Melanie O'reilly & Trio at Black Cat

Award-winning jazz vocalist Melanie O’Reilly celebrates the legendary jazz singer Anita O’Day, capturing the essence of an unconventional musical genius. Interspersing narration between the songs, Melanie tells and sings the story of O’Day, who wanted to be a jazz singer and refused to let anything stop her.

The show, created and devised by O’Reilly, tells the story of Anita O Day ,a bold unconventional vocalist who shattered the traditional role of a “girl singer” with her smoky swinging style and brilliant sense of rhythm and who became one of the world’s most enduring jazz artists–anointed for her legendary performance at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival captured in the ground-breaking film documentary “Jazz on a Summer’s Day,”...

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Award-winning jazz vocalist Melanie O’Reilly celebrates the legendary jazz singer Anita O’Day, capturing the essence of an unconventional musical genius. Interspersing narration between the songs, Melanie tells and sings the story of O’Day, who wanted to be a jazz singer and refused to let anything stop her.

The show, created and devised by O’Reilly, tells the story of Anita O Day ,a bold unconventional vocalist who shattered the traditional role of a “girl singer” with her smoky swinging style and brilliant sense of rhythm and who became one of the world’s most enduring jazz artists–anointed for her legendary performance at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival captured in the ground-breaking film documentary “Jazz on a Summer’s Day,”

O’Reilly’s riveting Anita O’Day tribute, which garnered 4-star reviews and standing ovations at the International Edinburgh Fringe Festival and from a growing number of Bay Area audiences, brings new life to the memory of the legendary jazz vocalist and pays tribute to one her great musical inspirations.

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