All The Sad Young Men - Anita O'Day

 

Boogie Blues

All The Young Men

Anita O'Day

The Gary McFarland Orchestra

Produced by Creed Taylor

Cover Photograph by Pete Turner

Recorded in New York

Recording Engineer: Rudy Van Gelder

Verve V-8442

1962

From the back cover: The thing about Anita O'Day is that she always sings jazz. And what makes her singing always jazz is her improvisation. She takes a musician's liberties with phrasing, harmony and rhythm, and does it al while singing lyrics that still manage to make sense.

This album is a case in point. It is Anita as she is today. Not the Anita who punched out the vocals on Gene Krupa's band, not even the Anita who sauntered onto the stage at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958 and stood that jazz-jaded audience on its head. This is a different Anita in that she has gone beyond those Anitas. Today, as you'll hear, she is singing with greater sophistication, assurance, and acceptance than ever before.

Her selection of material is growing increasingly personal. She is singing songs that haven't been done to death by other singers, and an occasional standard that she has taken over as her own by the sheer-power of her style.

Her uncanny sense of time is leading her into more complex and daring improvisation in that area. And she is still going further and further out on that limb of harmonic improvisation, but with such assurance that the delight of a performance is not whether she will land on her feet, but how she will land on her feet.

Her style is her own, practiced and polished through some 20 years of singing. Her landmarks are also landmarks in vocal jazz: "Let Me Off Uptown, Boogie Blues, and That's What You Think with Krupa's band, Hi Ho Trailus Boot Whip on her own, And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine with Kenton, Sweet Georgia Brown and Them There Eyes, again on her own.

And her comeback has been one of the most dramatic and rewarding in current music. she slid from popularity in an era when good music was a detriment to success, and a good jazz singer might just as well have gone into selling soft-goods for all the financial good it might do her. Anita built her new career step by step, appliance b appearance, record by record, and without changing her ways or compromising her style.

Where she goes from here depends solely on her originality and individuality. To date, there has been no lack of either quality in her makeup.

Supplying the music on this album is the most modern-sounding orchestra Anita has ever had behind her. The songs were arranged  and conducted by Gary McFarland, who also wrote three of them. At 27, McFarland has brought a refreshing new sound to the recording studios. He has studied at the Berklee  School in Boston and at The School Of Jazz in Lenox, Mass. Gary has written for the Gerry Mulligan Concert Jazz Band, and, leading his own orchestra, has presented a true "jazz version" of a Broadway show in his album, "The Jazz Version Of 'How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying.'"

McFarland's conceptions are original. His voicings are fresh. His sense of humor and his willingness to take a chance are evident in practically everything he does. On this album, he complements Anita's personal style with big band arrangements that avoid placing her out in front of an orchestra, but rather integrate her into the over-all-fabric of sound in each selection.

"I worked things so they were right for her range," Gary noted. "She has a lot of strong areas... her phrasing and her time, form instance. I tired writing for these strong points, and utilizing her as an important part of the band.

That McFarland succeeded will be evident as the album is played. It's Anita, new and fresh and stimulating. But she's not new for the sake of being different. She's just moving ahead in a field where she's number one. – Dom Cerulli

Boogie Blues

You Came A Long Way From St. Louis

I Want To Sing A Song

A Woman Alone With The Blues

The Ballad Of All The Sad Young Men

Do Nothin' Till You Hear From Me

One More Mile

Night Bird

Up State

Senor Blues