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...