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High Times, Hard Times
“...in the tradition of the best jazz autobiographies...a fascinating travelogue through the jazz world, filled with vivid images of Gene Krupa, Stan Kenton, Roy Eldridge and Billie Holiday...Her prose is as hip as her music.” – The New York Times Book Review
392 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1981
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370 people want to read
About the author
Anita O'Day
14 books1 followerAmerican jazz singer Anita O'Day, originally Anita Belle Colton, noted for her scat, rose to fame during the era of Big Band of the 1940s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_O...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_O...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
February 26, 2019
A great jazz singer tells it like it was.
Very good on Krupa and Kenton, the junkie years, and the subsequent revival of her career after the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival. The best part of the book, though, is an an account of her experiences as an itinerant teenage marathon dancer singing for tips.
Miss O'Day is one tough broad--and it shows. And I mean that as a compliment.
February 19, 2020
“I went into the club where Roy Eldridge was working and he came up and said, “I heard you on the radio.” I thought he meant a record. “No, a commercial. For Dr. Pepper,” he said, “I told my friend, ‘That’s Anita. Nobody else sings like that.’” He was delighted I had my own sound and he could recognize it just as I can recognize him on any old tune. That recognition is the ultimate respect between our kind of musician.”
Seems to me that the all-time Jazz Vocalist pantheon, as it stands now Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan--- missed one. As unique and individualist as any in the Trio of greats, Anita O'Day never even tried a song she couldn't swing, swing hard and lay to rest with distinction. Her voice is more like an instrument than any of the pantheon, even Ella, by virtue of what it is not: no embroidery, no tremolo, no vibrato, and hardly any coloratura swooshes whatsoever.
Her early life consisted of Marathons, Walkathons, “Real Live Baby Raffles”, and other antique notions of the thirties; her life in the Biz was surprise weddings, Hotels, highways, airplanes and decoding how to cop heroin in each new town. Her autobiography is a late-in-the game reconsideration of a life lived hard, a story of bouncing off the circumstances, crashing, and learning to stand up again. And it's a junkie's story. If there's a choice between getting her records or getting her book, get the records. But once you read the book, the backstory starts making all kinds of sense.
Here in no particular order, are some excerpts :
“As I listened, I realized that I didn’t have her range. She sang the songs in the keys they were written, while I was a fourth down or a fifth up—whatever.”
"When we approached the club and I saw the people lined up down the block and around the corner, I asked, “What the hell are those people waiting for?”
“You.”
“My god, I didn’t realize I had that kind of draw.”
“You’re out on bail,” the manager said. “Dopers aren’t that common around here.”
I was tempted to tell him about some of the entertainers he’d had in the past, but I held my tongue. He turned out to be right. Most of the people were coming to hear “The Jezebel of Jazz”...
The crowd was a little boisterous when I danced to the mike for my first number opening night. I sang the way I’d been singing, and when they seemed restive, I began wailing. I’d show them. I’d done it before. I’d do it again. And by the time I finished my first set, the scene was wild, lovely..."
“Anita O’Day is demonstrating at the Blue Note why she is one of the little handful of great stylists among jazz singers. She can give any song her unmistakable imprint... The girl is so modern she’s almost ahead of herself. Her minor keys and and offbeat phrasings have a weird other worldliness...” Chicago Sun-Times 1952
“What made that cool was you didn’t have to spend eight or ten hours hunting the stuff. All you had to do was walk into a drugstore and buy it. It took fifteen minutes and you were set. Ten ounces was all you needed to boil down. Whatever was left was the goodie. It was a combination of alcohol, opium and camphor. You took it, and thought you were Dracula.”
“To be honest, John [Poole, drummer] and I didn’t go about it in the smartest way possible. Instead of fixing with just enough stuff to get our bodies back in chemical balance, we really got stoned. Just to give you an idea of how stoned, one evening I fixed some corned-beef hash for John and me and opened a can of dog food for Penny, my French Poodle. Halfway through dinner, John asked why our food tasted so funny. You guessed it. I’d given Penny the hash and we were eating dog food.”
