[Deathwatch] Anita O'Day, jazz singer, 87

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Many thanks to a long-time reader for this one!

Anita O'Day October 18, 1919-November 23, 2006
2006-11-24

ANITA O'DAY
October 18, 1919-November 23, 2006

Jazz Vocal legend Anita O'Day passed this morning October 23, 2006 at
6:17AM in West Los Angeles. The cause of death was cardiac arrest
according to her manager Robbie Cavalina.

Born Anita Belle Colton in Chicago, Illinois on October 18, 1919, O'Day
got her start as a teen. She eventually changed her name to O'Day and
in the late 1930's began singing in a jazz club called the Off- Beat, a
popular hangout for musicians like band leader and drummer Gene Krupa.
In 1941 she joined Krupa's band, and a few weeks later Krupa hired
trumpeter Roy Eldridge. O'Day and Eldridge had great chemistry on stage
and their duet ?Let Me Off Uptown? became a million-dollar-seller,
boosting the popularity of the Krupa band. Also that year, ?Down Beat?
magazine named O'Day ?New Star of the Year? and, in 1942, she was
selected as one of the top five big band singers.

After her stint with, Krupa, O'Day joined Stan Kenton's band. She left
the band after a year and returned to Krupa. Singer Jackie Cain
remembers the first time she saw O'Day with the Krupa band. ?I was
really impressed,? she recalls, ?She (O'Day) sang with a jazz feel, and
that was kind of fresh and new at the time.? Later, O'Day joined Stan
Kenton's band with whom she cut an album that featured the hit tune
?And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine?

In the late'40s, O'Day struck out on her own. She teamed up with
drummer John Poole, with whom she played for the next 32 years. Her
album ?Anita?, which she recorded on producer Norman Granz's new Verve
label, elevated her career to new heights. She began performing in
festivals and concerts with such illustrious musicians as Louis
Armstrong, Dinah Washington, Georg Shearing and Thelonious Monk. O'Day
also appeared in the documentary filmed at the Newport Jazz Festival in
1958 called ?Jazz on a Summer Day?, which made her an international
star.

Throughout the '60s Anita continued to tour and record while addicted
to heroin and in 1969 she nearly died from an overdose. O'Day
eventually beat her addiction and returned to work. In 1981 she
published her autobiography ?High Times, Hard Times? which, among other
things, talked candidly about her drug addiction.

Her final recording was ?Indestructible Anita O'Day? and featured Eddie
Locke, Chip Jackson, Roswell Rudd, Lafayette Harris, Tommy Morimoto and
the great Joe Wider. A documentary, ?ANITA O'DAY-THE LIFE OF A JAZZ
SINGER? will be released in 2007. 


Renowned jazz singer Anita O'Day dies

By ALLISON HOFFMAN, 
Fri Nov 24, 4:42 AM ET

Anita O'Day, whose sassy renditions of "Honeysuckle Rose," "Sweet
Georgia Brown" and other song standards that made her one of the most
respected jazz vocalists of the 1940s and '50s, has died. She was 87.

O'Day died in her sleep early Thursday morning at a convalescent
hospital in Los Angeles where she was recovering from a bout with
pneumonia, said her manager Robbie Cavolina.

"On Tuesday night, she said to me, get me out of here," Cavolina said.
"But it didn't happen."

Once known as the "Jezebel of Jazz" for her reckless, drug-induced
lifestyle, O'Day lived to sing and she did so from her teen years until
this year when she released "Indestructible!"

"All I ever wanted to do is perform," she said in a June 1999 interview
with The Associated Press. "When I'm singing, I'm happy. I'm doing what
I can do and this is my contribution to life."

Cavolina recently completed a feature film about O'Day and accompanied
her to shows and on tours.

"She got to see how many people really loved her at the shows we did,
in New York, in London," Cavolina said. "She had come back after all of
this time. She really lived a very full and exciting life."

O'Day was born in Chicago, Ill. She left home at age 12 and often
bragged about being "self-made" and never having a singing lesson.

She began her career in her teens and later recorded hits with Stan
Kenton and Gene Krupa. Her highly stylized performance of songs like
"And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine," "Let Me Off Uptown," "Honeysuckle
Rose" and "Sweet Georgia Brown" made her famous the world over.

In her prime, O'Day was described as a scat singer and a natural
improviser whose unique interpretations energized the most familiar
songs. She inspired many singers, including June Christy and Chris
Connor.

Her fame came at a price.

She suffered from a 16-year heroin addiction and an even longer alcohol
problem. Wild, drug-related behavior and occasional stints in jail on
drug charges earned her the nickname "Jezebel of Jazz," a term she
hated.

"I tried everything," she once said. "Curiosity will make you go your
own way."

She overdosed many times and on one occasion in the late 1940s, it was
almost fatal.

The experience shocked her into giving up drugs, but she continued to
drink.

Her 1981 memoir "High Times Hard Times" tells of her long struggle with
drug addiction and her romance with drummer John Poole.

In late 1996, O'Day fell down the stairs of her Hemet, Calif., home
after a drinking binge. She was admitted to a hospital with a broken
arm but ended up with severe food poisoning and pneumonia.

She survived the ordeal but her recovery ? both physical and emotional
? was painful. She left the hospital in a wheelchair and didn't walk
for nearly a year. Her right hand was paralyzed but worst of all, she
said, she had lost her singing voice.

Although she blamed the complications on poor hospital care, the
near-death experience convinced O'Day to give up alcohol.

It took nearly a year to get her voice back and start singing again.
But once she did, she was right back on stage.

She received a lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment
for the Arts in 1997.

For the last years of her life, O'Day performed at various Los Angeles
night spots.

O'Day had no children and no immediate family, Cavolina said.

Many thanks to Deathwatch Central for posting this obituary