THE BOSWELL SISTERS

                        

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), Connee Boswell (original name Connie, December 3, 1907 – October 11, 1976), and Helvetia "Vet" Boswell (May 20, 1911 – November 12, 1988). Hailing from uptown New Orleans, the group was noted for their intricate harmonies and rhythmic experimentation. They attained national prominence in the United States in the 1930s during the twilight years of the Jazz Age and the onset of the Great Depression.

When the trio formally split in 1936, Connie continued as a solo vocalist in radio, film, and later television for an additional quarter of a 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, Artie Shaw—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."

House on Camp Street in uptown New Orleans where the Boswell Sisters grew up.

Martha and Connie[a] were born in Kansas City, Missouri. Helvetia was born in Birmingham, Alabama. Born to a former vaudevillian, Clyde "A. C." Boswell, and his music-loving wife, Meldania, the sisters—along with their 14-year-old brother Clyde Jr. ("Clydie")—landed in New Orleans as children, in 1914. The sisters were raised in a middle-class family at 3937 Camp Street in uptown New Orleans, Louisiana.

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 Lyric Theatre. There, young Connie heard Mamie Smith, whose "Crazy Blues" (1920), the first blues record performed by an African American, was a hit. Connie would later imitate Smith's style on the Boswells' first record, "I'm Gonna Cry (Cryin' Blues)," before settling into her own vocal style.In interviews, the sisters recalled driving around New Orleans listening for new and interesting sounds, which they often found outside African–American churches and barrooms.

As their older brother Clydie began breaking away from classical music to study jazz, he introduced his sisters to the new 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. The sisters were particularly influenced by the cornetist Emmett Louis Hardy, another friend of Clydie's, 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 flu-related complications at 18.

After becoming interested in jazz, Vet took up the banjo and Connie the saxophone. Martha continued playing the piano but focused on the rhythms and idioms of ragtime and hot jazz.

Career

New Orleans

The Boswell Sisters in March 1932. From top: "Vet," Martha, and Connie.

The sisters came to be well known in New Orleans while still 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, a condition whose source has never been fully confirmed. A childhood bout with polio[13] and a go-cart accident are the two main hypotheses, and Connie backed up both of them in various media sources. One theory holds that Meldania crafted the go-cart accident story in order to spare her daughter the stigma attached to the disease.

West Coast

In 1925 they made their first record for the Victor Records. After touring with a vaudeville company through Arkansas, Texas, and Oklahoma, the sisters arrived in Los Angeles in October 1929, mere weeks after the stock market crash which marked the beginning of the Great Depression. They appeared on radio programs, recorded music for films, and undertook several recordings for OKeh Records, recorded in Los Angeles in 1930. However, the unique approach of the trio to reworking melodies and their improvisational style did not garner universal acclamation.

In their inaugural year of radio broadcasting in California, "station employers received letters of opprobrium from outraged listeners voicing disapproval of the sisters' new and unusual arranging and singing styles. One letter stated: "Why don't you choke those Boswell Sisters? How wonderful it would be if they sang just one song like it was written. Really when they get through murdering it, one can never recognize the original." Another outraged letter from an angry listener read: "Please get those terrible Boswell Sisters off the station! You can't follow the melody and the beat is going too rapidly. And to me they sound like savage chanters!"

East Coast

After relocating to New York City in 1930, the Boswell Sisters soon attained national attention and began making national radio broadcasts. The trio had a program on CBS from 1931 to 1933. They soon signed a contract with Brunswick Records and made recordings from 1931 to 1935 under the aegis of producer Jack Kapp. These Brunswick recordings are widely regarded as milestone recordings of vocal jazz. For their Brunswick recordings, "the Boswells took greater liberties, regularly changing style, tempi, modality, lyrics, time signatures and voicings (both instrumental and vocal) to create unexpected textures and effects."

