It’s lovingly made, with jazzy movement, and though it’s no great technical achievement, its low-budget aura hardly detracts from the mission.
Comment
01/23/09
Anita O'Day - The Life Of A Jazz Singer (2008)
100 %
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Reviews Counted: 25
Fresh: 25
Rotten:0
Average Rating: 8/10
Consensus: This rich documentary chronicles the highs and lows of one of the medium's finest singers, utilizing remarkable archive footage and insightful interviews with O'Day herself.
Theatrical Release:Aug 15, 2008 Limited
Synopsis: Jazz songstress Anita O'Day is celebrated with this documentary about the singer's professional and personal life. Finished shortly before her 2006 death, the film offers insights from many of... [More]
Starring: Anita O'Day, Louis Armstrong, Johnny Mandel, Annie Ross
Director: Ian McCrudden, Robbie Cavolina
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Reviews for Anita O'Day - The Life Of A Jazz Singer
If Anita O'Day had to choose a motto for her life, it would probably be "That's how it went down."
12/20/08
O'Day survived the rigors of what euphemistically might be called 'the jazz life.' Comments Bryant Gumble: 'Your personal experiences include rape, abortion, jail, heroin addiction...' Responds the unflappable O'Day: 'It's the way it went down, Bryant.'
12/19/08
Even if you're not nuts about the music in Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer, I bet you'll fall for the musician.
12/12/08
The incomparable songbird is finally given her due in one of the greatest music documentaries I've ever seen.
12/12/08
Top CriticA close-up look at the strange alchemy that is jazz singing -- singing at its most sublime.
12/05/08
Top CriticThe story of O'Day's talent and innovation is well told.
11/26/08
The great jazz singer Anita O'Day operated in some far-out be-bop realm of her own.
11/25/08
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.
11/01/08
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.
10/29/08
Top CriticAnita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer chooses from all the existing materials, and is invaluable.
10/09/08
Top CriticA gentle, swinging film that pieces together her extraordinary life story from vintage performance clips and various interviews done over the years.
09/26/08
Top CriticAlive 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.
08/22/08
Top CriticThe portrait of Anita O’Day that emerges in this documentary is of a woman who always lived by her own rules.
08/19/08
Top CriticAlthough 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.
08/18/08
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.
08/15/08
Top CriticThe superb jazz documentary Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer is blessed with lengthy sit-down interviews with the singer herself.
08/14/08
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.
08/13/08
Top CriticA 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.
08/10/08
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.
08/02/08
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