The Boswell Sisters

Widely regarded as the finest jazz vocal ensemble ever assembled, the Boswell Sisters transformed their New Orleans roots into a propulsive style defined by extraordinarily tight harmonies and acrobatic vocal techniques seldom matched in the studio. Connee (sometimes Connie), Helvetia (Vet), and Martha Boswell sang together from childhood, absorbing Southern gospel and blues through direct immersion in the Black community. They launched their career on local vaudeville stages near New Orleans and secured a spot on area radio by 1925. Early broadcasts featured them exclusively as an instrumental trio, with Connee handling cello, saxophone, and guitar, Martha at the piano, and Vet playing violin, banjo, and guitar. The station soon added vocal numbers, frequently spotlighting Connee as lead singer even after a childhood injury left her confined to a wheelchair.

Recognition of their exceptional voices brought engagements in Chicago and New York, prompting their first recordings for Victor in 1930. The following year they switched to Brunswick and entered the Hit Parade with “When I Take My Sugar to Tea,” drawn from the Marx Brothers film Monkey Business and backed by the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra. The sisters collaborated with many leading jazz musicians of the era, among them Eddie Lang, Joe Venuti, and Bunny Berigan, and joined Bing Crosby and Cab Calloway in the 1932 motion picture The Big Broadcast. They returned to the top of the Hit Parade in 1935 with “The Object of My Affection,” featured in the film Times Square Lady. One year later Martha and Vet left the act to pursue married life.

Connee had already cut occasional solo sides for Brunswick beginning in 1932; once the trio disbanded she pursued a full-time solo career. She reached number one twice in the late ’30s through duets with Bing Crosby on “Bob White (Whatcha Gonna Swing Tonight?)” and “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” and continued to record through the 1960s.