DVD reviews: Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer, Watchmen: Director's Cut

Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer is a documentary that got by me last year -- but watching the DVD made me a fan. O'Day is one of those artists whose heyday predated, well, Elvis and the Beatles, which was a watershed moment for all popular music -- and a death knell for the market for jazz singers, at least in the U.S.

Not that O'Day was ever a pop singer. She may have had a few hits, may have been on TV and played the club circuit regularly. But she was never a household name in the way Ella Fitzgerald or even Billie Holliday were.

Except to jazz fans: The critics, musicians and scholars in this film place her in the pantheon with Fitzgerald and Holliday as a stylist and innovator who could transform a song into something uniquely her own.

Meanwhile, I also want to recommend -- again -- Watchmen, now on DVD in a director's cut that runs 24 minutes longer than the version that came out in March.

I'm sure Warner Bros. choked on the idea of releasing a three-hour comic-book movie -- which is why the theatrical version was a mere 162 minutes (he said ironically). But I have to say that the longer cut -- including another 24 minutes -- doesn't add significantly. Indeed, what's been reinstated, for the most part, are a few seconds here, a slight elongation of a scene there -- but little that adds to the the cinematic tapestry.

Putting that material back doesn't detract -- but it hasn't enriched or broadened the film, either.

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Comments

[rockyersocksoff]

Anita O'Day singing "Tea For Two" and "Sweet Georgia Brown" from the film 'Jazz on a Summer's Day' still gives me goosebumps. Such a great singer and so sexy, in my opinion.

Her autobio "High Times, Hard Times" is a great read, too.

And it's Holiday with one 'L.'

[rockyersocksoff]

Dig it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuzWegDm2HY&feature=related

[JeffmChicago]

I discovered Anita O'Day as a child then soon forgot her until my adulthood. There's a picture of her with a wide brim hat she's wearing at an outdoors concert. My dad was a jazz fan and he had jazz magazines and that's where I remember seeing her first but later hearing her sing Peel Me A Grape and liking it very much.

I have her greatest hits cd and it is full of jazz classics that she sings so well in her own way. She's a cool lady and she scats like no other.
Great blog.

[3fingerbrown]

Here's a classic interview O'Day did with Terry Gross. Among several great stories, she tells the one behind that wide-brim hat she wore at the Newport Jazz Festival. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106968810&ft=1&f=13

[GhostofBillHicks]

Watchmen(Directors Cut) = EXCELLENT!