Anita O'Day's Finest Hour
No jazz singer has ever swung harder or scatted with more infectious enthusiasm than Anita O'Day. This selection of her Verve recordings from 1954 to 1962 shows just how many contexts O'Day could enliven with her presence. Some of her earliest hits are heard here in reprised but still effective form. The 1956 version of "Let Me Off Uptown," with partnersGene KrupaandRoy Eldridge, rekindles its original energy, and arrangerGary McFarlandcreates a driving 1961 revision of "Boogie Blues." She's clearly comfortable at the fastest tempos, singing "Tea for Two" and "Them There Eyes" at breakneck speed, enjoying matching improvisational wits with an elite assortment of musicians including Oscar Peterson and Phil Woods. A few ballads, like "God Bless the Child" with justBarney Kessel's guitar for accompaniment, provide effective contrast. O'Day is terrific, also, on two wittily steamy selections withCal Tjaderfrom 1962, "An Occasional Man" and "Peel Me a Grape."--Stuart Broomer