Herb Jeffries

Although not just a jazz singer, Herb Jeffries was the last surviving person in the 1940 Duke Ellington Orchestra and an excellent interpreter of swing tracks and ballads. He performed with Erskine Tate in the first ’30s, Earl Hines (1931-1934), and Blanche Calloway, before getting the first dark cowboy professional in some ’30s Westerns. He obtained his greatest popularity while with Ellington (1940-1942), developing a big strike in “Flamingo.” Jeffries, who documented with Sidney Bechet in 1940, proved helpful as an individual artist after departing Ellington in 1942, documenting on an intermittent basis and staying active in to the middle-’90s. He passed away, reportedly of center failure, on, may 25, 2014 in Western world Hills, California.