Jeffries, Herb

Herbert Jeffrey was born September 24, 1911, in Detroit, Michigan, to a theatrical family. As a youth he learned to ride on his grandfather’s farm, and he also began singing with a piano-playing friend, the duo appearing on local radio. By the early 1930s, he was singing in New York City and Chicago with Erskine Tate and other bandleaders. In Chicago, Earl “Fatha” Hines hired him as the vocalist for his revue at the Grand Terrace, and Herb...