Herb Jeffries on Exclusive

Former Ellingtonian and "bronze buckaroo" Herb Jeffries, one of the great ballad singers, died a few days ago. He has been featured here a number of times, most recently as a 100th birthday tribute, and now this post must be a memorial.

What you see above is the cover of a circa 1950 Mercury 10-inch LP, but the contents were recorded in the 1946-48 time frame for the Los Angeles label Exclusive and released as singles. Mercury acquired the Jeffries sides following Exclusive's 1949 collapse.

The discography I consulted insists  these all were recorded in 1946, but I believe "Just Naive," done a capella with the Celebrities vocal group, probably dates from the musicians' union recording strike of 1948. (As a bonus, I've included the flip side of the 78 issue of "Just Naive" - a cover of "Nature Boy" - in the download.)

The backing on most other items is by Buddy Baker, an arranger and radio maestro who later worked for Disney.

Jeffries is in superb voice for these records, and the sound is very good, except for one cut, which Mercury must have dubbed from a noisy pressing.

I also will be adding a Jeffries V-Disc to Buster's Swinging Singles today.

Torch Time with Herb Jeffries

One of the blog's commenters wrote to say that the great romantic crooner Herb Jeffries reached the age of 100 last month. To celebrate, here is a transfer of what may be the singer's best album, Time on My Hands, which came out in 1951.

Jeffries at a 1951 recording session

The LP is a collection of torch songs. That was probably not a novel theme even way back then. Still, I doubt any other example was carried out better than this unusually cohesive set. This session found Jeffries in relaxed and confident form, and complemented by a entirely sympathetic combo. The arranger was pianist Dick Hazard; also on the date were guitarists Bob Bain and Allen Reuss, bassist Phil Stephens and drummer Nick Fatool.

Coral released Time on My Hands both as a 10-inch LP and a box of four 45s; my copy is in the latter format. The sound is excellent.

I've featured Jeffries a couple of times before; you can learn more about him on the earlier posts, which can be found via this link.

Herb Jeffries, Part 2

We had a good reaction to our first post of Herb Jeffries, the ex-Ellington balladeer, so here's another.

Jeffries' signature tune was Flamingo, so it appears here as well on the previous Mercury album. Also Basin Street Blues, in the same arrangement with street cries, only here Herb does them, not a second voice. Those two tunes were cut with Les Brown. Leading the band on the other numbers is Dick Hazard.

This 1952 collection is just as good as the Mercury album, so if you liked that one, hope you'll enjoy this one as well.

REUP (May 2014)

Herb Jeffries

This record is about as late-40s sounding as you can get. It's Herb Jeffries in an apparent "magenta mood" - and if by that Mercury meant music of an oversaturated romantic hue, the title is apt.

Jeffries is quite a fascinating fellow (he's still around - a 96-year-old with a MySpace page). In the 30s, he made cowboy movies for the African American audience. In the early 40s he was a vocalist for Duke Ellington during one of that great musician's greatest periods. And thereafter he made many records as a romantic balladeer. These are excellent examples.

The song Flamingo has been Jeffries' calling card ever since he recorded it with Ellington. This is a different version from that one, and he recorded it again in the early 1950s. (There's an LP on Coral by that name.)

The anonymous arrangements are in the hyper-romantic style popular back then, and there are a number of cool period touches, like the Porgy and Bess-style street cries in Basin Street Blues and the Warsaw Concerto-style piano in When I Write My Song.

Almost none of Herb Jeffries' records are available these days. It's too bad that such a talented person is not better remembered - and even celebrated.

REUP (May 2014)