Here is Anita O'Day in excellent vocal form joining forces with Billy May, one of the most prolific arrangers of the Hollywood recording studios in the 50s and 60s. To back her, May led three big-sized groups staffed by top musicians, and provided the swinging, tasteful charts in these two excellent albums dedicated to the songbooks of Cole Porter and Rodgers & Hart. Miss O'Day treats this handful of great evergreen songs in her usual compelling manner and with innate musicianship. She was gifted with a wide vocal range and a level head: that is to say, she sang smoothly without panic or strain at either extreme of her range, and remained consistently impressive in projection, phrasing, and flexibility. There is much to groove within this set and, be it for pop or jazz fans, listening to this great singer is sure to be an incomparable musical pleasure.

From a label with no shortage of first-rate jazz material come this very attractive vocal sampler. Staying true to the Compact Jazz ethos, Best of the Jazz Vocalists favors quality over hits and comes with a budget price tag. The majority of songs are from the label's prime '50s and '60s run, including a cloud-bound "Summertime" by Helen Merrill and one of the all-time great versions of "If You Could See Me Now," compliments of Billy Eckstine. Continuing with this balancing act between the sexes, the collection also includes fine work by Bill Henderson, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Abbey Lincoln, Jon Hendricks, Shirley Horn, and Anita O'Day; latter-day entries include Lincoln's "I've Got Thunder and It Rings" from her 1990 Verve debut and Horn's "I Got Lost in His Arms" from 1988's Close Enough for Love. Nicely wrapped up with Nina Simone's Afro-percussion clarion call "Come Ye," this Verve roundup works as the perfect primer for more adventurous trips through the label's fertile stores of essential jazz.

In 1993 the Giants of Jazz label released a collection drawing upon seven different Verve albums by Anita O'Day (1919-2006), a skilled and at times somewhat formidable vocalist who had the kind of chops and temperament usually associated with trumpeters, drummers, and booking agents. Recorded in early December 1955, "Honeysuckle Rose" first appeared on the album This Is Anita; technically speaking, this track falls outside of this collection's stated timeframe of 1956-1962. "Stompin' at the Savoy" and "Don't Be That Way" come from Pick Yourself Up, an LP that took almost all of 1956 to create. "Star Eyes" as well as tracks one through seven were taken from Anita O'Day Sings the Winners, a 1958 release that found her backed by a somewhat slick orchestra under the direction of Russ Garcia. Anita O'Day seems to have spent a lot of time in the recording studios during April 1959; during that month she made a Cole Porter album with Billy May (cuts 13 through 21) and collaborated with Jimmy Giuffre on the Cool Heat album, from which "Hershey Bar" was extracted. During 1962 this stunning woman made an LP with Gene Harris and the Three Sounds (see track eight "Whisper Not") and teamed up with vibraphonist Cal Tjader on the marvelous Time for Two album, the source for her rendition of Dave Frishberg's pleasantly smutty opus, "Peel Me a Grape."

This album is definitely a transitional one for Anita O'Day. Four of the dozen performances are taken from June 1963. Her trio joins the singer on four of her "hits" ("Sweet Georgia Brown," "Boogie Blues," "Tea for Two" and "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square"), which were O'Day's final recordings until 1970 due to personal problems. The remainder of this set is from 1975-76, with several trios backing O'Day on a repertoire dominated by swing standards. Although her voice was not as young, O'Day was still in good form at that point, making this album a worthwhile acquisition for her fans.

The Krupa band of 1941 to 1943 had two great forces in it with the addition of trumpeter Roy Eldridge and vocalist Anita O'Day replacing Irene Day. Eldridge almost singlehandedly transformed the orchestra from a pop-based dance band to a more jazz-inspired one, and O'Day was simply the most swinging singer Krupa ever had in the fold. Highlights include a wild "After You've Gone," "Stop! The Red Light's On," "Let Me Off Uptown," "Thanks for the Boogie Ride," "Knock Me a Kiss," "Bop Boogie," and the previously unissued "Barrelhouse Bessie From Basin Street." Those interested in Krupa's career as a bandleader should start with this one.

In the mid-1950s and early 1960s, the great Anita O’Day recorded several glorious albums for jazz entrepreneur and producer Norman Granz, among them some of the most celebrated of her long career. The LP The Jazz Stylings of Anita O’Day (Verve VLP 9125), presented here in its entirety, consists of a selection of the best songs from those years, and finds her in the company of great jazz soloists and conductors. Eight additional tracks from the same period have been included as a bonus to the original album.