O'Day, Anita (1919—)

American jazz singer . Name variations: Anita Colton. Born Anita Belle Colton on October 18, 1919, in Kansas City, Missouri (some sources cite Chicago); married Don Carter (a drummer, divorced); married Carl Hoff (a professional golfer, marriage ended); no children.

A singer with the big bands of Gene Krupa and Stan Kenton during the 1940s, Anita O'Day established a new trend among female singers with her brilliant jazz improvisations. As a teenager during the Depression, she worked as a contestant in dance marathons and walkathons, in which the winners were the last couple able to remain on their feet. At age 19, she got her first professional singing job with the Max Miller combo at Chicago's Three Deuces club. In 1941, she was hired by Krupa, with whom she recorded her biggest hit, "Let Me Off Uptown." Other successful vocals, often shared with trumpet star Roy Eldridge, included "That's What You Think," "Thanks for the Boogie Ride," and "Boogie Blues." O'Day did a stint with Stan Kenton in 1944, recording the million-selling "And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine," among others, and then returned to Krupa for most of 1945. The following year, she embarked on a successful solo career.

Unlike most female big-band singers, O'Day refused to be pigeonholed into singing only love songs. When performing with Krupa, she frequently wore a jacket and tie, like the rest of the band, instead of a fancy gown. She also preferred to be called a "song stylist" rather than a singer, and often used her voice like an instrument, emphasizing the rhythm in a song and not merely the words. In 1956, she released her first full-length solo album, Anita, a success that was followed by 14 more albums on the Verve label. (A number of other albums were released on other labels.) Her performance two years later at the Newport Jazz Festival is included in the highly regarded 1958 documentary Jazz on a Summer's Day, which also features performances by Theolonius Monk, Mahalia Jackson , Louis Armstrong and Big Maybelle (Mabel Smith ). Beginning in 1964, O'Day made several tours of Japan, and later toured in Sweden and England as well. She also appeared at the Berlin festival in 1970. Her autobiography High Times, Hard Times (1981) details the harsh life she lived during the 1950s and 1960s (while still managing to perform remarkably well), which included longtime heroin addiction, an arrest for possession, illegal abortions, and bad relationships. She nearly died of a drug overdose in 1966, and finally quit heroin cold turkey in 1969. O'Day reached a career milestone in 1985 with a concert at Carnegie Hall celebrating her 50th year in jazz, and was still giving occasional performances in the late 1990s.

sources:

Clarke, Donald, ed. The Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music. London & NY: Viking, 1989.

Kinkle, Roger D. The Complete Encyclopedia of Popular Music and Jazz: 1900–1950. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1974.

suggested reading:

O'Day, Anita, with George Eells. High Times, Hard Times, 1981.

Barbara Morgan , Melrose, Massachusetts