[4] By 1925, she had performed in Cuba, the Cotton Club in New York City, and Los Angeles with the bands of Paul Howard, Curtis Mosby, and Sonny Clay.

[2][4] In 1928, she sang in Australia with Clay's band and starred in Frank Sebastian's Cotton Club in Los Angeles in April.

[2] From 1930 to early 1931, with pianist Earl Hines's band, Anderson performed in a 20-week residency at the Grand Terrace in Chicago, Illinois.

[4] One of the rare occasions Anderson sang independently of Ellington in this period was her performance of "All God's Children Got Rhythm" in the Marx Brothers film A Day at the Races (1937) for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

[2][4] She started the Chicken Shack restaurant in Los Angeles[4] with Marque Neal after they married but sold the business when they divorced.

When Anderson played in Ellington's musical Jump for Joy, the California Eagle wrote of her:"Ivie can sing a song so that the audience get every word, and at the same time make cracks at Sonny Greer, tease Duke and wink at the boys in the front row.