Anita O’Day without question was one of the most talented female jazz vocalists to ever live. Also without question, she was controversial and battled substance abuse demons throughout most of her life. Directors Robbie Cavolina and Ian McCrudden, who along with Melissa Davis produced the film Anita O’Day The Life of a Jazz Singer, talked candidly with Riveting Riffs Magazine, about the singer’s life and the making of the documentary, during two separate conversations. The film will have a limited cinematic release on August 15^th in New York City and on August 22^nd in Los Angeles.

 

Cavolina, was the recipient of a Grammy Award in 1996, for art direction on Joni Mitchell’s album Turbulent Indigo and also directed two short Mitchell documentaries, Joni Mitchell Hits and Misses and Shine. He recalls his first meeting with Anita O’Day. “I first met her at the Vine Street Bar and Grill in Hollywood. A woman named Susan Tyrrell was asked to come and meet her, because she was going to possibly play her (in a feature film). I went with Susu (Tyrrell) and Anita was drunk, while she was performing. She was really out of it. It was like, ‘Oh my, is this a hardcore jazz lady? What is going on here?’ Her manager told me, ‘She won’t be drunk tomorrow. Susu tells me that you are a photographer. Could you come back and take pictures tomorrow?’ I called my dad up and I said to him, ‘I am at this jazz club and there is this old lady singing. She is drunk. Do you know who she is?’ He told me that Anita O’Day was a legend. I asked him if she was really that good and he said, ‘Are you kidding me?’ At the time Susu had a book of hers called High Times Hard Times and I asked her if I could read it. I read the book and I was blown away by her story. I thought, ‘boy could I make that into a film.’ That is when I (first) got the idea.”

 

 “I went back the next night (to see Anita O’Day), and she was not drunk. She was seventy-three at the time, and I have never in my life heard a young person, old person or middle age person sing the way that this woman sang. Not only did she knock the house down, but she was unbelievable, in the way that she sounded and with what she was doing on stage. I took pictures that night and when I went back the next week to give them to her, we struck up a friendship,” says Cavolina, relating his 1992 encounter with the jazz legend.

 

Ian McCrudden says, “I met Anita when I went to see her at the Atlas Café. It was through Robbie, and at that point, he wasn’t working with her. It was in ’96 or ’97. He said that I had to check this lady out. I knew her music, a little bit, but I wasn’t an aficionado (however) I was into jazz. When I went to see her for the third time, they were showing old clips of her singing. I thought from that point on, that it was an amazing story. I became interested, as someone who was primarily a filmmaker.  I have made seven feature films. I thought that it would be really interesting to try and make a documentary.”

 

Cavolina and McCrudden continued with their filmmaking careers, with McCrudden hooking up with Melissa Davis to found Elan Entertainment. The duo produced the critically acclaimed movie Islander in 2007. Davis’ other film credits include the 2008 production of The Things We Carry, Trespassers (2006), and Elan Entertainment is currently developing Swedish Midsummer Comedy, a co-production with Casa Nova Films and Cigar Diaries, an action adventure film.  In addition to his work on Islander and Trespassers, McCrudden also directed The Big Day which starred Julianna Margulies, Mr. Smith Gets a Hustler and Trailer—The Movie. McCrudden has also directed several plays and written numerous screenplays.