Herb Jeffries

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Herb Jeffries bigraphy, stories - Singer, actor

Herb Jeffries : biography

24 September 1913 –

Herbert "Herb" Jeffries (born Umberto Alexander Valentino on September 24, 1913).Leonard Feather. "Jeffries, Herb." The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz (Oxford UP, 1999). p. 354.Sarfraz Manzoor. "." BBC Radio 4. First aired on 21 Mar 2013. Segment on Jeffries begins at 22:10. Accessed 22 Mar 2013. Jeffries is a retired American jazz and popular singer and actor.

Biography

Herb Jeffries was born Umberto Alexander Valentino on to an Irish mother and an Italian father and later took the Jeffries surname from a step-father. There is some uncertainty as to when Jeffries was born as there are at least twelve biographical sources citing at least four different birth years: 1911 (one), 1912 (one), 1914 (two), and 1916 (eight)."Jeffries, Herb." . (Gale, Cengage Learning, 2013). Accessed 23 Mar 2013. Jeffries decided to pass as a full African-American—using makeup to darken his skin—partly in order to pursue jazz, and for economic reasons. Jet reported that Jeffries identified himself as White and stated his "real" name as "Herbert Jeffrey Ball" on an application in order to marry Tempest Storm in 1959.John H. Johnson, ed. "". Jet. June 11, 1959. pp. 48-49. Accessed 22 Mar 2013. Jeffries told a Jet reporter: A 2007 documentary short describes Jeffries as "assuming the identity of a man of color" early in his career.Betty Bailey and Carol Lynde. . (Tall Paul Productions, 2007). Accessed 22 Mar 2013. Jeffries is shown in Black/White & All That Jazz explaining that he was inspired by New Orleans-born musician Louis Armstrong to say falsely, at a job interview in Chicago, that he was "a creole from Louisiana" when he was, in fact, of Irish and Sicilian heritage.

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 was born in 1913 and that he had misrepresented his age after he left home to look for a job. His four marriages (including one to exotic dancer Tempest Storm) produced five children. He has a large extended family. He lives in Southern California with his wife, Savannah. He appeared at jazz festivals and events benefiting autism and other developmental problems and lectured at colleges and universities. He supported music education in schools. In June 2010, aged 96, Jeffries performed 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).

Personal life

He now lives in Wichita, Kansas.

Career

A jazz and popular singer, 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 cowboy "Bob Blake". He 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 more than 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 his fans. In a time of American racial segregation, such "race movies" 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 the age of 81, he recorded a Nashville album of songs on the Warner Western labelhttp://www.geocities.com//patmil007/5769.jpg in 1995 entitled The Bronze Buckaroo (Rides Again).