Connee Boswell was an A-list female entertainer and one of the brightest stars of American popular music in the first half of the 20th century, but in this age of radio, few of her fans knew a childhood illness meant she used a wheelchair.
Regarded by her musical peers and some of the world’s most famous singers, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr, as “the most widely imitated singer of all time”, Connee Boswell is a star who is little remembered now but in her day was one of the most recognisable singers.
Best remembered today for her work with Bob Crosby in the late 1930s, Marion Mann also had an active and successful radio career. She worked regularly on the networks during the early 1940s before retiring from show business in 1946 and settling down into the domestic life.
Definitely the most talented and arguably the all-around best jazz vocal group of all time, the Boswell Sisters parlayed their New Orleans upbringing into a swinging delivery that featured not only impossibly close harmonies, but countless maneuvers of vocal gymnastics rarely equaled on record. Connee (sometimes Connie), Helvetia (Vet), and Martha Boswell grew up singing together, soaking up Southern gospel and blues through close contact with the Black community. They first performed at vaudeville houses around the New Orleans area, and began appearing on local radio by 1925. At first, they played strictly instrumentals, with Connee on cello, saxophone, and guitar; Martha on piano, and Vet on violin, banjo, and guitar. The station began featuring them in a vocal setting as well, with Connee taking the lead on many songs (despite a childhood accident that had crippled her and left her in a wheelchair).
Word of their incredible vocal talents led to appearances in Chicago and New York, and the Boswell Sisters began recording in 1930 for Victor. By the following year, they'd moved to Brunswick and reached the Hit Parade with "When I Take My Sugar to Tea," taken from the Marx Brothers' film Monkey Business and featuring the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra in support. The trio continued to work with many of the best jazzmen in the field (including Eddie Lang, Joe Venuti, and Bunny Berigan), and appeared in the 1932 film extravaganza The Big Broadcast with Bing Crosby and Cab Calloway. The Boswell Sisters hit the top of the Hit Parade a second time in 1935 with "The Object of My Affection" from the film Times Square Lady.
Billie Holiday, born April 7, 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was a superstar of her day. She first rose to prominence in the 1930's with a unique style that reinvented the conventions of modern singing and performance. More than 80 years after making her first recording Billie's legacy continues to embody what is elegant and cool in contemporary music. Holiday's complicated life and her genre-defining autobiography “Lady Sings the Blues” made her a cultural icon. The evocative, soulful voice which she boldly put forth as a force for good, turned any song she sang into her own. Today, Billie Holiday is remembered for her musical masterpieces, her songwriting skills, creativity and courageous views on inequality and justice.
During the 1960’s, Miss Lee was highly active as a lyricist, writing songs with well-known collaborators. Among her best known tunes written during more than 40 years of songwriting are "I'm Gonna Go Fishin’", with Duke Ellington; "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter," with Dave Grusin; "All for You," with Steve Allen; "Then Was Then (And Now Is Now)," with Cy Coleman and "What More Can a Woman Do" with Dave Barbour.
Actress and singer Ann-Margret is one of the most famous sex symbols and actresses of the 1960s and beyond. She continued her career through the following decades and into the 21st century.
After witnessing a Mafia murder, slick saxophone player Joe (Tony Curtis) and his long-suffering buddy, Jerry (Jack Lemmon), improvise a quick plan to escape from Chicago with their lives. Disguising themselves as women, they join an all-female jazz band and hop a train bound for sunny Florida. While Joe pretends to be a millionaire to win the band's sexy singer, Sugar (Marilyn Monroe), Jerry finds himself pursued by a real millionaire (Joe E. Brown) as things heat up and the mobsters close in.
Sugar Pie DeSanto
Born Umpeylia Marsema Balinton, Sugar Pie DeSanto was given her stage name as well as her recording debut by rhythm & blues ubermensch Johnny Otis. Although typecast as a blues singer, she also took care of business on the soul end of things and was a convincing jazz vocal stylist as well. That would be enough to gain most singers a reasonable slice of glory, but DeSanto also happened to be a hilarious comedienne, a show-stopping dancer, and a superb and highly original songwriter whose compositions were cut by Fontella Bass, Billy Stewart, Little Milton, Bobby McClure, Minnie Riperton, Jesse James, the Dells, and the Whispers.
Founded by Gus Wildi in 1952, Bethlehem is primarily known for its jazz catalogue and was home to an impressive roster of artists, many of whom produced their best known works while at the label. Renowned in-house producers Teddy Charles and Creed Taylor (who would later work at Impulse! and Verve and found CTI) oversaw artists including singers Chris Conner, Nina Simone, Mel Torme and Billy Eckstine; arrangers Marty Paich, Russ Garcia and Frank Hunter; musicians Dexter Gordon, Roland Kirk, Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, Zoot Sims and many others. The label distinguished itself by giving elements of creative control to the artists, enabling them to experiment and flourish and also utilising cutting edge graphic design. Its legacy is a stunning discography, capturing and preserving an era of truly amazing music, including west coast cool jazz, east coast bop and some of jazz’s most distinctive vocalists. Bethlehem was eventually sold to its primary distributor King before being acquired by Salsoul in the late ‘70s and was ultimately acquired by BMG as part of its acquisition of the Verse Music Group. Includes: Nina Simone, Mel Torme, Billy Eckstine, Charles Mingus Carmen McRae, Howard McGhee, Oscar Pettiford, Ruby Braff, Eddie Shu, Chris Connor & Duke Ellington
Helen Carr was one of those singers with an innate jazz feeling, sensitive phrasing, and a warm, unaffected sound, which she skillfully used to stamp her personality at any beat and fill each performance with an inescapable atmosphere. Her career was short, and her recordings scarce, but they are still an eloquent example of how she understood a song and was able to communicate its essence to the listener.