Anita

Anita is Anita O’Day’s inaugural release for Verve, the label that would serve as her creative home base for the prime years of her career. Immediately the album establishes that O’Day is not like other singers. She is trained in swing, but spiritually attuned to bebop. Even though the program is comprised of popular songs intended to appeal to a mainstream audience, O’Day emits something that is opposed to the ordinary, the obvious, the complacent. She sings with a natural grace and a songbird’s innate sense of mobility and melody. And yet, like some songbirds, O’Day is unpredictable, always ready to spring tricks on the listener — always ready to fly just beyond, or slightly out of bounds. Anita remains a must-have for all O’Day fans — and fans of ‘50s vocal jazz in general — but part of its appeal is its subversiveness. Between these buoyant melodies and momentous arrangements (courtesy of Buddy Bregman, longtime O’Day associate) the listener can sense the flavor of something deeply personal — hints of complex sour amidst sweet notes.