Robert McFerrin Sr.
E179089
Robert McFerrin Sr. was a pioneering American baritone and the first African American man to sing at the Metropolitan Opera.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Robert McFerrin Sr. canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1524789 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Robert McFerrin Sr. Context triple: [Bobby McFerrin, father, Robert McFerrin Sr.]
-
A.
Bobby McFerrin
Bobby McFerrin is an American vocalist, composer, and conductor best known for his innovative a cappella work and the hit song "Don't Worry, Be Happy."
-
B.
Luther Vandross
Luther Vandross was an American R&B and soul singer, songwriter, and producer renowned for his smooth, emotive vocals and classic love ballads.
-
C.
Bobby Caldwell
Bobby Caldwell was an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist best known for his smooth blend of R&B, soul, and jazz, particularly the classic hit "What You Won't Do for Love."
-
D.
Donny Hathaway
Donny Hathaway was an influential American soul singer, pianist, and songwriter known for his rich, emotive vocals and classic recordings in the 1970s.
-
E.
Maurice Hines
Maurice Hines is an American tap dancer, choreographer, actor, and director known for his work on stage and screen and for frequently collaborating with his brother Gregory Hines.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Robert McFerrin Sr. Target entity description: Robert McFerrin Sr. was a pioneering American baritone and the first African American man to sing at the Metropolitan Opera.
-
A.
Bobby McFerrin
Bobby McFerrin is an American vocalist, composer, and conductor best known for his innovative a cappella work and the hit song "Don't Worry, Be Happy."
-
B.
Luther Vandross
Luther Vandross was an American R&B and soul singer, songwriter, and producer renowned for his smooth, emotive vocals and classic love ballads.
-
C.
Bobby Caldwell
Bobby Caldwell was an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist best known for his smooth blend of R&B, soul, and jazz, particularly the classic hit "What You Won't Do for Love."
-
D.
Donny Hathaway
Donny Hathaway was an influential American soul singer, pianist, and songwriter known for his rich, emotive vocals and classic recordings in the 1970s.
-
E.
Maurice Hines
Maurice Hines is an American tap dancer, choreographer, actor, and director known for his work on stage and screen and for frequently collaborating with his brother Gregory Hines.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (25)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
African American
ⓘ
baritone ⓘ human ⓘ opera singer ⓘ |
| countryOfCitizenship | United States of America ⓘ |
| employer | Metropolitan Opera ⓘ |
| ethnicGroup |
African American
ⓘ
linked to:
Black Americans
|
| familyName |
McFerrin
ⓘ
linked to:
Bobby McFerrin
|
| fatherOf | Bobby McFerrin ⓘ |
| fieldOfWork |
classical music
ⓘ
vocal performance ⓘ |
| genre | opera ⓘ |
| givenName | Robert ⓘ |
| hasPartInHistory | desegregation of major American opera houses ⓘ |
| influenced | later generations of African American opera singers ⓘ |
| languageOfWorkOrName | English ⓘ |
| name | Robert McFerrin Sr. ⓘ |
| notableAchievement | breaking racial barriers in American opera ⓘ |
| notableFor | being the first African American man to sing at the Metropolitan Opera ⓘ |
| notableWork | performances at the Metropolitan Opera ⓘ |
| occupation |
opera singer
ⓘ
singer ⓘ |
| placeOfActivity | New York City ⓘ |
| sexOrGender | male ⓘ |
| voiceType | baritone ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Robert McFerrin Sr. Description of subject: Robert McFerrin Sr. was a pioneering American baritone and the first African American man to sing at the Metropolitan Opera.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.