JAZZ REVIEW : Veteran Artist Anita O’Day Proves She Can Still Run With the Best of ‘Em

Everything changes, and nobody knows it better than a singer. Over a long career, a vocalist has to contend not only with changes in her own voice, but also with evolving styles and the public’s fickle tastes in music.

Anita O’Day’s opening set Sunday at Cafe Lido drove this point home. Listen to any of her Verve recordings from the ‘50s that have been reissued lately, and you hear the clean, rich tones that had critics comparing her voice to symphonic instruments. Today, that voice lacks some of its original clarity and warmth, but what it has lost in purity is overshadowed by what it has gained in character. O’Day has led a full, involved life since her days with the Krupa band in the ‘40s, and that experience comes through on stage.

Thankfully, though, you won’t hear O’Day covering Janet Jackson’s “Nasty Boys,” even though she’s known plenty. The singer has made few concessions to contemporary tastes over the years, preferring to present familiar standards and ballads as well as some of the pop hits she did with Krupa more than 40 years ago.

Backed by flutist-saxophonist Gordon Brisker, pianist Marty Harris, bassist Harvey Newmark and drummer Paul Kreibich, O’Day, as she has for years, opened with Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Wave.” She worked the song with enthusiasm, messing with the cadence, scatting her way through some of the lines and giving her supporting cast room to show their stuff. Though her intonation suffered a bit, especially in the lower range, her phrasing was inventive. She didn’t sing a single line straight.

An up-tempo “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home to” gave O’Day the chance to show that she can still run with the best of them. In fact, it was Brisker, again on flute, who had trouble keeping up with the pace the singer had set. The ballad “(On the) Street of Dreams” had O’Day displaying relaxed optimism with a touch of melancholy that was underscored by Newmark’s bowed bass solo. She fairly hissed the lyrics to the Gershwins’ “ ‘S Wonderful” interrupting herself to tell the crowd, “That’s the way it’s written.”

O’Day’s relaxed way with the audience gave the show a personal touch. Before performing, she went around the cafe greeting patrons table by table (followed by a video crew that was taping an upcoming segment of “CBS News Sunday Morning”). After finishing the somewhat rough rendition of “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home to,” she hollered: “You’ll never hear that version again! That’s jazz!”

A medley of “You Are My Sunshine” and Stevie Wonder’s “You Are the Sunshine of My Life,” an apparent attempt to bridge the years with something more contemporary, was the weakest moment of the performance. Most successful with the audience was what O’Day dubbed “the nostalgia section of the show,” swinging renditions of her ‘40s hit “Let Me Off Uptown” and “Going Up to the Country” complete with imaginative descriptions of New York’s pre-World War II Paramount Theatre.

The quartet seemed unsure of its role at times but gave satisfying individual performances. Newmark’s sure-footed walk on “Honeysuckle Rose” was support enough for O’Day’s vocal. Without the singer, pianist Harris and Brisker, this time on tenor sax, showed savvy on the quartet’s opening number, “Star Eyes,” while sensitive drummer Kreibich showed his touch, using both sticks and brushes, on “ ‘S Wonderful.”