Artist: Connie Boswell

Constance Foore "Connie" Boswell was an American vocalist born in Kansas City, Missouri but raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. With sisters  Martha and Helvetia "Vet", she performed in the 1920s and 1930s as the trio The Boswell Sisters. They started as instrumentalists but became a highly influential singing group via their recordings and film and television appearances. 

Connie is considered one of the great female jazz vocalists and was a major influence on Ella Fitzgerald, who said "My mother brought home one of her records, and I fell in love with it...I tried so hard to sound just like her." In 1936, Connie's sisters retired and Connie continued on as a solo artist (having also recorded solos during her years with the group).

Boswell was a favorite duet partner of Bing Crosby, and they frequently sang together on radio as well as recording several hit records as a duo in the 1930s and 1940s. (Crosby and The Boswell Sisters first sang together in 1931 on a 12" medley of songs from the then-current George White's Scandals, issued on Brunswick 20102.) She and Crosby recorded a version of "Alexander's Ragtime Band" which was introduced by Eddie Cantor that was a No. 1 hit in 1938. This recording benefited the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which later became the March of Dimes. In 1939, Crosby and Boswell had three hit duet records that each climbed into the top 12 on Billboard; "An Apple for the Teacher" climbed all the way to No. 2.  

Boswell had several dozen solo hits, including "Moonlight Mood" (1942). Her last charted hit was "If I Give My Heart to You" (1954). Boswell's career slackened in the 1950s, but she still recorded occasionally and was featured on a number of television broadcasts, including Jazz Party (also known as "Art Ford's Jazz Party") and a regular stint on the 1959 series Pete Kelly's Blues as "Savannah Brown". 

Further information about Connie Boswell is found here.

Photography credit: NBC--photographer: Ernest A. Bachrach., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

This content was excerpted from the Wikipedia article, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connee_Boswell, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/).