ANITA O'DAY - THE LIFE OF A JAZZ SINGER (SPECIAL EDITION WITH BOOK)

Book Plus 2 DVD Set

Anita O'Day

The world lost the defiantly unpredictable, trend-busting bop vocalist Anita O'Day in November 2006, to dementia and pneumonia. A year or so prior, documentarians Ian McCrudden and Robbie Cavolina (perhaps foreseeing this loss) set out to create the definitive film portrait of the chanteuse, entitled Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer. This biography recounts O'Day's life story by intercutting archival performance footage of the vocalist with fond reminiscences from friends and colleagues and cutaways to O'Day's original reviews and publicity material. Interviewees include Bryant Gumbel, Harry Reasoner, Dick Clark, Annie Ross, and Johnny Mandel.

This film showcases performances that date back to the '40s with artists Gene Krupa, Roy Eldridge, Stan Kenton, Louis Armstrong, and Hoagy Carmichael. She is shown teaching Billy Taylor how to be a jazz vocalist. Bert Stern comments on Anita performing for his film Jazz on a Summer's Day. She speaks candidly with Dick Cavett, Bryant Gumbel, and David Frost, and in interviews on 60 Minutes and CBS This Morning. She talks openly about how she had to overcome great adversities, including a 20 year addiction to heroin and alcohol. This 2 DVD set includes 90 minutes of bonus performances and outtakes.

This special edition includes:

DELUXE Hardbound Book.

9 x 9 black burnished fabric cover with the title gold-foil printing on front cover and spine.

Appox. 160 pages full color.

Anita's complete scrapbooks.

Essay by Jim Gavin.

Essay by Will Friedwald.

Selected chapter from Anita's autobiography, High Times Hard Times.

2 Discs, one attached to inside front cover and one attached to the inside back cover. Both in sealed re-usable clear pouch.

Disc 1 : The Movie with Director's audio commentary and French, Spanish and Japanese. We might add Italian subtitles. 16:9 formatting for widescreen and 4:3 televisions.

Disc 2: Bonus Disc with 45 minutes of the uninterrupted musical performances from the film and 45 Minutes of outtake interviews of Anita.

Both Discs are NTSC region free for world-wide sales.

Note: DVD also available separately, catalog number 020286132721.

Musicians