The Jezebel of Jazz

MISS ANITA O'DAY

(October 18, 1919 - October 23, 2006)

She swung hard, and lived even harder; Anita O'Day was a petite lass with a mouth like a stevedore's, and addictions which would have felled a less-hardy soul. 

Anita got her start at the tender age of 14, singing in Chicago clubs; her big break came in 1942, when she joined Gene Krupa's band and scored a major hit, "Let Me Off Uptown." Krupa's arrest in 1943 for marijuana possession put an end to the aggregation; O'Day then briefly joined Woody Herman's band, followed by a longer, more productive stint with the Stan Kenton outfit. Briefly rejoining Krupa for 10 months in 1945, O'Day decided to pursue a solo career thereafter.

O'Day found her greatest success during the 1950's, under the care of Norman Granz on his Verve label. The highly-respected imprint was most famous at the time for elevating Ella Fitzgerald to superstar status due to her wildly successful Songbooks series; as well as for signing a late-period Billie Holiday in the autumn of her career and life.

Unfortunately, like Holiday, O'Day's shared a taste for heroin; although, at first, it didn't seem to affect her performances or reputation. Indeed, O'Day's legendary, acclaimed performance at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, was done while she was, in her own words, "high on heroin during the concert." Her Verve contract expired in 1962, after 17 albums, and O'Day drifted after  that, nearly dying of a heroin overdose in 1968. Kicking her habit, she performed frequently in Japan and Europe during the 1970's, and wrote candidly of her experiences in a 1981 memoir, High Life, Hard Times.

Seemingly indefatigable, O'Day's final recording was the aptly-titled 2006 release, Indestructible! Sadly, in November of that year, O'Day entered a convalescent hospital to recover from pneumonia, and never left. She died in her sleep of cardiac arrest. Yet the "Jezebel of Jazz" still lives on, in her many recordings, and in the myriad anecdotes which abound of her salty tongue and wild behavior. Happy Birthday, Anita O'Day! Wherever you are, the joint is sure to be jumping.