Herbert Jeffreys
Encyclopedia
Herbert "Herb" Jeffries (born September 24, 1913) is an American jazz
and popular singer and actor
.
as Herbert Jeffrey, he is the son of Umberto Balentino, a pianist of African-American and Sicilian descent and his wife, Mildred, who was of Irish
descent.
and popular singer, Jeffries is noted for being the first black man to star in an American western
. He starred as a singing cowboy in several all-black Western films, in which he sang his own western
compositions. Jeffries obtained financing for the first black western film and hired Spencer Williams
to appear with him. In addition to starring in the film, he sang and performed his own stunts as the cowboy character Bob Blake.
Jeffries began his career working with Erskine Tate
and his Vendome Orchestra when he moved to Chicago from Detroit at the urging of Louis Armstrong
. His break came during the 1933 Chicago World's Fair—Century of Progress Exposition singing with the Earl Hines
Orchestra on Hines’ national broadcasts live from the Grand Terrace Cafe. His first recordings were with Hines in 1934, including "Just to be in Carolina". As of 2011, Jeffries is the sole surviving member of that Earl Hines orchestra. He then recorded extensively with Duke Ellington
from 1940 to 1942. His most famous song, "Flamingo" (recorded in 1940 with Ellington), sold over 50 million copies. He was replaced in the Ellington band by Al Hibbler
in 1943.
Playing a singing cowboy in low-budget films, Jeffries became known as the "Bronze Buckaroo" by fans who attended his films. In a time of American racial segregation
, these "race movie
s" played mostly in theaters catering to African American
audiences. The films, available on video, include Harlem on the Prairie
, The Bronze Buckaroo
, Harlem Rides the Range
and Two-Gun Man from Harlem
. Jeffries went on to make other films, starring with Angie Dickinson in Calypso Joe (1957). He later directed and produced Mundo Depravados, a cult film starring his wife, Tempest Storm
.
In 1968, Jeffries appeared in the long-running western TV series The Virginian
playing a gunslinger who intimidated the town. At age 81, he recorded a Nashville
album of songs on the Warner Western
label in 1995 entitled "The Bronze Buckaroo (Rides Again)".
at 6672 Hollywood Boulevard. In 2004, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
. A restaurant in Idyllwild, Cafe Aroma, has a room named for him.
) produced five children. Jeffries' family tree includes grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren (including a granddaughter with autism
). Jeffries lives in the Southern California mountains with his wife, Savannah. As of 2009 Jeffries (now known as "Mr. Flamingo") is still singing; he appears at jazz festivals and events benefiting autism and other childhood developmental problems. He also lectures at colleges and universities.
Jeffries is a supporter of music education in schools. In June 2010 he gave a performance to raise funds for the Oceanside (California) Unified School District's music program, accompanied by the Big Band Jazz Hall of Fame Orchestra under the direction of clarinetist Tad Calcara. This benefit concert was his second (the previous concert was in 2001). He still possesses a good vocal range and phrasing.
In the 1940s and 1950s Jeffries recorded for a number of labels, including RCA Victor
, Exclusive, Coral
, Decca
, Bethlehem
, Columbia
, Mercury
and Trend
. His album "Jamaica", recorded by RKO
,
is a concept album of self-composed calypso songs.
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and popular singer and actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
.
Early life
Born in Detroit, MichiganDetroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
as Herbert Jeffrey, he is the son of Umberto Balentino, a pianist of African-American and Sicilian descent and his wife, Mildred, who was of Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
descent.
Career
A jazzJazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and popular singer, Jeffries is noted for being the first black man to star in an American western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
. He starred as a singing cowboy in several all-black Western films, in which he sang his own western
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
compositions. Jeffries obtained financing for the first black western film and hired Spencer Williams
Spencer Williams
Spencer Williams was an American jazz and popular music composer, pianist, and singer. He is best known for his hit songs "Basin Street Blues", "I Ain't Got Nobody", "Royal Garden Blues", "I've Found a New Baby", "Everybody Loves My Baby", "Tishomingo Blues", "Careless Love", and many...
to appear with him. In addition to starring in the film, he sang and performed his own stunts as the cowboy character Bob Blake.
Jeffries began his career working with Erskine Tate
Erskine Tate
Erskine Tate was an American jazz violinist and bandleader.Tate moved to Chicago in 1912 and was an early figure on the Chicago jazz scene, playing with his band, the Vendome Orchestra, at the Vendome Theater, which was located at 31st and State Street...
and his Vendome Orchestra when he moved to Chicago from Detroit at the urging of Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
. His break came during the 1933 Chicago World's Fair—Century of Progress Exposition singing with the Earl Hines
Earl Hines
Earl Kenneth Hines, universally known as Earl "Fatha" Hines, was an American jazz pianist. Hines was one of the most influential figures in the development of modern jazz piano and, according to one source, is "one of a small number of pianists whose playing shaped the history of jazz".-Early...