“As one of the Walkathon emcees used to sing, courtesy of Gorge M. Cohan, “Life’s a funny proposition.”
With the few worthwhile Jazz books out there-- Straight Life, Really The Blues, Trouble With Cinderella, Lush Life, and a couple I can't remember, O'Day's account stands front and center. A no-nonsense narrative from one of the best to grace the Jazz stage.
Seems to me that the all-time Jazz Vocalist pantheon, as it stands now Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan--- missed one. As unique and individualist as any in the Trio of greats, Anita O'Day never even tried a song she couldn't swing, swing hard and lay to rest with distinction. Her voice is more like an instrument than any of the pantheon, even Ella, by virtue of what it is not: no embroidery, no tremolo, no vibrato, and hardly any coloratura swooshes whatsoever.
Her early life consisted of Marathons, Walkathons, “Real Live Baby Raffles”, and other antique notions of the thirties; her life in the Biz was surprise weddings, Hotels, highways, airplanes and decoding how to cop heroin in each new town. Her autobiography is a late-in-the game reconsideration of a life lived hard, a story of bouncing off the circumstances, crashing, and learning to stand up again. And it's a junkie's story. If there's a choice between getting her records or getting her book, get the records. But once you read the book, the backstory starts making all kinds of sense.
Here in no particular order, are some excerpts :
“As I listened, I realized that I didn’t have her range. She sang the songs in the keys they were written, while I was a fourth down or a fifth up—whatever.”
"When we approached the club and I saw the people lined up down the block and around the corner, I asked, “What the hell are those people waiting for?”
“You.”
“My god, I didn’t realize I had that kind of draw.”
“You’re out on bail,” the manager said. “Dopers aren’t that common around here.”
I was tempted to tell him about some of the entertainers he’d had in the past, but I held my tongue. He turned out to be right. Most of the people were coming to hear “The Jezebel of Jazz”...
The crowd was a little boisterous when I danced to the mike for my first number opening night. I sang the way I’d been singing, and when they seemed restive, I began wailing. I’d show them. I’d done it before. I’d do it again. And by the time I finished my first set, the scene was wild, lovely..."
“Anita O’Day is demonstrating at the Blue Note why she is one of the little handful of great stylists among jazz singers. She can give any song her unmistakable imprint... The girl is so modern she’s almost ahead of herself. Her minor keys and and offbeat phrasings have a weird other worldliness...” Chicago Sun-Times 1952
“What made that cool was you didn’t have to spend eight or ten hours hunting the stuff. All you had to do was walk into a drugstore and buy it. It took fifteen minutes and you were set. Ten ounces was all you needed to boil down. Whatever was left was the goodie. It was a combination of alcohol, opium and camphor. You took it, and thought you were Dracula.”
“To be honest, John [Poole, drummer] and I didn’t go about it in the smartest way possible. Instead of fixing with just enough stuff to get our bodies back in chemical balance, we really got stoned. Just to give you an idea of how stoned, one evening I fixed some corned-beef hash for John and me and opened a can of dog food for Penny, my French Poodle. Halfway through dinner, John asked why our food tasted so funny. You guessed it. I’d given Penny the hash and we were eating dog food.”
“As one of the Walkathon emcees used to sing, courtesy of Gorge M. Cohan, “Life’s a funny proposition.”
With the few worthwhile Jazz books out there-- Straight Life, Really The Blues, Trouble With Cinderella, Lush Life, and a couple I can't remember, O'Day's account stands front and center. A no-nonsense narrative from one of the best to grace the Jazz stage.
January 26, 2021
Born Anita Belle Colton, Anita was the result of an unplanned pregnancy between a deadbeat father and a mother who never showed her affection. Moving on from dice girl/ waitress beginnings, Anita said she was never a singer but always a “song stylist”; jazz stylists never do a song the same way twice. She often said, “if you want the melody, go next door.” “I didn’t believe it was worthwhile doing something which had already been done.” Anita covered her childhood pain with drugs, alcohol, and a tough exterior. She said she got her love on stage. “Music equaled love.” Anita once dated drummer Don Carter who would write down the rhythms of raindrops on his umbrella and use them on gigs or put them in his drum book. Dixieland 2/4 is replaced by Benny Goodman introducing 4/4 through Fletcher Henderson arrangements.
