For the current reviews, I'm using my "regular" writing style, alternating among 100-, 250- and 500-word critiques. For those summer musings, I'll continue to follow the five-sentence format.
I went to see Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer mainly because it had played at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2007. I wasn't crazy about the film as a piece of art. As an advertisement for her music, though, it's fantastic: I rushed to iTunes that night to hear more.
Anita O’Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer (seen Aug. 22, ninth movie of August)
The documentary Anita O’Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer, well, sings when it showcases its subject, delighting us with several uncut performances that highlight her perfect timing and silky vocals. In talking-head mode, the film flounders, sketchy with its timeline and enamored with presenting its dizzying array of voices in 1950s graphics. The last living artist of the Billie/Sarah/Ella era, the “Jezebel of Jazz” survived a 15-year heroin addiction, multiple marriages, a rape, arrests and poor health to perform into her 80s. O’Day should be filmed in a style fitting of her vivacity, so it’s ironic that the footage from her then manager, Robbie Cavolina, and co-director Ian McCrudden shot just before her 2006 death (which isn’t mentioned) has such a bleached-out quality. Fortunately, hearing a doped-up O’Day scat for her life on “Sing, Sing, Sing” or linger over “Sweet Georgia Brown” at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival carries enough of an impact to overcome most of these flaws.
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Read the book for the unbleached version. the film is a portrait of the ARTIST, operative word, artist. E-True Hollywood is not this film. It is a loving portrait of one of the finest American Female Musicians. Anita's autobiography, Hard Times, HIgh Times tells it all.
This is one of the only jazz docs where the subject is in the film.
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