The Boswell Legacy 2nd Edition
Available at The Boswell Sisters Store on eBay and on Amazon.com

The second edition of The Boswell Legacy is the definitive reference book and biography of the Boswell Sisters trio—Martha, Connie, and Vet—three prodigious musicians and vocalists raised in the Jazz Era of New Orleans. It is presented in full color and has been expanded by more than 100 pages to include new images from the Chica Boswell Minnerly/Kyla Titus family collection including never-before-published images, David McCain's complete discography (as well as his 'gig'ography and filmography), song commentaries throughout the book by musician/producer Paul Chiten, a greatly expanded artists section, a new song index in addition to the previously compiled name index, and much more. Within these 332 pages readers will find the perfect combination of the Boswell Sisters’ personal story with decades-long research into their family history, early influences, rise to fame and fortune, and sudden disbandment. The book is available in both hardcover and paperback.

Awards.

The Association of Recorded Sound Collections
Kyla Titus Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research

The Association of Recorded Sound Collections
Chica Boswell Minnerly Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research

Thank you Jazz History Online for selecting the original version of The Boswell Legacy as one of top three jazz biographies of 2014

Review Links.

Thank you Neal Siegal for his review in The Syncopated Times of the 2024 book, The Boswell Legacy 2nd Edition

Thank you Michael Steinman for his review in Jazz Lives of the 2024 book, JOYS AND SORROWS: “THE BOSWELL LEGACY,” Second Edition

Thank you Scott Yanow for his review in The Syncopated Times of the 2024 book, The Boswell Legacy 2nd Edition

Thank you Will Friedwald for his October 2014 article in the Wall Street Journal, "Temporary Fame, Longstanding Loyalty"

Thank you Michael Steinman for his review in Jazz Lives of the original 2014 version of The Boswell Legacy book, "CONSIDERING THE MYSTERY: “THE BOSWELL LEGACY,” by KYLA TITUS and CHICA BOSWELL MINNERLY"
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That Boswell Sound--Imitated
But Never Equaled

Introduction to The Boswell Legacy 2nd Edition
By David W. McCain

I discovered the Boswell Sisters in the same way they crafted their rhythmic and innovative song arrangements—by beginning at the end. Connie Boswell described the Boswell attack on a song in 1931:

We start at the end of a number and begin arranging forward. The very last thing we arrange is the beginning of the first verse. I don’t know just how we got this habit. It’s just one of those things.—New York World Telegram, Aug. 22, 1931, “Boswell Sisters Each Take Corner to Write Column.”

My own “beginning at the end” commenced in 1973, when Bette Midler’s Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy sparked a tidal wave of nostalgic interest in the song’s original performers, the Andrews Sisters. During my college years in the early 1970s, I could not get enough of LaVerne, Maxene, and Patty Andrews and their bouncy harmonies. Then I read about a harmony trio called the Boswell Sisters. Author Richard Lamparski’s eloquence cemented my journey backwards to the beginning:

“The Boswell Sound,” as it is still called in the music business, created a sensation. There had been sister acts before, and many since, but it was these three Southern girls who were able to blend their voices in a way the public never heard before—they merged harmony, rhythm and feeling to produce a musical togetherness that has been imitated but never equaled.—“Whatever Became Of…” Crown, 1967.

This intriguing description provoked a fervent curiosity to hear these Boswell Sisters who had created something so original that had never been equaled. And the fact that Martha, Connie, and Vet Boswell were from my hometown of New Orleans added the element of solving a mystery. If they were so stupendous, why had I not ever heard of them?

But there were very few LP reissues of the Boswells’ work. The first reissue album had been pressed in England in 1966, but it was the second album produced in the USA in 1972 on a collector’s label called Biograph that I initially obtained. I guided the stylus to the first track and heard a Southern-accented, contralto voice croon:

Ah’ll be there honey wait for me, Oh you dawlin’

Followed by a warm and lulling blend:

Down among the shelt’rin’ palms...

