Last night I attended a press screening for "Anita O'Day: the Life of
a Jazz Singer". Like "Tis Autumn: the Search for Jackie Paris",
another jazz documentary, it is a work of love and necessary viewing
for anybody who cares about America's greatest cultural gift to the
world. Robbie Cavolina, who co-directed the movie with Ian McCrudden,
was Anita O'Day's manager for the last six years of her lifeshe died
in 1986 at the age of 87.
As was the case with Raymond De Felitta, the young director of the
Jackie Paris film, Cavolina and McCrudden were spellbound by a much
older artist. They followed O'Day around on her daily rounds,
including trips to the race track (like fellow Los Angeleno Charles
Bukowski, the singer was heavy into the ponies), and asked her
questions about her life and career. The end result was 100 hours of
footage that they turned into a truly eye-opening movie about a life in jazz.
Although not as famous as her African-American counterparts Ella
Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughn, Anita O'Day belongs to
the pantheon of pure woman jazz singers. Born Anita Colton in Kansas
City, Missouri, she took the last name "O'Day" since it was pig latin
for "dough"an item in short supply during the Great Depression. Just
like the dance marathon characters in "They Shoot Horses, Don't
They", O'Day participated in 24 hour endurance contests called the
Walkathon. As she explains in her memoir "Hard Times, High Times" and
also recounts in the documentary, Walkathons were a survival
mechanism: "They feed you seven times a day and see that you get free
medical care. Even if I don't win, I ain't gonna do bad with the
money I make dancing, singing and selling pictures of my partner and me."
full:
http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2008/07/17/anita-oday-the-life-of-a-jazz-singer/
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