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Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer
Directed by
Ian McCrudden
and
Robbie Cavolina
Not Rated
2007
90m
Documentary
,
Music
7.9
100%
76%
Add to Watchlist
A tribute to jazz diva Anita O'Day, completed just weeks before her death in November 2006.
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Where to Watch Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer
VUDU Free
Free
Apple TV
Buy $14.99
Rent $3.99
Cast of Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer
Anita O'Day
Herself
Buddy Bregman
Himself
Leonard Feather
Himself
Will Friedwald
Himself
Johnny Mandel
Himself
John Cameron Mitchell
Himself
Annie Ross
Herself
George Wein
Himself
Margaret Whiting
Herself
Gerald Wilson
Himself
Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer Ratings & Reviews
San Francisco Chronicle
Joel Selvin
A gentle, swinging film that pieces together her extraordinary life story from vintage performance clips and various interviews done over the years.
New York Post
V.A. Musetto
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.
Los Angeles Times
Sheri Linden
Alive with improvisational energy and rejecting the conventional biographical format, the film pursues ideas and feelings rather than chronology as it scats through an archival wealth of interviews with O'Day and some of her most inspired performances.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Peter Schilling
The incomparable songbird is finally given her due in one of the greatest music documentaries I've ever seen.
Newsday
John Anderson
Robbie Cavalina and Ian McCrudden's loving tribute to the great singer orchestrates archival footage, late-in-life interviews and some spectacular music into one of the better bio-pics of recent years.
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer chooses from all the existing materials, and is invaluable.
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
A close-up look at the strange alchemy that is jazz singing -- singing at its most sublime.
New York Times
Stephen Holden
The portrait of Anita O'Day that emerges in this documentary is of a woman who always lived by her own rules.
Boston Globe
Mark Feeney
Gimmicks and hyperbole aren't necessary, so long as there's O'Day's beaming face to look at -- radiant when young, radiant and wrinkled when old -- and the sound of that sloe-gin voice to savor.
Slant Magazine
Matt Noller
As a tribute to its star, it's damn near essential.
Austin Chronicle
Theresa Everline
The story of O'Day's talent and innovation is well told.
Village Voice
Jim Ridley
The directors prefer to secure O'Day's due as, in the words of critic Will Friedwald, the only white jazz singer who belongs in the company of Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday.
The Hollywood Reporter
Sura Wood
An engaging if less than revelatory documentary.
Variety
Dennis Harvey
Force of personality and terrific vintage performance clips make a keeper of Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer.
Monsters and Critics
Ron Wilkinson
Although adding nothing to the previous body of knowledge on the iconic jazz singer, this film is a precious collection of extremely unique jazz vocal footage that should not be missed.
NewsBlaze
Prairie Miller
A rich tapestry of O'Day's evolution as a profoundly expressive and charismatic jazz artist who explored the enormous range of her vocal gifts across the many decades with an astonishing imaginative subversion of any musical status quo.
Film-Forward.com
Nora Lee Mandel
O'Day is so exciting here, the film doesn't just cater to fans but can generate new ones to celebrate the role of the song stylist for the Great American Songbook.
ColeSmithey.com
Cole Smithey
You come away from the documentary impressed by a fiercely individualistic and beautiful woman who lived by her own rules with a fluid mastery of music that few musicians ever attain.
Combustible Celluloid
Jeffrey M. Anderson
The superb jazz documentary Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer is blessed with lengthy sit-down interviews with the singer herself.
rec.arts.movies.reviews
Louis Proyect
Superb study of one of America's greatest jazz singers who lived to perform. The movie is a labor of love co-directed by her manager from the last 6 years of his life and a reminder that movies come alive when there is passion rather than money in the dri
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