I played the entire album countless times and devoured Michael Brooks’ informative liner notes, which contained interview excerpts from Connie and Vet Boswell. It took a while to get accustomed to the Boswell soulful blend of voices, which could sweetly croon a few bars and abruptly switch to playful, madcap rapid-fire harmonies at any given moment. I had passed the point of no return—I was hopelessly bewitched by their jazzy siren call. As I delved further into the Boswell repertoire, there seemed to be no end to the adventuresome, unexpected, and sometimes downright crazy vocal arrangements crafted by these sisters, which were sung with such a sense of joy and abandon. These Boswell Sisters sounded like they were having the time of their lives! And their accompanying musicians were right there living it up with them: future Big Band legends Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller, and Bunny Berigan, to name but a few.

No matter how many times I heard their songs, the harmonies always sounded refreshing and NOW. That is still the case today.

The mystery questions came up time and time again: Why had I never heard of these musical innovators from my native city? And why weren’t the Boswell Sisters better known to the world at large?

I had to find the answers, but the research libraries and even people in New Orleans could not give me the in-depth answers I was seeking. No one had done the proper documentation of the Boswells’ history and significance, so I appointed myself to the task. And the first place to start was in the Hudson River town of Peekskill, New York where Helvetia “Vet” Boswell, the last of the Boswell Sisters, resided.

It was on a cold November day in 1977 that this Southern boy made his first trip to New York City, boarding a train at Grand Central Station for the last 50 miles of the journey to Peekskill. I had previously obtained Vet’s address from someone in New Orleans and had written to her, and Vet sent me a gracious and welcoming reply.

The side door of the simple white house at 801 Pemart Ave. was opened by an elegant and stylish lady wearing a turban and sporting fire engine red lipstick and nail polish. She had the look of someone extra-special.

To my utter delight, it did not take long to discover that being in Vet’s company was as entertaining and fun as listening to the recordings with her sisters! She was witty, intelligent, vibrant. It had been a long time (1936) since Vet left her singing career, but she knew the trio’s work was not only unique but enduring. And these sentiments were expressed in her classy, understated way. The best in the business do not have to brag. Martha passed away in 1958 and Connie had recently died (in 1976), so Vet called herself “the Last of the Mohicans.”

We listened to just about all their recordings, and she often sang along and sometimes even moved with the tempo changes. She said she always heard songs in a minor key and that minor choruses were usually her contribution to their arrangements; she related how, unlike the average trio, they switched their harmony parts; of being so shy in the early days that her sisters had to bribe her to sing with them; how they played jokes on all their friends, especially their classical music professor, Otto Finck; of parking outside of black churches and listening to gospel music; of meeting the Dorsey Brothers for the first time at a New York recording session and getting a standing ovation from all of “the boys” after their run-through of When I Take My Sugar To Tea…

I had to know everything, and Vet relished reliving the happiest period of her life. I did not realize until much later how much she missed the togetherness and special world that she and her sisters created.

It was a one-of-a-kind friendship which I will always treasure, and I looked forward to our annual visits. Vet loved the fact that we shared New Orleans as common ground, and on one trip, I brought her a gallon of my mama’s famous seafood gumbo. In April 1987, Vet’s daughter, Chica Boswell Minnerly, brought her mother to New Orleans. We visited the old Boswell home on Camp Street and heard the Pfister Sisters, who were keeping the sounds of the Boswell Sisters alive in their native city. Vet passed away in November of 1988, only a few days after I had visited her one last time in Peekskill.

Via the hindsight that seems to heighten understanding once someone is gone, I pondered certain answers to questions that Vet never answered to my satisfaction. (The main ones being: “What was the real reason for the breakup?” and “Did you really keep your marriage a secret from Martha and Connie for a whole year?”) As close as we were, I sensed I had crossed a boundary when pressing Vet on these questions. I had no idea that Vet was automatically following a deeply ingrained family code of silence inherited from a previous generation. This code spilled into Chica’s generation and even had a name: “the Foore Code” (Foore was Mrs. Boswell’s maiden name).

