Possibly the most simultaneously influential and overlooked jazz singer is represented on this essential two disc 46 track compilations, Anita O’Day. She was the progenitor of the style that eventually came to be described as “vo-cool”, mixing a soft and icy tone with a flexible bop harmonics. The number of vocalsists in her wake is legion, including June Christy, Chris Connor and Peggy Lee just to name a few. She had a successful career as a “canary” for the legendary Stan Kenton orchestra before going out on her own. This album has a few tunes with her teamed with Ralph Burns’ forward looking orchestra which included modernists such as Cecil Payne/bs, Roy Eldridge/tp, Bill harris/tb and Budd Johnson/ts on an elliptical “Lullaby Of The Leaves.” She swings hard with Roy Kral’s quintet on a husky “Speak Low” and snappy “The Lady Is A Tramp” while her “Pagan Love Song” and “Ain’t This A Wonderful Day” with Larry Russell’s Orchestra are filled with a cornucopia of joys.
O’Day’s apotheosis was her series of small group sessions of the early and mid 50s, as she’s teams with the likes of Verve/Norgram allstars like Barney Kessell/g, Paul Smith/p and Monty Budwig/b on timeless gems like “Let’s Fall IN Love,” and a harrowing “You Don’t Know What Love Is” while “Pick Yourself Up” is a happy ditty. A couple of sessions with Paul Bergman’s Orchestra has O’Day give swinging reads of “Honeysuckle Rose” and a glorious “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square” with her definitive delivery of “Sweet Georgia Brown” a jaw dropper. O’Day had a way of making her inflections and tone sound exactly like a horn, making her voice a true instrument. She had a way of not letting go of a groove that still inspires, particularly in this day of angst driven femmes.