Anita says she copied Billie Holiday’s style for years, but found that no one would remember her name. So, Anita started studying the phrasing of players (like Stan Getz, Buddy DeFranco or Zoot Sims) instead of other singers. Meanwhile, Doris Day, June Christy and Chris Connor were dubbed of the Anita O’Day school. “I wanted them to listen to me, not to look at me. I wanted to be treated like another musician.” Anita never studied singing and Roy never studied trumpet. During WWII, most snares made had wood rims. “When Louis Armstrong became popular, all the trumpet players had to change their styles.” Norman Granz made his label off of junkies: Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Lester Young and Anita. Record companies wouldn’t take chances on junkies, but Norman would. He was tough but honest. Most of this book lives up to its title and is about Anita’s marginal relationships with non-committal men, or her addictions with heroin and alcohol. Instead of teaching the reader what she’s learned about phrasing, swinging, or finding one’s voice, Anita will tell us stuff like, “I hadn’t been pregnant fourteen times for nothing” and “those five months in jail” and “I was putting away two-fifths of Bourbon before 4PM.” Snorting Heroin burns out the lining of your nose, lungs and stomach? Pages of free junkie tips for non-using jazz lovers from a woman who used for 14 years. She wanted dope more than she wanted to get on her feet.
I had to read this book because Anita’s Uptown recordings (with Watch the Birdie, Let Me Off Uptown, Green Eyes, Amour and Stop the Red Lights On) with Gene Krupa and Roy Eldridge has been firmly in my top 10 Jazz LPs of all time. The excitement and energy on that record (as on Les McCann’s Pump It Up) is so wonderfully palpable. I had also hoped for much more technical info from Anita – she says in the book she taught jazz phrasing on the Dick Cavett show for 30 minutes. Wow, now that’s some footage I should look for. Anita preferred the small group because it gave more ability to improvise and THAT to Anita is the true essence of jazz. There are only four jazz singers I would want to read about in depth: Billie Holiday, Jimmy Scott, Sinatra, and Anita – they are all unmistakable and they phrased it their way with an immediacy that reminds me of actor James Gardner – when asked, “How do you approach acting?” James said, “I just pretend I’m saying it for the first time”. The recordings from Woody Allen’s standup years show the same thing, Woody’s timing is everything to make his unusual lines work, and they only work if he believes he is feeling/thinking them for the first time.
Anita says she copied Billie Holiday’s style for years, but found that no one would remember her name. So, Anita started studying the phrasing of players (like Stan Getz, Buddy DeFranco or Zoot Sims) instead of other singers. Meanwhile, Doris Day, June Christy and Chris Connor were dubbed of the Anita O’Day school. “I wanted them to listen to me, not to look at me. I wanted to be treated like another musician.” Anita never studied singing and Roy never studied trumpet. During WWII, most snares made had wood rims. “When Louis Armstrong became popular, all the trumpet players had to change their styles.” Norman Granz made his label off of junkies: Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Lester Young and Anita. Record companies wouldn’t take chances on junkies, but Norman would. He was tough but honest. Most of this book lives up to its title and is about Anita’s marginal relationships with non-committal men, or her addictions with heroin and alcohol. Instead of teaching the reader what she’s learned about phrasing, swinging, or finding one’s voice, Anita will tell us stuff like, “I hadn’t been pregnant fourteen times for nothing” and “those five months in jail” and “I was putting away two-fifths of Bourbon before 4PM.” Snorting Heroin burns out the lining of your nose, lungs and stomach? Pages of free junkie tips for non-using jazz lovers from a woman who used for 14 years. She wanted dope more than she wanted to get on her feet.
