Tone plays a crucial role in Robbie Cavolina and Ian McCrudden's documentary on "Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer." Their technique and story-telling style is  as matter-of-fact and no-holds-barred as the life they are chronicling, a chronologically organized story of a woman who was one of the most talented singers of the 20th century.
Her medium was jazz, her story was an opera. Rape, drugs, imprisonment, divorce, financial ruin - those things all preceded the bad health care that did in her voice. I was fortunate enough to have met her and hear her sing on several occasions. And what I saw was probably pretty common from the 1960s onward: When O'Day took the stage, she was the best musician on the  bandstand. In the documentary we see her chiding the musicians for not following her direction and musicians talking about taking direction from her; the filmmakers did not capture her tearing into someone for their flubs or musical ignorance.
"Life of a Jazz Singer," unlike so many docs that make it  onto PBS, is unconcerned with the redemption or moments of poignancy. There's no pity for her time spent in a trailer in the Southern California desert or her drug busts. Nearly everything is a side story except the facts about her ability to sing. And that's why this movie deserves to be seen.
Positive reviews from the New York Times,   LA Times and Variety