Anita O’Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer

Anita O’Day is considered one of jazz’s finest vocalists, ranking among the likes of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Sarah Vaughan. Born 1919 in Chicago she gained first national attention as the girl singer with Gene Krupa’s Orchestra on the hit record Let Me Off Uptown. After fronting Krupa’s and Sten Kenton’s orchestras, she started a highly successful solo career, and for seven decades, she recorded and toured relentlessly, surviving both heroin and alcohol addiction.

The film includes several of her legendary stage appearances, one of which being her landmark performance of Sweet Georgia Brown from the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival as well as several interviews with jazz luminaries such as George Wein, Margaret Whiting and many others.

Anita O’Day passed away in November 2006 at the age of 87.