I had to read this book because Anita’s Uptown recordings (with Watch the Birdie, Let Me Off Uptown, Green Eyes, Amour and Stop the Red Lights On) with Gene Krupa and Roy Eldridge has been firmly in my top 10 Jazz LPs of all time. The excitement and energy on that record (as on Les McCann’s Pump It Up) is so wonderfully palpable. I had also hoped for much more technical info from Anita – she says in the book she taught jazz phrasing on the Dick Cavett show for 30 minutes. Wow, now that’s some footage I should look for. Anita preferred the small group because it gave more ability to improvise and THAT to Anita is the true essence of jazz. There are only four jazz singers I would want to read about in depth: Billie Holiday, Jimmy Scott, Sinatra, and Anita – they are all unmistakable and they phrased it their way with an immediacy that reminds me of actor James Gardner – when asked, “How do you approach acting?” James said, “I just pretend I’m saying it for the first time”. The recordings from Woody Allen’s standup years show the same thing, Woody’s timing is everything to make his unusual lines work, and they only work if he believes he is feeling/thinking them for the first time.
October 12, 2018
Hardboiled dame? Yes, but the feathers, gloves, and frock, soften the edges.
February 21, 2022
A real jazz singer who used her voice as an instrument and improvised different performances every time she sang, Anita O'Day was up there with the greats like Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Sarah Vaughan. She was also a junkie and an alcoholic. Her commitment to music won out in the end and after a long time in the wilderness of small clubs and bars she finally came out on top and gained the accolades and respect she deserved. She tells her tumultuous story with directness and a candour that few artists have dared. A story as bold as her voice. - BH.
June 26, 2023
Loved reading about all the alligators and cats on the scene… great stories and O’Day has a real voice (in a prose style sense as well as her music). First encountered her while watching the 1958 doc Jazz on a Summer’s Day. “Who is that?” I said. Now I know.
October 13, 2013
I loved this book. Her authorial voice in the book is great--straightforward, no nonsense, and fully of dry humor. There is a noirish aspect to it too--she sounds like a 40s hipster throughout.
In a sense, her authorial voice echoes her singing voice.
It's always interesting to me when I read musician bios how little I know about their lives even if I know some of their work very well. I have few O'Day albums I've listened to over and over, so I feel this connection to the art, but I really knew only the vaguest details of her life.
She did have a rough upbringing and I had no idea she had been a marathon dancer during the depression. Also, did not know anything about her big-band years and this section is great. She pretty much remade the stereotype of the big band canary--wearing a band jacket and skirt instead of evening gowns. It wasn't just satorial, though--she did not sing like the other big band singers, she approached the songs like a jazz horn player. Reworked the melodies, rhythms, harmonies, never doing them the same way twice, to make them her own.
She writes pretty candidly and openly about her substance abuse problems but that is not the focus of the book. She loves music and this was one of the best musician bios i have read in terms of the artist talking about music. For example the Art Pepper autobio, Straight Life, was so disappointing to me, because he glosses over the music to spend most of the book talking about the big love of his life, the drugs. O'Day doesn't do this, she loved music and singing jazz and that comes through.
Like any good biographical work, in this case, autobiographical, the book captures a lot about the times the subject lived in. Growing up in Chicago in the 20s, coming of age in the depression. The sections about getting illegal abortions as a young adult are pretty harrowing--all the more so because I was reading them against the background of a massive effort to turn back the clock to those times.
Can't believe how much she struggled as a musician throughout her professional life. Despite her brilliance as a singer, she spent most of her life struggling, one way or another, to make ends meet.
Anyways, this is a fine book, and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in O'Day.
In a sense, her authorial voice echoes her singing voice.
It's always interesting to me when I read musician bios how little I know about their lives even if I know some of their work very well. I have few O'Day albums I've listened to over and over, so I feel this connection to the art, but I really knew only the vaguest details of her life.
She did have a rough upbringing and I had no idea she had been a marathon dancer during the depression. Also, did not know anything about her big-band years and this section is great. She pretty much remade the stereotype of the big band canary--wearing a band jacket and skirt instead of evening gowns. It wasn't just satorial, though--she did not sing like the other big band singers, she approached the songs like a jazz horn player. Reworked the melodies, rhythms, harmonies, never doing them the same way twice, to make them her own.
