Singer Anita O’Day, 87, whose wild behavior and reputation as a drug addict contributed to the nickname “Jezebel of Jazz”, died early Thursday, was one of the finest singers to emerge from the swing era.
O’Day, whose renditions of Honeysuckle Rose and Sweet Georgia Brown made her one of the most respected jazz singers of the 1940s and ’50s, was born Anita Belle Colton in Chicago. She left home in her teen years and joined a burlesque show. When one of the singers came down with laryngitis, she was asked to fill in. The rest is history. She later recorded with jazz legends, such as drummer Gene Krupa and trumpeter David Roy Eldridge (Let Me Off Uptown), and took the stage at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, where The lonious Monk and Louis Armstrong also performed.
In her prime, O’Day was described as a scat singer and a natural improviser whose unique interpretations energized the most familiar songs. She inspired many singers, including June Christy and Chris Connor. It’s difficult to believe that prior to her emergence, jazz and pop singers were tied to the Tin Pan Alley tradition and rarely personalized their songs.
“I tried everything. Curiosity will make you go your own way,” the singer once said. And her curiosity occasionally landed her in jail on drug charges as she was addicted to heroin for more than a decade and alcohol for many more years but at the same time held her own among the finest in jazz.
In 1997, the National Endowment for the Arts honored her with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
In recent years, she has been performing at various Los Angeles clubs. Cavolina just completed a feature film about the singer called Anita O’Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer. It is expected to be released in 2007.
Via: Newsday
