Cool Heat

Anita O'Day and Her Dangerous Jazz Life

By: James Gavin

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Hardcover | 9 June 2026

At a Glance

Hardcover
228 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
23.39 x 15.6 x 1.91

Hardcover

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How did Anita O'Day-the legendary jazz singer who, along with Chet Baker, Miles Davis, Gerry Mulligan, and Stan Getz, led the so-called "cool school" of modern jazz-define cool?

"That means doing everything that you like to do and getting away with it, you dig?"

Her traits included a frosted tone with a dash of vinegar; a blithe, airy rhythmic sense that could make almost any band swing; an ultra-hip bebop vocabulary; and a wisecracking insouciance, as though all this were just a lark. O'Day emerged in 1941 as a big-band singer whose tough look and take-charge style established her as a musically savvy leader of men, not a begowned accessory. Thereafter, while creating a historic body of recordings on Verve Records, O'Day became "one of the boys" in another sense, spending much of the '50s and '60s hooked on heroin. Finally clean by the '70s, she had a stunning renaissance, touring the world each year and releasing dozens of albums; even the TV program 60 Minutes profiled her in 1980.

Her memoir, High Times Hard Times, while vividly written (it was optioned more than once for films that didn't happen), cuts off in 1980, and contains almost no reflections on why she sang the way she did. Author James Gavin, whose biography subjects include Chet Baker, Lena Horne, Peggy Lee, and George Michael, now turns his attention to O'Day's mad roller-coaster life, a nonstop procession of thrills, laughs, outrageous stories, and unforgettable music-making. Gavin, a Grammy nominee and a two-time winner of ASCAP's Deems Taylor-Virgil Thomson Award for excellence in musical journalism, draws upon a wealth of unpublished material, including interviews with many of the people who knew her best making this a definitive portrait of one of the great characters and innovators in jazz history.

Industry Reviews

Pre-Publication Reviews

I knew Anita O'Day and, like all of us musicians, I admired this beautiful, musically savvy, sometimes tormented lady who dared to be different. James Gavin was the perfect choice to tell her story. His experience and awareness have enabled him to craft this complicated tale like no other writer could. Bravo, James!

-Carol Kaye (one of the most widely recorded studio bass guitarists in pop history)

Both shocking and inspiring, this portrait of a true jazz legend reveals a life far from ordinary, explored with honesty and depth on every page. A thoroughly compelling read.

-Claire Martin OBE (two-time winner of the British Jazz Award for Best Vocalist)

Anita O'Day knocked me out with her rhythm, her spontaneity, and her outrageously wacky bad-girl vibe. She took chances that most of us would never have the nerve to try. James Gavin has captured it all in this insightful page-turner of a biography.

-Michelle Phillips (singer, actress, and member of the Mamas and the Papas)

Inhabiting his subject with an eye for fine detail and comprehensive, knowledgeable musical appreciation, James Gavin illuminates Anita O'Day's immeasurable impact on jazz singing with empathy and understanding. He shows us the all-too-human persona behind her transcendent way with a song and demonstrates why her legend continues to fascinate, enthrall, and sing to us today.

-Lenny Kaye (guitarist, co-founder of the Patti Smith Group, and author of Lightning Striking: Ten Transformative Moments in Rock and Roll)

What a dame. She was jazz. Anita O'Day had the mouth of a sailor, the voice of a tiger, the appetites of a rajah. Music, dope, men - she did it all with no regrets. In Cool Heat, the ferocious pop historian James Gavin applies his acclaimed skills to this unique, indeed dangerous character in a biography that sings like its subject.

-Joel Selvin (New York Times best-selling author and veteran pop-rock journalist)

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