She writes pretty candidly and openly about her substance abuse problems but that is not the focus of the book. She loves music and this was one of the best musician bios i have read in terms of the artist talking about music. For example the Art Pepper autobio, Straight Life, was so disappointing to me, because he glosses over the music to spend most of the book talking about the big love of his life, the drugs. O'Day doesn't do this, she loved music and singing jazz and that comes through.
Like any good biographical work, in this case, autobiographical, the book captures a lot about the times the subject lived in. Growing up in Chicago in the 20s, coming of age in the depression. The sections about getting illegal abortions as a young adult are pretty harrowing--all the more so because I was reading them against the background of a massive effort to turn back the clock to those times.
Can't believe how much she struggled as a musician throughout her professional life. Despite her brilliance as a singer, she spent most of her life struggling, one way or another, to make ends meet.
Anyways, this is a fine book, and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in O'Day.
October 19, 2012
I had a lot of fun reading this book; looking up all the songs and artists she writes about as I went along. Some I already knew and some I look forward to exploring more. (Has anyone read the Baby Dodds Story?) I found Anita's story very sad. She was very talented and very naive. She was so completely into singing that the world moved on without her. She lived in her own sheltered world. She was only happy when she was on the stage and never quite learned what to do when she wasn't up there improvising with the band.
She did a very good job of listing all her accomplishments, recordings and gigs etc. (Never in a boastful way which I found very endearing) I get the impression that she was not a very emotionally available person (can't think of a better word). All of her relationships sound empty and deprived of any type of love or closeness. This could be why I felt the book lacked a certain....feeling. I wanted to get a sense of what this period in time was like. How did it "feel" to be on the leading edge of a new kind of sound on the music scene? (How many other white chicks were scatting???) Did the racism between performers make her angry? Did she feel any competition from other singers? And what about when everyone was getting drafted? So many people came and went and she seems to be indifferent to them all. She states all the facts but never shares how she felt about these issues.
She is honest about her drug use but it is not the main focus of the book. The story always comes back to the music. As it should. She will be remembered as an innovative and creative "song stylist."
She did a very good job of listing all her accomplishments, recordings and gigs etc. (Never in a boastful way which I found very endearing) I get the impression that she was not a very emotionally available person (can't think of a better word). All of her relationships sound empty and deprived of any type of love or closeness. This could be why I felt the book lacked a certain....feeling. I wanted to get a sense of what this period in time was like. How did it "feel" to be on the leading edge of a new kind of sound on the music scene? (How many other white chicks were scatting???) Did the racism between performers make her angry? Did she feel any competition from other singers? And what about when everyone was getting drafted? So many people came and went and she seems to be indifferent to them all. She states all the facts but never shares how she felt about these issues.
She is honest about her drug use but it is not the main focus of the book. The story always comes back to the music. As it should. She will be remembered as an innovative and creative "song stylist."
February 13, 2017
3-1/2* I'll just admit it up front. I'd never heard of Anita O'Day. I read this for a book club. I'm glad I did. What a gift to be introduced to her. I listened to her music while reading the book, which I highly suggest. She has just the most sultry voice.
What I really liked about this book was that Anita used her own voice. I really got a feeling for the kind of person she was. I loved her expressions, things like "man that cat could play!" Sure a little outdated now, but it put me into her time frame. I also enjoyed that it was about her life and struggles, not a lot of over my head jazz lingo. She was a no nonsense kind of woman and seemed to live life on her own terms.
The writing was so-so, but then she wasn't a writer. I'm guessing this book would be a must for anyone interested in jazz vocalists.
What I really liked about this book was that Anita used her own voice. I really got a feeling for the kind of person she was. I loved her expressions, things like "man that cat could play!" Sure a little outdated now, but it put me into her time frame. I also enjoyed that it was about her life and struggles, not a lot of over my head jazz lingo. She was a no nonsense kind of woman and seemed to live life on her own terms.
