The Boswell Sisters were an American close harmony singing trio of the jazz and swing eras, consisting of three sisters: Martha Boswell (June 9, 1905 – July 2, 1958), Connie Boswell (later spelled "Connee"; December 3, 1907 – October 11, 1976), and Helvetia "Vet" Boswell (May 20, 1911 – November 12, 1988). Hailing from uptown New Orleans, the group blended intricate harmonies and song arrangements featuring effects such as scat, instrumental imitation, "Boswellese" gibberish, tempo and meter changes, major/minor juxtaposition, key changes, and incorporation of sections from other songs. They attained national prominence in the United States in the 1930s during the twilight of the Jazz Age and the onset of the Great Depression.
After the trio split in 1936, Connie continued as a solo vocalist in radio, film, and later television for an additional quarter century. The trio's "unique singing style and ground-breaking arrangements fused 'blackness' and 'whiteness' in music," and their collaborations with "the preeminent white swing musicians of their day—the Dorsey Brothers, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang, Artie Shaw, Victor Young, Bunny Berigan—had a profound effect on the development of the big band sound in the 1930s." When assessing their legacy, scholars claim the Boswell Sisters "made 'real' jazz commercially viable, destigmatizing the music and opening its appreciation to the wider American public."
Early life and education
Martha and Connie were born in Kansas City, Missouri; Helvetia was born in Birmingham, Alabama. Their parents were manager and former vaudevillian from Indiana Alfred Clyde "A. C." Boswell (1877–1944) and his music-loving wife Meldania George Foore (1871–1947), originally from Missouri. The sisters—along with their 14-year-old brother Clyde Jr. (Clydie)—landed in New Orleans, Louisiana as children in 1914. They were raised in a middle-class family home at 3937 Camp Street. The sisters' parents, their Aunt Mattie, and their Uncle Charlie originally sang as a barbershop quartet. This love of music and singing was passed on to the children.
Martha, Connie, and Vet studied classical piano, cello, and violin, respectively, under the tutelage of Tulane University professor Otto Finck. They performed their classical repertoire in local recitals, often as a trio, but the city's jazz scene swiftly won them over, personally and professionally. "We studied classical music ... and were being prepared for the stage and a concert tour throughout the United States, but the saxophone got us," Martha said in a 1925 interview with the Shreveport Times.
In addition to providing the young Boswells with formal, classical musical education, Meldania Boswell took her children regularly to see the leading African–American performers of the day at the renowned Lyric Theatre. Although Black and White performers and audiences of the period normally were segregated, the Lyric Theatre offered a "Midnight Frolics" program for white-only audiences. There, young Connie heard Mamie Smith, whose "Crazy Blues" (1920), the first blues record performed by an African American, was a hit. Connie later imitated Smith's style on the Boswells' first record "I'm Gonna Cry (Cryin' Blues)," then settled into her own vocal style. Like many middle-class southern households, the Boswell family employed black house servants who, in this musical home environment, were welcome to sing while working, and the girls were known to join in with the singing. Helvetia in particular remembered that their housekeeper, named Aunt Rhea, sang traditional African-American lullabies to her at bedtime. In interviews, the sisters recalled driving around New Orleans listening for new and interesting sounds, which they often found when being outside African–American churches and barrooms of the French Quarter or when listening to street musicians at the French Market. Connie's other primary vocal influence was the legendary Italian opera tenor Enrico Caruso, whom she saw perform at the Athenaeum in New Orleans: "I used to sit and listen and be amazed by his breathing. Then I’d try and do what he was doing. I’d take a long breath and hit a lot of notes."
As their older brother Clydie began breaking away from classical music to study jazz, he introduced his sisters to the syncopated style and to many of the young jazz players in New Orleans. Leon Roppolo (clarinet, guitar), Monk Hazel (drums, cornet), Pinky Vidacovich (clarinet, saxophone), Nappy Lamare (guitar, banjo), Ray Bauduc (tuba, vocals), Dan LeBlanc (tuba), Leon Prima (trumpet), Louis Prima (trumpet, vocals), Wingy Manone (trumpet, vocals), Al Gallodoro (clarinet, saxophone), Chink Martin (bass, tuba, guitar), Santo Pecora (trombone), Raymond Burke (clarinet, saxophone), and Tony Parenti (clarinet, saxophone) were regular guests at the Boswell home. Norman Brownlee and his band were also regular participants in musical evenings at the Boswell home. Reportedly, father A.C. Boswell tried unsuccessfully to limit these visits to just one night per week—with little success. The sisters were particularly influenced by Brownlee's cornetist Emmett Louis Hardy, another friend of Clydie, whose well-documented talent and skill helped shape the sisters' knowledge of jazz harmony, syncopation, and improvisation. Hardy and Clydie both died young and unrecorded, Hardy of tuberculosis at age 22 and Clydie of Spanish flu-related complications at the age of 18.
After becoming interested in jazz, Vet took up the banjo and guitar, and Connie the saxophone and trombone. Martha continued playing the piano but focused on the rhythms and idioms of ragtime and hot jazz.