No one was more surprised than I was when Chica Minnerly asked me to help her research the lives of the Boswell Sisters. Other than bringing her mother to New Orleans, I had always observed that Chica wanted to distance herself from the Boswell legacy and resolutely be her own person. I agreed to work with Chica in 1989, and so began many years of a difficult relationship fraught with mixed signals that frequently left me feeling like an outsider who was encroaching on family matters that were either too private or painful, or both, for Chica to write about, much less share.

Like her mother, she would cooperate and be open only to a certain point. Although adamant, she was not interested in a “whitewash” job; whatever progress we made was slow and plodding with the feel of a long battle campaign. Did Chica really want to tell the story? There was a wall of resistance and reluctance, and Chica had no awareness of the time involved. It was not an uncommon scenario for me to set aside time to go to her farm in upstate New York to work, only to arrive and find Chica vague, unresponsive, and slow to start. Many times, she would exhibit enthusiasm to begin working when it was time for me to leave. Gradually the work sessions became fewer and further between, but my love for the subject kept me coming back to someone who not only knew all the sisters, but who had inherited their vast archive of memorabilia. However, even labors of love and hope have their limit. In exasperation, I bowed out, feeling that whatever I knew about the Boswell story was enough for me—book or no book. I had solved as much of the mystery as I cared to.

Enter Kyla Titus, daughter of Chica and granddaughter of Vet Boswell. Vet adored and pampered her only female grandchild, and Kyla grew up hearing the experiences of the Boswell Sisters filtered through the sharp memories of her witty and entertaining grandmother (“Now don’t pull a Venuti on me!” was Vet’s way of telling her granddaughter not to do something crazy). So, Kyla and I not only shared a closeness and love for Vet, but also the challenges of working with Chica. Kyla knew her mother wanted her to finish the story, but even after her mother died in 2010, Kyla had to ponder if she really wanted to take up the reins.

You are holding the result of Kyla’s decision in your hands. Kyla was determined that no code would influence her or her own family. She has not only answered the lingering questions, but has honestly, compassionately, and authoritatively chronicled the complex story of three lives which were as closely intertwined as their vocal harmonies. These three lives had to inevitably unravel, which meant ending the magical days of a great and unsurpassed trio. The reason we care about the story of these lives is because of what they left behind. It was what mattered most, above all else, to Martha, to Connie and to Vet: the music.

That music, the Boswell legacy, which is such a perfect blend of creativity, originality, and harmonic excellence.

Indeed, it has never been equaled.
And it all began in New Orleans.
Shout, Sister, Shout!

Meet the Team.

Kyla Titus, co-author/co-researcher

Kyla spent most of her early life in the neighborhoods of Brooklyn, the beaches of Fire Island, and the manicured lawns at her grandmother’s (Vet Boswell’s) house in Peekskill, N.Y. She worked as a documentation analyst/writer and computer programmer at New York Medical College in Valhalla, N.Y., before deciding to raise her children near her mother Chica Boswell Minnerly’s farm in upstate New York. There she volunteered as an advocate for disabled children in the local schools and several non-profit organizations. She became an authority on the fermentation of cabbage as well as other food-growing and preserving methods. When her children were a little older, she worked for seven years in journalism and three years in college-level special education.

Throughout the decades, Kyla helped her mother catalog, preserve, document, research, and write about their Boswell family legacy as much as possible while caring for her three children. In May 2000, Chica became chronically ill, and before her passing in 2010, urged Kyla to continue work on the book and the family legacy.

In 2012, after Kyla’s very first visit to New Orleans, she made the difficult decision to rearrange her life and concentrate on the book and the legacy. Since then, Kyla has donated Chica’s Boswell Museum collection and a large portion of the remaining family collection to The Historic New Orleans Collection (THNOC). She consulted on THNOC’s Boswell Sisters exhibit in 2014 and Sugar to Tea Entertainment’s “Close Harmony” documentary.

Also in 2014, Kyla presented The Bill Russell lecture at THNOC. This prestigious lecture for the first time in its 15-year history featured ground-breaking female jazz musicians (the Boswell Sisters), the first female lecturer (Kyla), and live female singers (the Pfister Sisters.) She also produced a live concert at the Louisiana State Museum’s ‘Music at the Mint’ venue that brought together groups from around the world who sang in the style of the Boswell Sisters. She also hosted multiple events for these artists in and around New Orleans. Kyla was interviewed many times during and after this period on radio, film, and television, both in the U.S. and abroad.

