Eddie Jefferson (August 3, 1918 – May 9, 1979) was a jazz vocalist and lyricist. He is credited as an innovator of vocalese, in which he took the recorded solos of jazz horn players, wrote lyrics to them and sang them as tributes to their creators.
He was born Edward Jefferson in Pittsburgh. He played the tuba, guitar and drums but he made his show-business debut as a tap dancer at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. During the 30s in Pittsburgh he performed as a dancer and scat singer doing occasional Cab Calloway impressions with Art Blakey on piano. It was his friend Leo ‘Scat’ Watson - a big influence - who suggested the idea of adding words to instrumental solos. In 1939 he worked opposite Coleman Hawkins’ big band in Chicago after the great man’s return from Europe and Nat King Cole was the intermission pianist. During WW2 he played drums in the army band but little is known of his musical activities during the 40s although he did tour with Bob Crosby and the Bobcats and he appeared on the Sarah Vaughan radio show in 1950. It was not until 1952 that he really concentrated on singing.
Living in Cambria Heights in Queens he took a day job as a manager in a men’s clothing firm supplemented with occasional club dates. One night in 1953 when he was doing a dance act with Irv Taylor at Harlem’s Apollo Theatre he met James Moody. Babs Gonzales had been travelling with Moody as vocalist and band manager but he was leaving so the tenor-man offered the job to Jefferson. They stayed together until 1962 when Moody disbanded to join Dizzy Gillespie. In 1957 when they appeared at the Zebra Lounge in Los Angeles they worked there for a time with King Pleasure. The following year Jefferson sat in with Miles Davis at the Café Bohemia in New York.
In 1959 he recorded his celebrated Body And Soul with a lyric set to Coleman Hawkins’ 1939 masterpiece and the words make it clear just what Hawkins meant to him. During the 60s he and Moody often performed with Dinah Washington because they were all represented by the Billy Shaw Agency in New York. During his
time with Moody the singer was featured on several albums highlighting fine examples of his unique sound with its soulful and very earthy delivery.
time with Moody the singer was featured on several albums highlighting fine examples of his unique sound with its soulful and very earthy delivery.
Soon after James Moody went back to working with Dizzy In 1962 Eddie recorded with Johnny Griffin for Riverside but the 60s and the 70s were a difficult time for him and for jazz too. Moody’s decision to reform his group was celebrated with their well received 1968 Body And Soul album on which Eddie featured some new material .In August 1970 he appeared at Chicago’s North Park Hotel at a Charlie Parker Memorial concert where he performed Now’s The Time and Parker’s Mood. A little later James Moody moved out to Las Vegas to work with the Hilton Hotel Orchestra and Eddie carried on working locally supplementing his income by driving a New York cab.
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In 1973 he and his wife Yvonne separated because of long-standing money problems although they remained on good terms. Around this time he joined forces with Billy Mitchell. One summer they taught a jazz course at Bennington College in Vermont and in 1974 they made their only album together with the optimistic title Things Are Getting Better.
A little late in the day he won the 1975 Downbeat Critics’ Poll as Talent Deserving Of Wider Recognition. That was also the year he sat in at a Greenwich Village club with the sensational, young bebop alto player Richie Cole. They were to have a long and productive relationship until Jefferson’s murder.
In March 1979 he appeared with Sarah Vaughan and Betty Carter at New York’s Carnegie Hall and with bookings lined up at the Monterey and Newport Jazz Festivals as well as some European summer concerts. He was filmed along with Cole performing at Chicago’s Jazz Showcase on 6 May. Three days later the group was booked into Baker’s Keyboard Lounge in Detroit and Eddie was shot and killed as he left the club around 1 a.m. The suspect who was known to him was arrested but later released. “The tragic part is that he was cut down when things were starting to happen for him” Bill Mitchell said at the time. Ironically Jefferson had been presented with the key to the city the previous year by Coleman Young, Detroit’s first African-American mayor. (Compiled and edited from various sources mainly Jazz profiles.)