The Life of a Jazz Singer

The world lost the defiantly unpredictable, trend-busting bop vocalist Anita O'Day in November 2006, to dementia and pneumonia. A year or so prior, documentarians Ian McCrudden and Robbie Cavolina (perhaps foreseeing this loss) set out to create the definitive film portrait of the chanteuse, entitled ANITA O'DAY: THE LIFE OF A JAZZ SINGER. This biography recounts O'Day's life story by intercutting archival performance footage of the vocalist with fond reminiscences from friends and colleagues and cutaways to O'Day's original reviews and publicity material. Interviewees include Bryant Gumbel, Harry Reasoner, Dick Clark, Annie Ross, and Johnny Mandel.