The writing was so-so, but then she wasn't a writer. I'm guessing this book would be a must for anyone interested in jazz vocalists.
November 30, 2021
Just finished reading Anita O’Day’s memoir. It’s an amazing tale that recounts her childhood growing up during the Great Depression, her breakthrough as a big band singer with Gene Krupa and Stan Kenton and the successes of her early career. It provides a wonderful description of the characters, flunkies and less than savoury characters that inhabited this world and wonderful descriptions of musicians such as Roy Eldridge, Baby Dodds, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, Miles Davis, Barney Kessel and countless others than crossed her path. It’s a story of loss, addiction, betrayal, pain and triumph, recounted in prose that is as hip as the lady herself. A searingly honest book, I couldn’t help but be impressed by how Anita always stayed true to her art regardless of what life threw at her. Check out this wonderful book. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
July 30, 2019
I greatly admired the candor of this autobiography, and the conversational style used by Miss O'Day and Mr. Eells made it seem at times like I could have been in the room with them while they were discussing the events of her life.
It took almost a lifetime for Miss O'Day to let, in her own words for her personality, "the good Anita" triumph over "the bad Anita". When I finished the book, I was happy for her that she had won the battle - but what a terrible battle it was.
It took almost a lifetime for Miss O'Day to let, in her own words for her personality, "the good Anita" triumph over "the bad Anita". When I finished the book, I was happy for her that she had won the battle - but what a terrible battle it was.
October 31, 2023
Compared to the last musician memoir/bio I read, Jorma Kaukonen’s, Anita O’Day is Jane Austen. This is a lively, moving book. I read it in about 36 hours, which is pretty fast for me these days.
She explains her approach to music, does not stint on the very hard details of her life as a junkie, and the parts about her teenhood as a dancer in the dance marathons of the 1930s was fascinating.
If you love jazz and bebop, don’t miss out on this one.
She explains her approach to music, does not stint on the very hard details of her life as a junkie, and the parts about her teenhood as a dancer in the dance marathons of the 1930s was fascinating.
If you love jazz and bebop, don’t miss out on this one.
August 7, 2017
I've been semi-obsessed with Anita O'Day since hearing Let Me Off Uptown when I was a junior in high school.
Her voice was just.so.coooool - controlled, teasing, arch, smooth - and it's gratifying to learn what went into that style and sound. I love a survivor story, especially one with a central character as talented, wry, glamorous, and yes, cool, as Anita O'Day.
Her voice was just.so.coooool - controlled, teasing, arch, smooth - and it's gratifying to learn what went into that style and sound. I love a survivor story, especially one with a central character as talented, wry, glamorous, and yes, cool, as Anita O'Day.
September 7, 2022
Sometimes you stumble on an autobiography for no other reason than the fact that someone posted about it on Instagram. I am so glad I was led to this excellent memoir from an amazingly talented woman. I can't wait to listen to more of her singing.
January 10, 2024
All of the sass you’d hope for, more dirty laundry stories than you might expect. It’s a wild ride and she all but sings it like one of her songs. One of the better jazz memoirs I’ve read. She’s also one of my all time favourite singers.
October 11, 2018
Fascinating. That this brave, rule-shattering woman lived to 87 should make you rethink most of what you assume.
August 18, 2019
Shocking and Powerful
She writes like she sings. Clever, sly, little twists and turns and ever engaging. Anita lived a tough and remarkable. A wonderful but, to me, a sad one.
She writes like she sings. Clever, sly, little twists and turns and ever engaging. Anita lived a tough and remarkable. A wonderful but, to me, a sad one.
February 13, 2024
Fascinating
October 4, 2024
Absolutely fascinating life story. I loved it!
September 19, 2008
Had read an excerpt from this a few years back in "Reading Jazz" edited by Robert Gottlieb. It was stark and harrowing. The section excerpted was about Anita O'Day's heroin addiction and described how fixing became her focus every day for several years in her life.
Now that I have fisished the memoir I realize that this piece was not entirely representative.
