Connee Boswell

b. 3 December 1907, Kansas City, Missouri, USA,

An outstanding singer with enormous but often uncredited influence, Boswell claimed to have been inspired by singers as diverse as Bessie Smith and Enrico Caruso. According to outside sources, Connee and her sisters, Martha and Helvetia, were both influenced and encouraged by the New Orleans cornetist Emmett Hardy. In her work it is possible also to discern the effect of the stylistic advances being made by Ethel Waters and Louis Armstrong. Certainly, she was interested in the blues and when she made her first record as a pre-teenager she sang a blues written by Martha. The sisters formed a close-harmony singing group, the Boswell Sisters, but Connee's career extended far beyond this. Despite being in a wheelchair since contracting polio at the age of four, she grew up to be a determined, talented performer, carving a highly successful solo career after the sisters' act folded in 1935. A skilled musician, adept on saxophone, trombone, cello and piano, she worked extensively in radio, television and films. Essentially a two-beat singer, with a calculatedly casual sound, she considerably affected the manner in which later singers approached their work. Although few acknowledge their debt to Connee Boswell, the fact that one who did was Ella Fitzgerald suggests that her influence is widespread throughout popular music, even if her emulators do not always realize the original source of their inspiration. She worked steadily into the 60s, mostly on television. A rare opportunity to enjoy her work on CD came in 1998 with the reissue of her 1958 album celebrating the 50th anniversary of songwriter Irving Berlin's career.

Discography:

Discography:

They Can't Take These Songs Away From Me 2001
Heart & Soul 1997
Deep In A Dream 1996
Sings Irving Berlin 1958
The Early Sides: 1931-35