Career New Orleans
The sisters came to be well known in New Orleans while in their early teens, making appearances in local theaters and on the emerging medium of radio. By the early 1920s, they were performing regularly at local vaudeville theaters, with an act that combined classical, semi-classical, and jazz styles—though, as their popularity increased, the classics faded into the background.
The sisters performed as they would for virtually their entire career: Martha and Connie seated at the piano, with Vet close behind. This arrangement served to disguise Connie's inability to walk, or stand for any length of time, a condition whose source has never been fully confirmed. A childhood bout with polio and a coaster wagon accident are the two main hypotheses, and Connie backed up both of them in various media sources. One theory holds that Meldania crafted the accident story in order to spare her daughter the stigma attached to the disease.
In March 1925, they made their first recording for Victor Records with a mobile recording unit. The session consisted of five songs, three of which were composed by Martha. Victor rejected three of the recordings and accepted "I'm Gonna Cry (Crying Blues)" and "Nights When I Am Lonely" for release (both by Martha). The recording equipment used for this session was the primitive acoustic horn-style of sound capture, which tended to make vocals sound thin and tinny (and so singers were often forced to over compensate by singing at full volume into the horn). At the time of this first recording session Martha was 19, Connie 17 and Vet only 13 years of age. The Boswells would not record again until 1930, instead performing on a succession of vaudeville circuits in the Midwest and later California.
West Coast In December 1928, while completing their Midwest vaudeville tour through Arkansas, Texas, and Oklahoma, Connie Boswell was injured and briefly hospitalized, as reported on the front page of the Arkansas City Daily Traveler on Monday, December 10, 1928. The Boswell sisters arrived in San Francisco at the beginning of 1929. They were able to sign with a California vaudeville circuit and start performing again within the week, as advertised in the Napa Valley Register on January 5, 1929. Their next break came when an old New Orleans acquaintance invited the sisters to appear on his weekly radio program at KFWB.
"By 1929 the sisters were living in Los Angeles and had signed a contract with radio station KNX, owned and operated by the Los Angeles Evening Express newspaper and broadcast from the Paramount Pictures studios. The Boswells contributed to sponsored variety programs, such as The Navigator Hour and The Paramount Hour. In 1930 they signed with Warner Brothers Pictures’ station KFWB, which would also play a role in the early careers of Bing Crosby, Ronald Reagan, and, later, the Beach Boys"
This initial exposure led to an opportunity for Martha to perform as a voice actor and singer on Tom Breneman's KNX radio comedy show "Tom and His Mule Hercules", playing Tom's girlfriend "Miss Somaphine". Breneman soon hired the Boswell trio to perform regularly on KNX (broadcast from the Paramount Pictures studios). "Tom and His Mule Hercules" later became known as "Tom and Miss Somaphine", and finally "Radio Periscope" with the continued participation of Martha, and the Boswells as a trio. When later in the year Breneman became programming director for station KFVD he continued to program Boswell trio radio appearances.
Another New Orleans friend by the name of Bobby Burns Berman had opened a restaurant in Hollywood, and invited the Boswell trio to perform at "B.B.B.'s Cellar". The restaurant performances got them noticed by Hollywood entertainment executives. The Boswells began to get "side-miking" work in Hollywood film musicals at this time, singing for other performers in "They Learned About Women" (MGM), "Let's Go Places" (Fox), and "Under Montana Skies" (Tiffany Productions).
As the sisters gained regional notice through their radio appearances, the trio made as many as 50 broadcast transcription recordings for the Continental Broadcasting Corporation, and a selection of these were shipped out for broadcast in Hawaii.
In July 1930, the Boswells made their first disc recordings in almost five years, beginning with two songs recorded for Victor Records in Hollywood. Both featured the Jackie Taylor Orchestra as backing musicians. In October 1930, the Boswells then recorded a total of five songs for OKeh Records accompanied solely by Martha Boswell on piano: Four of the OKeh recordings were issued on two records, and internationally the tracks were paired with jazz recordings by Louis Armstrong and Frankie Trumbauer.
The Boswells received numerous mentions in various radio/stage/screen magazines of the period:
"It really isn't fair to be both beautiful and talented, but nevertheless it goes right on happening as witness this page of fair harmonizers. The Boswell Sisters, with their soft Louisiana accent, began showing promise with Connie, who at seven, played the 'cello in the New Orleans Philharmonic Orchestra. After making Victor records, appearing in vaudeville and moving pictures, the girls have more or less settled down to radio broadcasting from the San Francisco studios to the National Broadcasting Company. Connie shines as a "blues" singer; Martha plays all the accompaniments and sings her part and Vet harmonizes, plays several instruments and doubles for the 'plunk' of a banjo in an amazing manner." —"What Price Television?" from Radio Doings; The Red Book of Radio, December, 1930, p.18
"GIRLS MADE GOOD The Boswell Sisters vocal trio starred for some time on KFWB, appeared on the 'California Melodies' program this week, which is released nationally by the Columbia network. The hometowners in New Orleans made it a special Boswell night and stayed home to listen in on the girls who made good in Hollywood." —Fred Yeates, Radioland, August 2nd, 1930
However, the trio's unique approach to arrangements, which often involved reworking melodies and lyrics, altering tempos and keys in mid-song, as well as their improvisational style, did not always garner universal acclamation.