Product details
- ISBN 9781493052998
- Weight: 621g
- Dimensions: 151 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 24 Feb 2020
- Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
Celebrating the One Hundredth Anniversary of Anita O'Day's Birth.
Jazz legend Anita O'Day was one of the most remarkable and unforgettable talents of the jazz world. A swinging, good-humored stylist, O'Day rose to fame as a vocalist with the Gene Krupa Big Band ("Let Me Off Uptown") and the Stan Kenton Band ("And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine") in the 1940s before she became a successful solo act in the 1950s—punctuated by her energetic performance at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, as captured in the concert film Jazz on a Summer's Day.
Unfortunately, O'Day was as well known for her drug problems as her jazz singing, and in High Times Hard Times, O'Day offers an unvarnished personal account of her life, as well as a behind-the-scenes look at the golden age of jazz. Starting out with her grisly 1966 overdose, then flashing back to tell all from the beginning, High Times Hard Times presents an intimate portrait of a larger-than-life jazz and big-band singer—the success of her early career, the tragedy of heroin addiction, her painful recovery, and her ultimate triumph.
Filled with vivid characters, including Gene Krupa, Stan Kenton, Roy Eldridge, Billie Holiday, and other jazz legends, this candid, classic memoir is a must-read for anyone interested in the real details of jazz's golden age.
Anita O'Day (Anita Belle Colton) rose to fame with the Gene Krupa Big Band and the Stan Kenton Band in the 1940s before becoming a successful solo act in the 1950s with a series of popular albums and her memorable performance at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival. O'Day's successes were interrupted by personal problems, including addiction and arrests for drug possession, but she went on to perform in clubs and festivals around the world and, in 1985, at a Carnegie Hall concert commemorating fifty years as a professional singer.
George Eells is an author and playwright. He began his career as a freelance reader for Hollywood film studios. He worked as an entertainment editor for Parade and later Theatre Arts, Signature, and Diners Club magazines. Eells wrote The Life That Late He Lead: A Biography of Cole Porter for which he received the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award. Ells proclaimed his favorite work was co-authoring High Times Hard Times.
