topic Re: Herb Jeffries has died in Community Chat

Herb Jeffries has died

madzonie — Fri, 30 May 2014 04:43:04 GMT

I didn't see any posts regarding this. He died this past Sunday in California of heart failure. He was 100 years and 8 months old.

He sang with Duke Ellington and starred in early black westerns as a singing cowboy known as “the Bronze Buckaroo” — a nickname that evoked his malleable racial identity.

Mr. Jeffries used to say: “I’m a chameleon.” The label applied on many levels.

Over the course of his century, he changed his name, altered his age, married five women and stretched his vocal range from near falsetto to something closer to a Bing Crosby baritone. He shifted from jazz to country and back again, and from concert stages to movie theaters to television sets and back again.

He sang with Earl Hines and his orchestra in the early 1930s. He starred in Harlem on the Prairie, a black western released in 1937, and its several sequels. By 1940, he was singing with the Ellington orchestra and soon had a hit single, "Flamingo," released in 1941, which sold more than 14 million copies. His name had been Herbert Jeffrey, but the credits on the record mistakenly called him Jeffries, so he renamed himself to match the typo.

He had a beautiful voice and was a great talent.

Re: Herb Jeffries has died

madzonie — Fri, 30 May 2014 04:52:39 GMT

I tried to edit this to add a couple pictures and got a message that I was trying to use prohibited words: g w b (no spaces) and secks (spelled correctly). I see those nowhere in my post.

Re: Herb Jeffries has died

madzonie — Fri, 30 May 2014 04:52:55 GMT

Re: Herb Jeffries has died

madzonie — Fri, 30 May 2014 04:53:21 GMT

Re: Herb Jeffries has died

RibbonsRosesRainbows — Fri, 30 May 2014 05:13:51 GMT

Oh bless his heart...........thank you for letting us know. I was gone all day today. I had to have my computer worked on since yesterday and she is flying......she was so bogged down and I think there was a virus of some sort.........

Re: Herb Jeffries has died

Judaline — Fri, 30 May 2014 13:06:06 GMT

Fabulous voice! 'Flaminnnnnnnnngo, with your tropical hue..................................'

Re: Herb Jeffries has died

stilltamn8r — Fri, 30 May 2014 13:19:39 GMT

Our local (Los Angeles) news station ran a great piece on him and his death..He said that while some were delivered by a stork, HE was "delivered" by a flamingo.....A real trailblazer-