Connee's reworkings of the melodies and rhythms of popular songs, together with Glenn Miller's arrangements and New York jazz musicians (including the Dorsey Brothers, Benny Goodman, Bunny Berigan, Fulton McGrath, Joe Venuti, Arthur Schutt, Eddie Lang, Joe Tarto, Mannie Klein, Dick McDonough, and Carl Kress), made these recordings unlike any others. Melodies were rearranged and slowed down, major keys were changed to minor keys (sometimes in mid-song), and unexpected rhythmic changes were par for the course. They were among the few performers who were allowed to make changes to current popular tunes since, during this era, music publishers and record companies pressured performers not to alter current popular song arrangements. Connee also recorded a series of more conventional solo records for Brunswick during the same period.

Popular success

The Boswell Sisters soon appeared in films during this time. They sang the lively "Shout, Sister, Shout" (1931), written by Clarence Williams, in the 1932 film The Big Broadcast, which featured Bing Crosby and Cab Calloway.[The song—one of the sisters' signature tunes—was described in a November 2011 issue of the music magazine Mojo as "by no means as archaic as its age." They sang their 1934 song "Rock and Roll" in the film Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round, bringing with them an early use of the phrase rock 'n' roll, referring in the song to "the rolling rocking rhythm of the sea".

The Boswell Sisters chalked up 20 hits during the 1930s, including the number-one record "The Object of My Affection" (1935). (Of special note is their involvement in a handful of 12" medley/concert recordings made by Red Nichols, Victor Young and Don Redman and their 1934 recording of "Darktown Strutters' Ball", which was issued only in Australia.) They also completed two successful tours of Europe, appeared on the inaugural television broadcast of CBS, and performed on Hello, Europe, the first internationally broadcast radio program.

The Boswell Sisters were among radio's earliest stars, making them one of the first hit acts of the mass-entertainment age. In 1934, the Sisters appeared 13 times on the Bing Crosby Entertains radio show on CBS. They were featured in fan magazines, and their likenesses were used in advertisements for beauty and household products. During the early 1930s the Boswell Sisters, Three X Sisters, and Pickens Sisters were the talk of early radio female harmonizing. The Andrews Sisters started out as imitators of the Boswell Sisters. Young Ella Fitzgerald loved the Boswell Sisters and in particular idolized Connee, after whose singing style she patterned her own.

In 1936, the group signed to Decca, but after just three records they broke up. The last recording was February 12, 1936. Approximately one month earlier, Martha Boswell had married Major George L. Lloyd of Britain's Royal Air Force. Connie served as her sister's only attendant at the wedding and Harold J. Warner served as their best man. Lloyd was the managing director of the Aero Insurance Underwriters in New York. He was a Rhodesian-born flying ace of the Great War, credited with eight aerial victories. Connie Boswell continued to have a successful solo career as a singer for Decca. She changed the spelling of her name from Connie to Connee in the 1940s, reputedly because it made it easier to sign autographs. When she tried to become involved with the overseas USO tours during World War II, she was not granted permission to travel overseas because of her disability.

Legacy

The trio in 1931.

Later groups such as the Pfister Sisters, the Stolen Sweets, Boswellmania, the Puppini Sisters, YazooZazz, the Spanish group O Sister!, the Italian trio Sorelle Marinetti, and the Israeli band the Hazelnuts, imitated the sisters' recordings. Canada's Company B Jazz Band includes many Boswell Sisters arrangements in its repertoire and even created a set saluting the Boswells' appearance in Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round for the cover of their second album, Rock & Roll. The Ditty Bops have covered Boswell Sisters songs in concert. Caffeine Trio from Brazil also claims to have been influenced by them. There is also an Australian group, the Boswell Project, based in Adelaide, South Australia. A London harmony trio, The Haywood Sisters, have also recorded some Boswell Sisters hits and are greatly influenced by their style.

In 2001, The Boswell Sisters, a major musical based on their lives, was produced at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California. The play starred Michelle Duffy, Elizabeth Ward Land, and Amy Pietz and was produced by the same team that produced Forever Plaid. The show was a hit with audiences and a critical success, but failed to be picked up for a much hoped-for Broadway run.

