Garland Jeffreys

Garland Jeffreys (born 1943, Brooklyn, New York) is a part African-American, and Puerto Rican American, singer and songwriter, transversing the musical genres of rock and roll, reggae, blues and soul. Jeffreys is from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. He majored in art history at Syracuse University where he met Lou Reed, before The Velvet Underground became active. In 1966, Jeffreys began to play in Manhattan nightclubs including Gerde's Folk City, The Bitter End, Gaslight, Kenny's Castaways, and later Reno Sweeney, where he began to explore racially conscious themes in his work, sometimes utilizing blackface masks and a rag doll named Ramon in performance. Jeffreys played guitar on John Cale's 1969 debut solo album Vintage Violence and...