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GOSPEL LEGEND DIES AT 94: Claude Jeter of the Swan Silvertones passed away in the Bronx last week.
His death was confirmed by his niece, Gwendolyn Davis, of Lillie, La.
A versatile stylist, Mr. Jeter once sang bass with the Dixie Hummingbirds. But he is best known for his falsetto in the Swan Silvertones, which he formed in 1938. Often acting as a foil for the group’s rougher, shouting voices — which included those of Solomon Womack and Louis Johnson — he sang graceful and penetrating high melodies.
His take on songs like “Careless Soul” and “Saviour Pass Me Not” have been echoed by many singers, most notably Al Green and Eddie Kendricks of the Temptations. He sang in the Swan Silvertones’ 1962 song “Mary Don’t You Weep,” which inspired Paul Simon to write “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”
Claude Jeter was born on Oct. 26, 1914, in Montgomery, Ala. His father, a lawyer, died when Claude was 8, and the family moved to Kentucky. He was working in the nearby coal mines of West Virginia by his teens, and in 1938 he founded the Four Harmony Kings with his brother and two other miners. The group changed its name to the Silvertone Singers, and after getting hired for a radio show in Knoxville, Tenn., that was sponsored by the local Swan Bakery, they became the Swan Silvertones.
Jeter was ordained as a minister in the Church of Holiness Science in 1963, and by the late 1960s he had left the Swan Silvertones. A longtime resident of Harlem, he worked at the Hotel Cecil on 118th Street and occasionally performed. He also sang on Mr. Simon’s 1973 album “There Goes Rhymin’ Simon,” along with the Dixie Hummingbirds.
Other than his niece, no immediate family members survive him. (Source: The Afro-American Newspaper)
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