The Boswell Sisters were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1998. At a ceremony covered by the Pfister Sisters, the Boswells were inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2008.

In 2014, Vet's daughter and granddaughter published The Boswell Legacy, the first comprehensive book on the life and times of the influential trio. That same year, the 52-track compilation double-CD Shout! Shout! Shout! was released by Retrospective Records. In his review of the album, Robert Christgau wrote of the Sisters: "They were so prolific and original that except for Billie [Holiday] and their fan Ella they were not just the premier jazz singers of the decade, rewriting melodies at will, but pop stars with a dozen top 10 singles. The Boswells didn’t just imitate instruments when the fancy struck them, they sang as though they were instruments, outswinging both the ‘30s competition and such heirs as Lambert, Hendricks and Ross."

                              

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Boswell Sisters, en español Las Hermanas Boswell eran un grupo de canto de armonía, compuesto por las hermanas Martha Boswell Lloyd (9 de junio de 1905 - 2 de julio de 1958), Connee Boswell (nombre original Connie, 3 de diciembre de 1907 - 11 de octubre de 1976) y Helvetia "Vet "Boswell (20 de mayo de 1911 - 12 de noviembre de 1988), conocido por las intrincadas armonías y la experimentación rítmica. Alcanzaron la prominencia nacional en los Estados Unidos en la década de 1930.

Las hermanas se criaron en una familia de clase media en el 3937 Camp Street, en la parte alta de Nueva Orleans, Luisiana. 1​ Martha y Connie nacieron en Kansas City, Misuri. Helvetia nació en Birmingham, Alabama. (El nombre de Connee fue escrito originalmente como Connie hasta que lo cambió en la década de 1940). Nacidas de un antiguo vaudevilliano, Clyde "AC" Boswell, 2​ y su esposa amante de la música, Meldania, las hermanas, junto con su hermano mayor Clyde Jr. ("Clydie") - llegaron a Nueva Orleans cuando eran niños, en 1914. 3​ Martha, Connie y Vet estudiaron piano clásico, violonchelo y violín, respectivamente, bajo la tutela del profesor Otto Finck de la Universidad de Tulane. 4​ 5​ Interpretaron su repertorio clásico en recitales locales, a menudo como trío, pero la escena de jazz de la ciudad las ganó rápidamente, personal y profesionalmente. “Estudiamos música clásica. Nos estaban preparando para el escenario y para una gira de conciertos por todo Estados Unidos, pero el saxofón nos atrapó", dijo Martha en una entrevista de 1925 con Shreveport Times. 6​

Además de proporcionar a las jóvenes Boswell una educación musical formal y clásica, Meldania Boswell llevó a sus hijos con regularidad a ver a los artistas afroamericanos más destacados del día en el Teatro Lírico. 7​ Allí, la joven Connie escuchó a Mamie Smith, cuyo " Crazy Blues " (1920), el primer disco de blues interpretado por un afroamericano, fue un éxito. Más tarde, Connie imitaría el estilo de Smith en el primer disco de las Boswell, "I'm Gonna Cry (Cryin 'Blues)", antes de establecerse en su propio estilo vocal. 8​ 9​ En las entrevistas, las hermanas recordaron haber conducido por Nueva Orleans escuchando sonidos nuevos e interesantes, que a menudo encontraban en las iglesias y bares afroamericanos.

Cuando su hermano mayor, Clydie, comenzó a separarse de la música clásica para estudiar jazz, presentó a sus hermanas el nuevo estilo sincopado 7​ y muchos de los jóvenes músicos de jazz de Nueva Orleans. Leon Roppolo (clarinete, guitarra), Monk Hazel (batería, corneta), Pinky Vidacovich (clarinete, saxofón), Nappy Lamare (guitarra, banjo), Ray Bauduc (tuba, voz), Dan LeBlanc (tuba), Leon Prima (trompeta) ), Louis Prima (trompeta, voz), Wingy Manone (trompeta, voz), Al Gallodoro (clarinete, saxofón), Chink Martin (bajo, tuba, guitarra), Santo Pecora (trombón), Raymond Burke (clarinete, saxofón), y Tony Parenti (clarinete, saxofón) fueron invitados regulares a la casa de Boswell. Las hermanas fueron particularmente influenciadas por el cornetista Emmett Louis Hardy, otro amigo de Clydie's, cuyo talento y habilidad bien documentados ayudaron a moldear el conocimiento de las hermanas sobre la armonía del jazz, la sincopación y la improvisación. Hardy y Clydie murieron jóvenes y no registrados, Hardy de tuberculosis a los 22 años y Clydie de complicaciones relacionadas con la gripe a los 18 años.

