THE greatest female jazz sing ers of all time? According to experts interviewed in “Anita O’Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer,” they are Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Ms. O’Day, the only white chick in the bunch.
Just why O’Day is ranked in such stellar company is on ample view in the worshipful film.
Clips of her performing go back to her days with jazz giants Gene Krupa, Stan Kenton and Roy Eldridge. An early scene shows her with Louis Armstrong.
In interviews spanning the years, she speaks candidly of her 16 years as a junkie and alky – it was all part of the “jazz life,” she contends – and her four broken marriages.
Historians (including Phil Schaap of WKCR-FM, a great place to listen to jazz), friends and jazz contemporaries sing O’Day’s praises.
A high point shows O’Day, in a black-and-white hat and form-fitting dress, singing “Sweet Georgia Brown” at the Newport Jazz Festival. That scene alone confirms O’Day’s place among the greats.
The film was directed by Robbie Cavolina, who was O’Day’s manager when she died at age 87 in 2006, and Ian McCrudden.
Running time: 92 minutes. Not rated (mature themes). At the Cinema Village, 12th Street, west of Fifth Avenue.