Jazz 'Round Midnight: Chanteuses - Female Jazz Vocalists

Anita O’Day is best known for her uptempo feats of derring-do, but this collection highlights her abilities as a singer of ballads, and at slower speeds it’s easier to catch her flair for dynamics. She will squeeze a note briefly then let it go, dancing away as if she’s leaving it permanently, only to fly back and embrace tightly the next five notes. Anita can go down low and she can reach high. Most crucially, she knows when to hold back. O’Day is not usually thought of a person of restraint — in her personality or her singing style — but these songs prove she was a master of those essential, overlooked singing qualities, patience and delicacy. Listen to her take on “I Can’t Get Started,” a song covered so often and so jauntily that it can be nauseating to tolerate yet another version. But in O’Day hands it’s a new song — she puts in it a cool bluesy drag, and it’s possible to detect a hint of hidden contempt in the narrator’s delivery, where previous singers would stick to the obvious posturing. O’Day’s experience of life was dark and it was tough, and in her ballads, regardless of the material, she could make you feel its weight.