Después de interesarse por el jazz, Vet tomó el banjo y Connie el saxofón. Martha continuó tocando el piano, pero se centró en los ritmos y los modismos del ragtime y el hot jazz.

Boswell Sisters 1931

Las hermanas llegaron a ser bien conocidas en Nueva Orleans cuando aún eran adolescentes, apareciendo en teatros locales y en el medio emergente de la radio. A principios de la década de 1920 actuaban regularmente en los teatros locales de vodevil, con una actuación que combinaba los estilos clásico, semiclásico y de jazz, aunque, a medida que su popularidad aumentaba, los clásicos se desvanecían en el fondo. Las hermanas actuaron como lo harían durante prácticamente toda su carrera: Martha y Connie, sentadas al piano, con Vet detrás. Este arreglo sirvió para disfrazar la incapacidad de caminar de Connie, una condición cuyo origen nunca se ha confirmado por completo. La poliomielitis y un accidente de kart son las dos hipótesis principales, y Connie las respaldó en varios medios. Una teoría sostiene que Meldania elaboró la historia del accidente de kart para evitarle a su hija el estigma asociado a la enfermedad. 10​

En 1925 hicieron su primer disco para Victor Records. Después de salir de gira con una compañía de vodevil, a través de Arkansas, Texas y Oklahoma, las hermanas aterrizaron en Los Ángeles en 1929. Aparecieron en programas de radio y grabaron música para películas. Sin embargo, las Hermanas Boswell no lograron la atención nacional hasta que se mudaron a Nueva York en 1930 y comenzaron a hacer transmisiones de radio nacionales. El trío tenía un programa en la CBS desde 1931 hasta 1933. 

Después de algunas grabaciones para OKeh Records, grabadas en Los Ángeles en 1930, hicieron numerosas grabaciones para Brunswick Records desde 1931 hasta 1935. Estos discos de Brunswick son ampliamente considerados como grabaciones de hitos del jazz vocal. Las modificaciones de Connee de las melodías y los ritmos de las canciones populares, junto con los arreglos de Glenn Miller y los músicos de jazz de Nueva York (incluidos los Hermanos Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Bunny Berigan, Fulton McGrath, Joe Venuti, Arthur Schutt, Eddie Lang, Joe Tarto, Manny Klein, Dick McDonough y Carl Kress) hicieron estas grabaciones únicas. Las melodías se reorganizaron y ralentizaron, las teclas principales se cambiaron a teclas menores (a veces en la mitad de la canción), y los cambios rítmicos inesperados fueron parejos. Se encontraban entre los pocos artistas a los que se les permitió hacer cambios a las melodías populares actuales. Durante esta era, los editores de música y las compañías discográficas presionaron a los artistas para que no alteraran los arreglos de canciones populares. Connee también grabó una serie de discos solistas más convencionales para Brunswick durante el mismo período.

Las hermanas Boswell aparecieron en películas durante este tiempo. Cantaron su canción "Rock and Roll" de 1934 en la película Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round, con un uso temprano de la frase rock 'n' roll, refiriéndose en la canción a "el ritmo del balanceo del mar". Cantaron el animado "Shout, Sister, Shout" (1931), escrito por Clarence Williams, en la película de 1932 The Big Broadcast, que presentó a Bing Crosby y Cab Calloway. La canción, una de las canciones de las hermanas, fue descrita en una edición de noviembre de 2011 de la revista musical Mojo como "de ninguna manera tan arcaica como su edad".

