CELEBRATE THE BOSWELL SISTERS!!!
The Boswell Sisters were quite simply one of the best (if not THE best) vocal groups of the 20th century. So there! Martha, Vet & Connee started out in New Orleans doing vaudeville and swiftly became known as one of the hottest groups around. Bing Crosby was a fan (along with just about everybody else) and Ella Fitzgerald cited Connee Boswell as a MAJOR influence! The first time I set eyes (and ears) on the Boswells was in the daffy, almost surreal 1932 movie musical "The Big Broadcast" (which is criminally LOOOOOOONG overdue for a DVD release). The Boswell Sisters were prominently featured along with an impossibly young Bing Crosby, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Cab Calloway, The Mills Brothers, Kate Smith and many other early radio acts. When I say this film was bizarre & surreal, I mean it. One scene in particular features Bing Crosby & Stuart Erwin attempting suicide after being jilted. They lock themselves in the kitchen and turn on the gas while a ghostly, phantasm of Arthur Tracy materializes out of the stove to croon "Here Lies Love" to the slowly asphixiating pair. But back to the Boswells. . .who after all, we're supposed to be celebrating. The Andrews Sisters came after them and are more well-known today but the Boswells were there first and were better by far! They started recording in the late 20's but hit it big in 1930. Martha and Vet retired from performing in 1936 and Connee went on to a fairly successful solo career. Connee, incidentally, was unable to walk due to a childhood accident (not polio as is sometimes asserted) and performed her entire career sitting down. Many fans probably never knew her physical restrictions. Some of the best (and hottest, jazziest, hep-cattinest) sides are "Shuffle Off to Buffalo", "Louisiana Hayride", "42nd Street", "Heebie Jeebies", "Sophisticated Lady", "Shout, Sister, Shout!", "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea", "Coffee in the Morning and Kisses in the Night" and "That's How Rhythm Was Born". After going solo, Connee kicked it with fantastic versions of "Time On My Hands" and "Concentratin' On You". If you're a hep cat, you should seek out the Boswells. They'll make you swing and sway, daddy!
Incidentally. . .while March was comic book month in the land of cerpts and honey, April's theme is going to be the Great American Songbook: celebrating some favourite singers and the songs they turned into standards. Crank up your victrola (or your iPod equivalent)!
ReplyDeletefavourite! you are so trying to play robbie with that british type of yours!
ReplyDeletebut honestly doll, i love the boswell sisters, thanks of course to your influence. it was a year ago yesterday that i was in the dark forest under that sad little fruit tree when the leaves swirled and sang to me, telling me to shuffle off to buffalo with the gals and i've loved them ever since!
You have such divine taste, my lotus flower! That's why you married Robbie, I assume. A whole year???? Dag, I should have raked up the leaves in there LONG before now. And those squirrels are nuts!
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