Anita is honest throughout - self-critical, proud of her strengths but well aware of her weaknesses -but her 15 year addiction did not define her.
Her music did.
She does not claim to be a singer but a song stylist. Interesting distinction.
She was certainly talented, creative and strong despite her self-destructivness.
Like Art Pepper, the great alto man, in his memoir, "Straight Life", she pulls no punches about the jazz life, the drug culture and the struggle to meld art and commerce.
Here is a woman who survived and performed for over 70 years and never lost her sense of humor.
Wonderful stories, great characters, wild times and sad times.
Even non-jazz fans should be intrigued.
But the most interesting theme for me is Anita O'Day's immersion in and dedication to the art of jazz singing. Her thoughts on pitch, pronunciation, breath, volume, time, inspiration, commitment and reward are incisive.
PS 9/19/08 The new Anita O'Day documentary may still be running at Cinema Village in NYC and it is outstanding!
Now that I have fisished the memoir I realize that this piece was not entirely representative.
Anita is honest throughout - self-critical, proud of her strengths but well aware of her weaknesses -but her 15 year addiction did not define her.
Her music did.
She does not claim to be a singer but a song stylist. Interesting distinction.
She was certainly talented, creative and strong despite her self-destructivness.
Like Art Pepper, the great alto man, in his memoir, "Straight Life", she pulls no punches about the jazz life, the drug culture and the struggle to meld art and commerce.
Here is a woman who survived and performed for over 70 years and never lost her sense of humor.
Wonderful stories, great characters, wild times and sad times.
Even non-jazz fans should be intrigued.
But the most interesting theme for me is Anita O'Day's immersion in and dedication to the art of jazz singing. Her thoughts on pitch, pronunciation, breath, volume, time, inspiration, commitment and reward are incisive.
PS 9/19/08 The new Anita O'Day documentary may still be running at Cinema Village in NYC and it is outstanding!
May 17, 2016
At 3 a.m. last night I finally read a last chapter, couldnt put it down before.
Yes, Anita O'Day writting voice sounds very much like her singing self: ironic, witty, tough hip "swing chick" (her words) who didnt give a damn what others think. Her self-destructivness very much echoes another famous artist (in rock music) Marianne Faithfull, in fact this two women have much more in common than you think. Both survivors, both eventually come back and lived to see reassessment of their careers. Her opinion about other jazz singers are sometimes strange ("Like me, Ella never had a great voice"?) - but think that she was commercially oversahdowed by Fizgerald. As much as Anita's "Verve" albums are beautiful and timeless this book is sometimes painful to read. I believe there is a general curiousity about somebody's dirty linen, in this case it almost overshadow her art - at some points it reads like 50's detective story, with smokey jazz clubs, jazz musicians as a drug addicts and cops always around to "find" (read:set up) drugs in dressing room. With all beautiful music she made,its a pity that editor of the book find more interesting to emphasise her drug addiction, since her arrests, sanatoriums, jails and courts get more space than anything else. I dont think this was her intention, probably publisher wanted scandalous story, but if you dont know her music, this book can make you think that Anita O'Day was a famous junkie who had a music as a hobby.
Yes, Anita O'Day writting voice sounds very much like her singing self: ironic, witty, tough hip "swing chick" (her words) who didnt give a damn what others think. Her self-destructivness very much echoes another famous artist (in rock music) Marianne Faithfull, in fact this two women have much more in common than you think. Both survivors, both eventually come back and lived to see reassessment of their careers. Her opinion about other jazz singers are sometimes strange ("Like me, Ella never had a great voice"?) - but think that she was commercially oversahdowed by Fizgerald. As much as Anita's "Verve" albums are beautiful and timeless this book is sometimes painful to read. I believe there is a general curiousity about somebody's dirty linen, in this case it almost overshadow her art - at some points it reads like 50's detective story, with smokey jazz clubs, jazz musicians as a drug addicts and cops always around to "find" (read:set up) drugs in dressing room. With all beautiful music she made,its a pity that editor of the book find more interesting to emphasise her drug addiction, since her arrests, sanatoriums, jails and courts get more space than anything else. I dont think this was her intention, probably publisher wanted scandalous story, but if you dont know her music, this book can make you think that Anita O'Day was a famous junkie who had a music as a hobby.