Connee Boswell 1941

Las Hermanas Boswell acumularon 20 hits durante la década de 1930, incluido el disco número uno "The Object of My Affection" (1935). (Cabe destacar su participación en un puñado de "medley / conciertos grabados por Red Nichols, Victor Young y Don Redman y su grabación de 1934 de " Darktown Strutters 'Ball ", que se emitió solo en Australia). También completaron dos exitosas giras por Europa, aparecieron en la transmisión televisiva inaugural de CBS y actuaron en Hello, Europa, el primer programa de radio transmitido internacionalmente.

Las Hermanas Boswell estaban entre las primeras estrellas de la radio, lo que las convirtió en uno de los primeros actos de éxito de la era del entretenimiento masivo. En 1934, las hermanas aparecieron 13 veces en el programa de radio Bing Crosby Entertains en CBS. Aparecieron en revistas de admiradores, y sus semejanzas se usaron en anuncios de belleza y productos para el hogar. 12​ A principios de la década de 1930, Boswell Sisters, Three X Sisters y Pickens Sisters fueron el sonido de las primeras radios femeninas. Las Hermanas Andrews comenzaron como imitadoras de las Hermanas Boswell.  La joven Ella Fitzgerald amaba a las Hermanas Boswell y, en particular, a la idolatrada Connee, a partir de cuyo estilo de canto ella modeló el suyo. 

En 1936, el grupo firmó con Decca, pero después de solo tres registros se separaron. La última grabación fue el 12 de febrero de 1936. Aproximadamente un mes antes, Martha Boswell se había casado con el comandante George L. Lloyd de la Royal Air Force de Gran Bretaña. Connie fue la única asistente de su hermana en la boda y Harold J. Warner fue su padrino. Lloyd era el director gerente de Aero Insurance Underwriters en Nueva York. Fue un as de la Primera Guerra Mundial, acreditado con ocho victorias aéreas. 16​ Connie Boswell continuó teniendo una exitosa carrera en solitario como cantante de Decca. Cambió la ortografía de su nombre de Connie a Connee en la década de 1940, supuestamente porque hacía más fácil firmar autógrafos. Cuando trató de involucrarse con las giras de USO en el extranjero durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, no se le dio permiso para viajar al extranjero debido a su discapacidad.

Legado

Grupos posteriores, como las hermanas Pfister, las Stolen Swets, Boswellmania, las hermanas Puppini, YazooZazz, el grupo español O Sister!, el trío italiano Sorelle Marinetti y la banda israelí Hazelnuts imitaron las grabaciones de las hermanas. Company B Jazz Band de Canadá incluye muchos arreglos de las Boswell Sisters en su repertorio e incluso creó un set que saluda la aparición de las Boswell en Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round para la portada de su segundo álbum, Rock & Roll . The Ditty Bops han versionado las canciones de Boswell Sisters en concierto. El Trío Cafeína de Brasil también afirma haber sido influenciado por ellas. También hay un grupo australiano, el Proyecto Boswell, con sede en Adelaida, Australia del Sur. El trío de armonía de Londres, The Haywood Sisters, también ha grabado algunos éxitos de Boswell Sisters y está muy influenciado por su estilo.

En 2001, The Boswell Sisters, un importante musical basado en sus vidas, fue producido en el Old Globe Theatre en San Diego, California. La obra fue protagonizada por Michelle Duffy, Elizabeth Ward Land y Amy Pietz y fue producida por el mismo equipo que produjo Forever Plaid. El espectáculo fue un éxito entre el público y un éxito crítico, pero no pudo ser elegido para una muy esperada carrera de Broadway.

Las hermanas Boswell fueron incorporadas al Salón de la Fama del Grupo Vocal en 1998. En una ceremonia cubierta por las Hermanas Pfister, las Boswell fueron incorporados al Salón de la Fama de la Música de Luisiana en 2008.

En 2014, la hija y nieta de Vet publicaron The Boswell Legacy, el primer libro completo sobre la vida y los tiempos de este grupo influyente.