By Ron Wilkinson Aug 17, 2008, 20:06 GMT
Although adding nothing to the previous body of knowledge on the iconic jazz singer, this film is a precious collection of extremely unique jazz vocal footage that should not be missed
Anita O’Day is one of the female jazz singer greats, grouped with Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. She was probably the most experimental of the three singers, experimenting to the extreme almost as though she had a chip on her shoulder. Born in Chicago in 1919, she left home at age 12 and began her career two years later as a dance marathon contestant. She doesn’t talk much about this in the film and it’s unfortunate that she doesn’t, because there is a story there. Perhaps it was too painful for her to recount. The fact is that for a 14 year old girl to be engaging in the systematic, public humiliation of sadomasochistic marathon dancing is quite a story in and of itself (see “They Shoot Horses, Don't They?” - 1969).
She mentions something about 1000 hours and finishing second and that was the end of that. Thereafter she met drummer Don Carter, who introduced her to music theory and whom she married in 1937. This was followed by “Down Beat” editor Carl Cons, the Max Miller Quartet and Gene Krupa, who broke up his band when he was busted for pot. It was about this time that she was permanently in the big-time but only for as long as she continued to push it to the limit. She was in pain most of the time, simply from her non-stop activity.
Her solution to the pain was heroine and she was an addict for about 16 years while abusing alcohol on the side. One day she nearly died f an overdose. In fact, she claims she did die and was brought back to life. At that point she decided to quit, and she did; much like Ray Charles when he was forced to decide between his ‘well managed” addiction and his career.
Unlike many documentaries of famous performing artists, this one is blessed with actual interviews with Anita herself. The film was completed around the time of her death in 2006. These actual interviews include her unflinching description of her heroine addiction during which she “waited 16 hours a day for the heroine to come.” She says that 16 years of her life just passed her by while she was waiting for the next fix. There is just nothing else there.
The film is also blessed with actual film footage of her performances, including her most famous one, the live version of "Sweet Georgia Brown" at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival (also in Bert Stern's “Jazz on a Summer's Day”) and her classic upstaging of Roy Eldridge in “Let Me Off Up Town.”
Co-writer/director Robbie Cavolina is an expert of Anita O’Day and a frequent collaborator with Joni Mitchell. He was art director for Mitchell’s “Turbulent Indigo” album in 1996 and directed two short documentaries for her, “Joni Mitchell Hits and Misses” and “Shine.” Co-writer/director Ian McCrudden is a Stanford graduate with the well received previous film “Islander” to his credit.
All-in-all, this is a great documentary about a great performer, but there is not a lot added to the material in O’Day’s biography, “High Times Hard Times” (by Anita O'Day and George Eells). In spite of this shortcoming, the performances in the film are super and, in and of themselves, justify seeing the movie. If one has no interest in the person whatsoever, the selected performances by such a unique stylist are a lesson in jazz that is precious. Watching this film is like a college education in scat and a class syllabus on singing like a saxophone. To watch her skip through 12th note vocals for measures on end is quite a thrill. There are very few performances like this performed by anybody else and even fewer caught on screen.
The viewer spends the entire film trying to figure her out, and never can. She probably never figured herself out. She was too busy being a star.
Directed and Written by: Robbie Cavolina and Ian McCrudden
Release: August 15, 2008MPAA: Not RatedRuntime: 90 minutesCountry: USALanguage: EnglishColor: Color
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