This Is Hip

Anita O'Day (1919-2006) was a versatile vocalist who adapted well to stylistic changes in jazz, smoothly navigating each transition from swing to bop to cool while honing her individualistic technique. Released during the final year of her long life, Primo's This Is Hip maps her first decade of recording activity with 40 chronologically presented titles dating from the years 1941-1952. This overview touches upon O'Day's first successes with the Gene Krupa band, her brief adventure as an adjunct of the Stan Kenton Orchestra, a marvelous encounter with the King Cole Trio, and her initial overtures as a solo artist backed by ensembles using arrangements by saxophonists Benny Carter and Alvy West. This Is Hip closes with the complete Verve album The Lady Is a Tramp, a composite offering that variously found her collaborating with her old Krupa session mate trumpeter Roy Eldridge, baritone saxophonist Cecil Payne, pianist and arranger Ralph Burns, an orchestra conducted by Larry Russell, and a quintet led by pianist Roy Kral. While several other labels have come out with comparable or more detailed retrospectives of this singer's early works (Proper's 89-track, four-CD set Young Anita is especially fine), Primo has assembled an excellent sampler by combining different aspects of O'Day's adventures as a big-band and small-combo singer and serving them up as a prelude to the early LPs that were a turning point in her professional life. ~ arwulf arwulf|