One by one, the album covers drop, each a classic of 1950s jazz on the vanguard Verve record label. And then we hear a voice-over. "Your personal experiences include rape, abortion, jail, heroin addiction," to which a woman curtly interjects, "It's the way it went down, Bryant." Anita O'Day is addressing (or better yet, dressing down) a young Bryant Gumbel in an interview where he rattles off a list of the late jazz singer's more notorious moments. It's the start of the documentary "Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer," and O'Day's response - with hardened emphasis on "down" - perfectly encapsulated the life of an artist whose demons were matched only by her defiance and will to overcome them.

JAMES REED