Verve" (some 15 albums) and who performed long into her 80s. Everyone who has ever heard would probably agree she was the rare anomaly, white woman who possessed sensational sense of rhythm and was swinging harder than anybody around. Not conventionally pretty or particularly glamourous in time when those things mattered, she also had unusual voice that was smokey, whiskey-soaked and clearly reflected strong personality - outspoken, defiant and argumentative she would follow her own impulse and often do as she pleased with total disregard for what ordinary people would say or think about her.

Unfortunately - just as in case of Billie Holiday - lot of media attention was always focused on O'Day's heroin habit. But where people might "understand" Billie as a tortured soul who suffered a lot, Anita was always defiant and never apologized for her lifestyle. She did it because everybody else around her did it - smoked, drunk, took drugs and lived on a road for years. Big deal. I mean - listen what an artist she was, the moment she grabbed the microphone she would tear the place down, changing the rhythm several times during a song (that was her speciality) for me this is the most important thing about who she was, not what drugs she was taking. Notoriety became her curse - once she was arrested (and that was a set up,at that time she was not taking any drugs yet) O'Day said to herself "what the hell,I might as well do it now" and since than every single interviewer was pushing this subjects for the rest of her life, always talking about drugs and alcohol addiction but nothing ever was being said about the music. Even her exciting biography "Hard times,high times" was edited to sound more like shocking & scandalous biography than serious book about her life.

In this excellent (posthumous) documentary a lot of time was used to dwell on O'Day's notoriety - her colleagues,musicians, managers,fans all talk how difficult and eccentric she was - lady herself is very honest, entertaining and obviously enjoying in shocking her interviewers with anecdotes from a immensely rich life & career, though every now and than you can feel that she hides a lot behind the smile. She laughs about it now as she discusses how she ended up in prison for Marijuana possession (6 months!) but than she suddenly quiets down and there is a sadness in her old eyes as if she remembers the pain and wounds from this punishment that changed her life and forever marked her as "Jezebel of Jazz".Than she talks about ordinary people who would not drink or participate in what for her was normal - "That was the OTHER life,man! I mean these people drunk WATER and read BOOKS between sets!"  It's always Anita against the rest of the world, against the other life. Divorces, miscarriages - she shrugs them off with a smile. When obviously square journalist still pushes the subject, amazed with her defiance ("But how could you do all these things?") she answers frankly - "this is how things happened,man,thats how it went down." Colleagues and journalists interviewed for this documentary are all thrilled how fabulous and adventurous she was,but they admit she was "the other life" for them - most of them find her exciting but would never dare to live the way she did, always on the road, always party, no security whatsoever.

Movie also points at the fact that O'Day belonged to a certain generation that experienced professional peak during 1940s and 1950s - she was a giant vocal virtuoso among many of highly trained improvisators but than all of them got kicked out from the throne in 1960s by rock music. Luckily for her,Japan always welcomed her and she continued working deep into old age, some might even say longer than she should have - audience dwindled, voice was not longer there, Jazz music far from being popular as it once was. The best parts of the movie are old classic filmed performances of Anita O'Day in action - she always had total command and authority on stage, pushing her musicians to dare to follow her if they can. The part of the reason why she never experienced huge success as some other songbirds is that she never was a romantic ballad singer - she apparently despised sentimental approach and hers was a tough chick perspective,even in ballads. Excellent documentary and I am seriously glad she is celebrated today even if it's annoying that "the other world" is still focused on her notoriety - but maybe some newcomers might check her out from curiosity and discover what a talent she was, its the music that matters. It always was.