Anita O'Day

One of Anita O'Day's best albums matches the unpredictable West Coast jazz vocalist with challenging, modernist charts from the pen of Gary McFarland (then a hot new Manhattan arranger at Verve Records). McFarland's all-star East Coast band includes such soloists as Zoot Sims, Phil Woods and Bob Brookmeyer and his arrangements are always creative yet swinging. Highlights include a near definitive, non-jokey stroll through "You Came a Long Way From St. Louis" and the title track, "All the Sad Young Men," a favorite of beatniks and other non-conformists of the era.