Orchestra on Hines’ national broadcasts live from the Grand Terrace Cafe. His first recordings were with Hines in 1934, including "Just to be in Carolina". As of 2011, Jeffries is the sole surviving member of that Earl Hines orchestra. He then recorded extensively with Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
from 1940 to 1942. His most famous song, "Flamingo" (recorded in 1940 with Ellington), sold over 50 million copies. He was replaced in the Ellington band by Al Hibbler
Al Hibbler
Albert George "Al" Hibbler was an American baritone vocalist, who sang with Duke Ellington's orchestra before having several pop hits as a solo artist. Some of his singing is classified as rhythm and blues, but he is best classified as a bridge between R&B and traditional pop music...
in 1943.
Playing a singing cowboy in low-budget films, Jeffries became known as the "Bronze Buckaroo" by fans who attended his films. In a time of American racial segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
, these "race movie
Race movie
The race movie or race film was a film genre which existed in the United States between about 1915 and 1950. It consisted of films produced for an all-black audience, featuring black casts....
s" played mostly in theaters catering to African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
audiences. The films, available on video, include Harlem on the Prairie
Harlem on the Prairie (film)
Harlem on the Prairie is a race movie, billed as the first "all-colored" western musical. The movie reminded audiences that there were black cowboys and corrected a popular Hollywood image of an all-white Old West....
, The Bronze Buckaroo
The Bronze Buckaroo
The Bronze Buckaroo is a 1939 American film directed by Richard C. Kahn. It is one of a number of race films, made by African-American directors and performers for African-American audiences. The Bronze Buckaroo stars black cowboy singer Herb Jeffries....
, Harlem Rides the Range
Harlem Rides the Range
Harlem Rides the Range is a 1939 American black cowboy film directed by Richard C. Kahn.-Plot:Bob Blake and his sidekick Rusty are two cowboys riding across the countryside in search of adventure. They come across a ranch where it appears a murder has taken place but they find the victim of the...
and Two-Gun Man from Harlem
Two-Gun Man from Harlem
- Cast :*Herb Jeffries as Bob Blake/The Deacon*Marguerite Whitten as Sally Thompson*Clarence Brooks as John Barker*Mantan Moreland as Bill Blake*Tom Southern as John Steel*Mae Turner as Mrs...
. Jeffries went on to make other films, starring with Angie Dickinson in Calypso Joe (1957). He later directed and produced Mundo Depravados, a cult film starring his wife, Tempest Storm
Tempest Storm
Tempest Storm is the stage name of an American stripper, burlesque star, and motion picture actress. Along with Lili St. Cyr and Blaze Starr, she was one of the best known burlesque performers of the 1950s and 1960s. She is regarded as having one of the longest careers as a burlesque performer,...
.
In 1968, Jeffries appeared in the long-running western TV series The Virginian
The Virginian (TV series)
The Virginian is an American Western television series starring James Drury and Doug McClure, which aired on NBC from 1962 to 1971 for a total of 249 episodes. Filmed in color, The Virginian became television's first 90-minute western series...
playing a gunslinger who intimidated the town. At age 81, he recorded a Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
album of songs on the Warner Western
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the big four record companies...
label in 1995 entitled "The Bronze Buckaroo (Rides Again)".
Honors
For his contributions to the motion-picture industry, Herb Jeffries has a star on the Hollywood Walk of FameHollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
at 6672 Hollywood Boulevard. In 2004, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is a museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, with more than 28,000 Western and American Indian art works and artifacts. The facility also has the world's most extensive collection of American rodeo, photographs, barbed wire, saddlery, and early rodeo trophies...
in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City is the capital and the largest city in the state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 31st among United States cities in population. The city's population, from the 2010 census, was 579,999, with a metro-area population of 1,252,987 . In 2010, the Oklahoma...
. A restaurant in Idyllwild, Cafe Aroma, has a room named for him.
Personal life
In 2007, while assembling material for the producers of a documentary film about him (A Colored Life), Jeffries found his birth certificate; this reminded him that he actually had been born in 1913 (not 1911) but that he had misrepresented his age after he left home to look for a job. His four marriages (including one to exotic dancer Tempest StormTempest Storm
Tempest Storm is the stage name of an American stripper, burlesque star, and motion picture actress. Along with Lili St. Cyr and Blaze Starr, she was one of the best known burlesque performers of the 1950s and 1960s. She is regarded as having one of the longest careers as a burlesque performer,...
) produced five children. Jeffries' family tree includes grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren (including a granddaughter with autism
Autism
Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...
). Jeffries lives in the Southern California mountains with his wife, Savannah. As of 2009 Jeffries (now known as "Mr. Flamingo") is still singing; he appears at jazz festivals and events benefiting autism and other childhood developmental problems. He also lectures at colleges and universities.
Jeffries is a supporter of music education in schools. In June 2010 he gave a performance to raise funds for the Oceanside (California) Unified School District's music program, accompanied by the Big Band Jazz Hall of Fame Orchestra under the direction of clarinetist Tad Calcara. This benefit concert was his second (the previous concert was in 2001). He still possesses a good vocal range and phrasing.
