Few female singers matched the hard-swinging and equally hard-living Anita O'Day for sheer exuberance and talent in all areas of jazz vocals. Though three or four outshone her in pure quality of voice, her splendid improvising, wide dynamic tone, and innate sense of rhythm made her the most enjoyable singer of the age. O'Day's first appearances in a big band shattered the traditional image of a demure female vocalist by swinging just as hard as the other musicians on the bandstand, best heard on her vocal trading with Roy Eldridge on the Gene Krupa recording "Let Me Off Uptown. Though hampered during her peak period by heavy drinking and later, drug addiction, she made a comeback and continued singing into the new millennium. Born Anita Belle Colton in Chicago, she was raised largely by her mother, and entered her first marathon-dance contest while barely a teenager. She spent time on the road and occasionally back at home, later moving from dancing to singing at the contests.

Anita O'Day became famous as a big-band singer in the s. But much of her lasting fame also stems from the albums she made for Verve between and , which collectively stand as a Bible of cool. May's masterful arrangements ingnite that imitable O'Day insouciance; her exacting phrasing, calculated dissonances, and tart wit, transform each song into a swinging salute to Rodgers and Hart, line for line. Timbre alone cannot guarantee a listener's interest in familiar material, however. And when Anita O'Day joins with Billy May to get off a dozen Rogers and Hart standards, both singer and arranger-conductor rely on their ingenuity to show what can be done with show music.

Lends credence to the theory that FCC radio deregulation survival may be linked to narcissistically twisted disorders. History Of Jazz Part 1 Early hot jazz bands, the hotel dance bands and the history of jazz music leading up to the Big Band era. Webb Cuts Basie At The Savoy Another of the many jazz magazine articles on the site detailing big events in jazz history.