A jazz musician of Ethiopian-French Canadian and Italian-Irish descent, Herbert Jeffreys is noted for his singing cowboy roles in several all-black Western films in which he sang his own western compositions. Jeffreys got the financing for the first black western film and hired Spencer Williams to appear with him. In addition to starring in the film, Jeffreys sang and performed his own stunts as the cowboy character "Bob Blake".

Through his series of low-budget westerns, he soon became known as the "Bronze Buckaroo" by fans who flocked to his films that in the days of American racial segregation played only in theaters catering to African American audiences. Jeffreys remained a virtual unknown with white audiences until interest in his career was revived in the 1980s. In 1995, at age eighty-three, Herbert Jeffreys recorded a Nashville album of songs on the Warner Western label titled "The Bronze Buckaroo (Rides Again)".

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Herb Jeffries has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6672 Hollywood Blvd. In 2004, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.