Partial filmography
- Harlem on the PrairieHarlem on the Prairie (film)Harlem on the Prairie is a race movie, billed as the first "all-colored" western musical. The movie reminded audiences that there were black cowboys and corrected a popular Hollywood image of an all-white Old West....
(1937) - Two-Gun Man from HarlemTwo-Gun Man from Harlem- Cast :*Herb Jeffries as Bob Blake/The Deacon*Marguerite Whitten as Sally Thompson*Clarence Brooks as John Barker*Mantan Moreland as Bill Blake*Tom Southern as John Steel*Mae Turner as Mrs...
(1938) - Harlem Rides the RangeHarlem Rides the RangeHarlem Rides the Range is a 1939 American black cowboy film directed by Richard C. Kahn.-Plot:Bob Blake and his sidekick Rusty are two cowboys riding across the countryside in search of adventure. They come across a ranch where it appears a murder has taken place but they find the victim of the...
(1939) - The Bronze BuckarooThe Bronze BuckarooThe Bronze Buckaroo is a 1939 American film directed by Richard C. Kahn. It is one of a number of race films, made by African-American directors and performers for African-American audiences. The Bronze Buckaroo stars black cowboy singer Herb Jeffries....
(1939) - Calypso Joe (1957)
- Chrome and Hot Leather (1971)
- Portrait of a HitmanPortrait of a HitmanPortrait of a Hitman is a 1977 film directed by Allan A. Buckhantz and written by Yabo Yablonsky. Although the film was shot in 1977 and featured actors such as Jack Palance and Rod Steiger, it did not receive domestic distribution until 1984....
(1977)
Selected discography
- Sidney BechetSidney BechetSidney Bechet was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer.He was one of the first important soloists in jazz , and was perhaps the first notable jazz saxophonist...
: "1940-1941" (Classics) - Earl HinesEarl HinesEarl Kenneth Hines, universally known as Earl "Fatha" Hines, was an American jazz pianist. Hines was one of the most influential figures in the development of modern jazz piano and, according to one source, is "one of a small number of pianists whose playing shaped the history of jazz".-Early...
: "1932-1934" (Classics) - Duke EllingtonDuke EllingtonEdward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
:"The Blanton Webster Band" (RCA, 1940–42) - Michael Martin MurpheyMichael Martin MurpheyMichael Martin Murphey is an American singer-songwriter best known for writing and performing Western music, Country music, and Popular music. A multiple Grammy nominee, Murphey has six gold albums, including Cowboy Songs, the first album of cowboy music to achieve gold status since Gunfighter...
: "Sagebrush SymphonySagebrush SymphonySagebrush Symphony is Michael Martin Murphey's nineteenth album. Recorded live with the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra, this ambitious album, which presents cowboy songs and poems in a symphonic setting, contains a selection of Murphey's most popular songs, as well as traditional cowboy music...
" - "Jamaica" (RKO Records ULP - 128) all songs composed by Jeffries
- "Passion" (Brunswick, BL 54028) Coral singles compiled on 12" LP
- "Say it Isn't So" (Bethlehem BCP 72) with the Russ Garcia Orchestra
- "Herb Jeffries" (Harmony HL 7048) Columbia singles LP
- "Magenta Moods" (Mercury 2589 10") LP transfer of Exclusive label album
- "Herb Jeffries Sings" (Mercury 2590 10") more Exclusive singles with the Buddy Baker Orchestra
- "Herb Jeffries and his Orchestra" (Mercury 2591 10") Exclusive label singles
- "Songs by Herb Jeffries" (Mercury 2592 10") Exclusive label singles
- "I Remember the Bing" (Dobre Records 1047)
- "Play and Sing the Duke" (Dobre Records 1053)
- "The King and Me" (Dobre Records 1059)
In the 1940s and 1950s Jeffries recorded for a number of labels, including RCA Victor
RCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
, Exclusive, Coral
Coral Records
Coral Records was a Decca Records subsidiary formed in 1949. It recorded pop artists McGuire Sisters and Teresa Brewer, as well as rock and roller Buddy Holly....
, Decca
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
, Bethlehem
Bethlehem Records
Bethlehem Records was a record label based in New York and Hollywood founded by Gus Wildi in 1953. It was bought by King Records in the early 1960s....
, Columbia
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
, Mercury
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...
and Trend
Trend Records
Trend Records was a post-World War II United States jazz record label.Trend's back catalogue was purchased by Albert Marx, the owner of Discovery Records, and much of its material was reissued in the 1980s. Among those who recorded for Trend are Van Alexander, Robert Conti, Shelly Manne, Clare...
. His album "Jamaica", recorded by RKO
RKO/Unique Records
RKO Records and Unique Jazz are two record labels. They began in 1955 as Unique Records, a New York pop music record label. After several small pop hits, such as "Man in the Raincoat" by fourteen-year-old Priscilla Wright, the label was acquired by RKO General in 1957, who had recently acquired the...
,
is a concept album of self-composed calypso songs.