Anita O'Day may not be as well known a Jazz singer as,oh say...Ella Fitzgerald,or even Sarah Vaughn, but over a period of sixty-odd years, she certainly made a name for herself,none the less. She started out as a singer with drummer/composer/band leader, Gene Krupa,moving on to a brief stint with Stan Kenton, and releasing a healthy legacy of recordings for Jazz legend Norman Grantz's Verve label,before entering a 15 year love affair with Heroin. This very well produced documentary features all of these facts & more. For it's relatively short running time (only about 90 minutes),it packs a treasure trove of film clips of performances (including the now legendary footage of O'Day singing 'Sweet Georgia Brown',at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival),and in some examples,complete performances,and not just excerpts of songs, plus film & video footage of interviews of O'Day,from some rare early television kine scopes,to just prior to her death in 2006, as well as others. Although the film does make brief mention of her short lived marriages,it doesn't really go much into her private life (she regarded her private life as just that,so we don't get a whole lot about it). If you consider yourself a lover of Jazz,you owe it to yourself to seek this film out. No MPAA rating here (as it's being distributed as an art film),but does contain a few rude words & references to O'Day's rampant drug problems, but is basically okay for teens,and even pre-teens with an interest in Jazz.