March 21, 2014
I found myself thinking of the biography of Jaco Pastorius while reading this. The differences between the two were that Anita's was an auto-biography, so she got to choose what to include and exclude. Jaco, on the other hand in Jaco Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius the World's Greatest Bass Player is described in terms of a destroyed life. Although Anita O'Day portrays a "warts and all" image of herself, I felt that some of her descriptions of personal triumphs and tragedies were somewhat glib. As with many other artists of the era, (Ray Charles comes to mind) some of her best moments were ironically when she was at the low point in terms of sobriety. Still, her descriptions of events and relationships with musical greats was fascinating. I was constantly amazed at the amount of detail she seemed to be able to replicate, e.g., days, dates, times, etc. A great artist who lived a generally dissolute life, but somehow rose above it in the end.
May 30, 2016
Down to earth, honest autobiography by a very likable lady and great jazz singer - Anita O'day. She describes her long addiction to heroin, drug abuse, ups and downs, love affairs.. one of my favorite parts of the book is towards the end when she speaks of a family she met up with.. she was always meeting characters..
"The whole family was mixed up because the mother was el dinko and all four children were inkle dinkles".. not sure what that means, but it got my attention!
She describes the time Barbra Streisand came to her show wearing dark glasses and waiting to learn from her "music teacher"..and the time when Judy Garland and her husband Mickey Deans were her room mates.. Judy was taking all kinds of pills and died in London shortly after the room mate episode..
"The whole family was mixed up because the mother was el dinko and all four children were inkle dinkles".. not sure what that means, but it got my attention!
She describes the time Barbra Streisand came to her show wearing dark glasses and waiting to learn from her "music teacher"..and the time when Judy Garland and her husband Mickey Deans were her room mates.. Judy was taking all kinds of pills and died in London shortly after the room mate episode..
December 30, 2016
To hear a great musician talk about her work is the best part of this for me. Anita o day was always underrated during the jazz revival, so I was fascinated to read of her original popularity . She is completely unsentimental which makes this a really straightforward read. The authors create a vibrant sense of place and time - particularly in her youth and early work, and is reminiscent of Eddie condon's classic "They called it music" . Anita doesn't dwell on regrets and mistakes and her determined positivity seems to have sustained her through some hard times. If you like her singing, this book will flesh out the woman behind that remarkable voice.
March 2, 2010
I love Anita O'Day's singing and saw an interesting documentary about her this summer that made me want to read her bio. This was a vacation read...it's compelling but sad as she describes her intense 15-year heroin addiction. Most interesting when she talks about the music and her work as a musician. Wish she talked more about that in this book.
February 10, 2009
What a mess! It's amazing that O'Day lived to be 87. She was a heroin addict and basically a bum. All her money went to her habit. In the end, I didn't like her; however, I admired her honesty. I still think that Billie Holliday was a better singer than O'Day.
June 24, 2011
The title is not a lie.
This is a frank and unvarnished memoir about life in show business and living the life of a Jazz singer.
As it covers the period basically from prohibition through the 1970s, it dovetails nicely with the "Sporting Life" sections of Luc Sante's "Low Life".
This is a frank and unvarnished memoir about life in show business and living the life of a Jazz singer.
As it covers the period basically from prohibition through the 1970s, it dovetails nicely with the "Sporting Life" sections of Luc Sante's "Low Life".
October 20, 2013
Not great literature, but a truly great story. The life of a jazz singer with all it's ups and downs. The "downs" are incredible low points, and the "ups" are everything she wanted out of life. Makes you want to learn more about the life of Anita O'Day.
July 28, 2012
I almost never get to hang out with incredibly talented, cutting edge jazz musicians. Or heroin addicts. So this was super fun. Thanks, Anita!
February 10, 2013
A absolute must for any jazz fan, she lived a hard life for the music she loved.
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