Herb Flemming

Herb Flemming, Herb Fleming also wrote, maiden name Nicolaiih El- Michelle ( born April 5, 1900 in Honolulu, † October 3, 1976 in New York City ) was an American jazz musician (trombone, vocals) of the Traditional Jazz and Swing, the occurred in the 1920s and 1930s much of Europe.

Life and work

Flemming had North African ancestors. He studied in the Dobbs Chauncey School in Dobbs Ferry, New York, first Mellophon and euphonium, before moving to the trombone. He was a member of the military bands of James Reese Europe, with whom he was in France ( 369th U.S. Infantry Band) 1917. After the war he studied cello, trombone and music theory at the Frank Damrosch Conservatory in New York and later at the Accademia di St. Cecilia and the University of Rome. In 1921 he played with Fred Turn stable, then with Johnny Dunn (with whom he made ​​his first recordings in 1921 ), Perry Bradford and with his own band (led by Bobby Lee) in Philadelphia. With Sam Wooding he went after the mid-1920s on a European tour and also briefly in 1927 in the U.S.. In the late 1920s he was back in Europe with the Lew Leslie 's Blackbird show in London and Paris. In Europe he founded in the early 1930s his own band, the International Rhythm Aces, but also continued working with Wooding, eg longer time in Berlin. Flemming then accompanied Josephine Baker and played with his own band in Buenos Aires, Paris ( 1933), Calcutta ( for six months ), Shanghai and Ceylon. 1935 to 1937 he performed with his own band, with Fritz Schulz- Reichel and also as a singer in Berlin, worked in 1936 at the time of the Olympic Games in Berlin as a translator and in Italy with Sessto Carlin 's Society Orchestra.

In 1937 he returned back to the U.S. and played with Earl Hines, but could not join the band because of objections of the union. He has performed as a singer in Cicero, where he met Fats Waller, with whom he played as a trombonist and singer from New Year's Eve 1940-1942. After some time at Noble Sissle in 1943 he moved to California, where he played until 1949 for the Internal Revenue Service, worked as a tax inspector and occasionally appeared in films (such as "Pillow to Post ", " No Time for Romance "). In 1949 he moved to New York City, where until 1958 he worked as a freelancer and in 1953 for Red Allen. In 1958 he went to Rome for filming. In 1964 he moved to Spain, where he performed with his own band and played in Madrid, Torremolinos and Malaga. He also joined temporarily lived in Italy and Germany, where he in 1969 in Berlin, among other things, a plate with Albert Nicholas and Benny Waters at MPS recorded ( "Great Traditionalists in Europe"). In 1976 he moved back to the U.S., where he died shortly afterwards.