In 2024, Kyla also published her mother's secret manuscript (found after Chica's passing) entitled, Legacy: Images of a Family. In this work, Chica wrote about her truthful observations of the trio, their husbands, and their mother in short poetic vignettes, or “images.’ Kyla added new, private images from the family collection to this volume. She also plans on publishing Chica’s poetry. Kyla continues to devote her time to multiple projects that further awareness of the "World's Foremost Harmony Singers" and their innovative Boswell Sound.

Chica Boswell Minnerly, co-author/co-researcher

Vet "Chica" Boswell Minnerly was born in Toronto, Canada, shortly after Vet Boswell’s retirement from show business. She was raised there until the age of 15, at which time the Jones family (Vet, her husband John Paul Jones, and Chica) moved to Peekskill, N.Y., to be close to Vet’s sisters, Martha and Connee.

Chica graduated from Peekskill High School and received her B.S. from Barnard College in Manhattan. Shortly after graduating from Barnard, she married, moved to Brooklyn, had three children, and then continued her education, receiving her master’s degree in special education. Her entire teaching career was spent at the Pleasantville Cottage School in Westchester County, N.Y.

Upon retiring, and like her aunt Martha Boswell, she moved to a farm in the New York countryside. She spent the rest of her life at her beloved farm, working to honor the music and lives of her famous mother and aunts while amassing an enormous collection of Boswell Sisters material. She formed The Boswell Museum in East Springfield, N.Y., and began and completed the arduous task of cataloguing the immense collection with the help of her daughter, Kyla, and many friends and volunteers.

Chica’s birth in 1936 was widely reported in the newspapers of the day. Many reporters referred to her as “The Million Dollar Baby,” “The Fourth Boswell,” and “a new little ‘crooner’.” Chica never sang but did evolve into an accomplished classical pianist.

Chica passed away in 2010, leaving the Boswell family legacy to her only daughter, Kyla, to carry forward. Much of this legacy would have been lost had it not been for Chica's tireless efforts, and the world of music is lucky for her perseverance and preservation of this important history.

Rest in peace, Chica.

David W. McCain, co-researcher

Just like his beloved Boswell Sisters, David is originally from New Orleans, and he currently lives in New Jersey. His research into the history of harmony singing, much of which has been donated to several New Orleans institutions, quickly led him to the Boswell Sisters’ musical genius. David was captivated by their sound but needed more. He found himself full of questions that he determined only Vet Boswell could answer. After their meeting, a close friendship ensued until her death in 1988. 

His closeness with Vet’s family continues, and he is currently working with her granddaughter, Kyla, on many Boswell recognition projects, to perpetuate and credit the highly influential Boswell Sound. David is happy to note that the Boswells are better remembered now than when he first encountered them in the 1970s.

James Von Schilling, editor

James (“Jim”) Von Schilling is a Professor Emeritus at Northampton Community College in Bethlehem, Pa., where he taught English and served as Humanities Faculty Coordinator and Supervisor of the Liberal Arts Program. Jim previously taught at Rider University and Bowling Green University. He earned his doctorate in American Culture at Bowling Green, following a B.A. in English from Princeton University and an M.A. in Education from New York University. He now serves on the Board of Trustees at Raritan Valley Community College in Branchburg, N.J.

Jim has been a mentor for the National Endowment for the Humanities and has served on the Board of Governors for the Popular and American Culture Associations and on the editorial boards of both the Journal of American Culture and the Journal of Popular Culture. He is the author of “The Magic Window: American Television, 1939-1952” and the forthcoming “Boom Times: Tales of the War Babies and Baby Boomers, 1942-1971.”

Jim has been personally involved in music for over 60 years. He’s been a trumpet player in numerous bands, including Generacion Latina, Tierradentro, and the Exit 9 Band. His research and writing on popular music has been published in the American Popular Culture reference series, The Popular Culture Reader, the Journal of Popular Music and Society, and Creem Magazine. He is also a co-founder and organizer of the Central Jersey Jazz Festival.

