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ANITA O’DAY Tea for Two – A Centenary Tribute; her 53 Finest 1941-55 |
RETROSPECTIVE RTS4360 [78:45 + 79:46]
CD 1 (1941-1955)
Gene Krupa & his Orchestra:
1. Alreet
2. Georgia on My Mind
3. Just a Little Bit South of North Carolina
4. Slow Down
5. Let Me Off Uptown (with Roy Eldridge)
6. Skylark
7. Bolero at the Savoy
8. Thanks for the Boogie Ride (with Roy Eldridge)
9. That’s What You Think
Nat King Cole & his Trio:
10. Ain’t Misbehavin’
11. And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine
12. Gotta Be Gettin’
13. Are You Livin’, Old Man?
Lowel Martin & orchestra:
14. Memories of You
Gene Krupa & his Orchestra:
15. Opus One
16. Boogie Blues
Will Bradley & his Orchestra:
17. What is this Thing Called Love?
Ralph Burns & his Orchestra:
18. How High the Moon?
Abbey Brown & his Cool Ctas;
19. Jamaica Mon
Ben Homer & his Orchestra
20. Tennessee Waltz
Ralph Burns & his Orchestra:
21. Lover, Come Back to Me
22. Love for Sale
Roy Kral & his Quintet:
23. No Soap, No Hope Blues
Quartet:
24. Just One of Those Things
Buddy Bregman & his Orchestra:
25. Fine and Dandy
26. A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
27. No Moon at All
CD 2 (1955-1962)
1. Honeysuckle Rose
Sextet:
2. Don’t Be That Way
3. Pick Yourself Up
Buddy Bregman & his Orchestra:
4. Stars Fell on Alabama
5. Stompin’ at the Savoy
6. Sweet Georgia Brown
Oscar Peterson & his Quartet:
7. Old Devil Moon
8. Tenderly
9. We’ll Be Together Again
10. Stella By Starlight
11. Them There Eyes
12. Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered
Russ Garcia & his Orchestra
13. The Peanut Vendor
Marty Paich & his Orchestra
14. Take the “A” Train
15. Early Autumn
Trio:
16. Tea for Two
Billy May & his Orchestra:
17. All of You
Jimmy Giuffre & his Orchestra:
18. Easy Come, Easy Go
Billy May & his Orchestra:
19. Johnny One Note
Johnny Mandel & his Orchestra:
20. Trav’lin’ Light
Sextet:
21. Remember?
22. What a Little Moonlight Can Do
Gary McFarland & his Orchestra:
23. Night Bird
24. Do Nothin’ Till You Hear from Me
Cal Tjader & quintet
25. Peel Me a Grape
26. Thanks for the Memory
Released to mark the centenary of her birth in 1919 this filled-to-the-brim twofer from Retrospective gives us the high life and huge talent of Anita Belle Colton in performances that span the years 1941 to 1962. A tough background as a marathon dancer and singer-waitress instilled in her a powerful work ethic and her first break came early when she impressed a visiting Gene Krupa, with whose discs the survey begins.
She always seems to have been imbued with a sassy quality, a hip element that makes so much of her singing perennially stylish. That and a propensity, too, for unusually fast tempi in unexpected songs. Thus, whilst Alreet might reflect the hipster vernacular, Georgia on My Mind is taken at a fair lick, complete with improvisational fills that Benny Goodman would have hated – which is why he turned her down when she auditioned for his band. Her jivey discs with Roy Eldridge never pall, whether Let Me Off Uptown or the big-boned Thanks for the Boogie Ride – not always subtle but always invigorating. The souvenir of her musical liaison with Nat King Cole, initially languid, then tempo-doubled, is a fine example of her commanding musicality and she shows versatility with Stan Kenton even if that big hit And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine might strike jazzers as maudlin pop. It’s really only O’Day who saves Boogie Blues - where Charlie Ventura’s generic solo goes through the motions – via her saucily ironic delivery.
Don’t overlook Ralph Burns’ orchestra in their kicking and intriguingly original version of What is This Thing Called Love? or O’Day’s scat singing in the ultra boppish How High the Moon. The Verve years were some of the finest examples of her art on disc and this includes her 1955 LP simply called Anita where Buddy Bregman’s orchestra provides good support for her lithe and exciting singing. She often took a new slant on standards such as the Kern/Fields Pick Yourself Up with a sextet led by Sweets Edison or the Jack Teagarden vehicle Stars Fell on Alabama which she makes very much her own or the famed ‘percussion’ arrangement of Sweet Georgia Brown with the Candolis blaring away in the brass section behind her. Six tracks are culled from the 1957 Verve LP Anita Sings the Most with Oscar Peterson and rhythm section (Herb Ellis, Ray Brown, Jo Jones; some rhythm section); this session includes the tongue-twistingly fast Them There Eyes. Her favourite album was Trav’lin’ Light, her Billie Holiday tribute disc, and there are three brilliant tracks from it but perhaps even more intriguing, because of his impressionistic-sounding arrangements, are the two overdubbed tracks with Gary McFarland and his orchestra, taken from the 1961 LP All the Sad Young Men. The delicious brace with Cal Tjader (yes, the album with Peel Me A Grape on it) concludes the twofer with wit and style.
With fine notes and top-class transfers this centenary salute shows how versatile, questing and original O’Day was and why the world is still listening to her.
Jonathan Woolf