In Elisabeth Welch: Soft Lights and Sweet Music, author Stephen Bourne
celebrates the stage, screen, and radio career of this sophisticated
African American actress and singer, who always defied categorization.
Spanning almost a century of popular music, Welch did not fit the
definition of jazz, torch, pop, or ballad singer but defined her art
quite simply as "telling a story in song." Whenever she sang, she
demonstrated that she had no peer in the art of interpreting songs by
the likes of Cole Porter, Noël Coward, Irving Berlin, and Jerome Kern.
Her story is a fascinating one that brings readers insight about the
life and times of this musical legend.