Jim has been an ardent fan of the Boswell Sisters since 1973. He’s met Vet Boswell and spoken with Connee, attended performances of “The Heebie Jeebies” and club shows of Boswell emulators, met and mingled with fellow Boswell devotees, attended the Boswell Sisters Centennial Celebration in New Orleans, given talks and presentations on the Boswells, and edited both editions of “The Boswell Legacy” by Kyla Titus and Chica Boswell Minnerly. Jim has even visited Kurzaal Hall on the North Sea in the Netherlands, where the Boswell Sisters performed on their European tours. An original poster advertising their August 1935 show at the Kurzaal is the prized possession Jim displays on his living room wall in Somerville, NJ, where he raised his sons, Scott and Gary, and resides with his wife, Margaret Weinberger.

Paul Chiten, musician/producer, song commentator

Paul Chiten is a multi-platinum songwriter, Emmy-award winning composer, producer, musician, and recording artist. He’s worked with top music artists, among them Michael Jackson, Donna Summer, Natalie Cole, Alice Cooper, Cyndi Lauper, The Commodores, Brenda Russell, Tina Turner, Anita Baker, and the Pointer Sisters. As a composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, he’s won two Emmy awards and five Telly Awards.

Some of his hit songs include Can’t Wait Another Minute (performed by Five Star), Come into My Life (originally performed by Laura Branigan, and later became a Top Ten gospel hit by The Imperials), and the theme song from the movie, Transylvania 6-5000 (performed by Chiten). Paul’s music has appeared in many films, including “Witness” (starring Harrison Ford) and “Coming to America” (starring Eddie Murphy). His television credits include “Dawson’s Creek,” “The Wonder Pets,” “Beyond Chance,” “Law and Order,” and the Columbia Tri-Star series, “Street Time.” He’s toured with Donna Summer performing on keyboards and vocals, co-writing songs, and recording with her in the studio. Other touring includes his bands, “PC 2000” and “Angel City.”

As a musical director and live performer, Paul has been involved with large-scale, cutting-edge, high-tech shows for Apple, Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, and more. A large part of his catalog is available online via the major digital distributors—Apple Music, Amazon, Spotify, Deezer, Tidal, Pandora, and YouTube. Lyrics can be found on Musixmatch and most other lyrics websites. Recent projects include music for video games (“World of Warcraft”) and music for shows on Netflix, HBO, Showtime, and Hulu.

In 2015, Paul saw a two-minute YouTube clip video of the Boswell Sisters singing Crazy People, and it changed his life. He learned to play Martha Boswell’s piano parts, which he found musically fascinating. He was inspired to write a testament to this newly discovered musical wonder. He titled it “The Greatest Trio You Never Heard Of,” and it was featured on the American Federation of Musicians website.

That article led to Paul being introduced to the Boswell universe. He first was in contact with Boswell-authority David McCain, and then met Kyla Titus (Vet Boswell’s granddaughter). Paul’s musical expertise led to him assisting Kyla with various Boswell Sisters recognition projects and advising her on the trio’s original compositions that were never commercially recorded or released.
 
In 2019, Paul was a guest panelist at the Boswell Sisters event sponsored by the American Popular Song Society in New York. As a member of the Recording Academy, Paul is currently nominating the Boswell Sisters for a Lifetime Achievement Grammy award.

Paul’s admiration for this astounding trio and his deepening collaboration with Kyla led to him becoming intimately involved with the Boswell Sisters feature-length documentary film, “The Boswell Sisters: Close Harmony” as the project’s composer, music supervisor, and co-producer.

In addition, Paul’s collaboration with Kyla led him to contribute to Kyla’s book, titled “The Boswell Legacy 2nd Edition.” He provided musical commentary, as well as contributing to both the introduction and epilogue.

Paul has remained a tireless and enthusiastic promoter of the Boswell Sisters, their music, their story, and yes, their legacy.
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Copyright © 2014-2026 Kyla M. Titus. All Rights Reserved.
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