One of the greatest jazz vocalists of the post-war era, this exceptional 46-track, 2CD set brings together five albums – Anita O’Day Collates, Songs By Anita O’Day, An Evening With Anita O’Day, Anita, and Pick Yourself Up – which the singer recorded for the jazz impresario and record producer, Norman Granz. CD1 contains a brace of self-penned blues (‘Rock ’N Roll Blues’ and ‘Anita’s Blues’), swinging Great American Songbook standards (Let’s Fall In Love’, ‘Beautiful Love’), plus stunning instrumental work from the likes of trumpeter Roy Eldridge. Arranged and conducted by Buddy Bregman, O’Day’s 1956 album, Anita, was the first to be released under Granz’s new label, Verve. It contains some remarkable things, not least the trio of ballads, ‘I Can’t Get Started’, ‘A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square’ and ‘Time After Time’, as well as a fine example of her highly developed rhythmic approach in the Fats Waller/Andy Razaf classic, ‘Honeysuckle Rose’. CD2 also includes her singular version of ‘Sweet Georgia Brown’, recorded in 1956 on Pick Yourself Up, one of two songs (the other being ‘Tea For Two’) O’Day would later perform at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival which would be forever immortalised in the classic film, Jazz on a Summer’s Day. Clocking in at just under two-and-a-half hours, this set is unreservedly recommended.