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Herb Pomeroy

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The passing of Herb Pomeroy on August 11 leaves jazz education in New England without one of its most skilled teachers and the music absent an improviser and bandleader of rare originality. Pomeroy was a trumpeter who grew into a major arranger, leader and inspiration to hundreds of students at the Berklee School of Music and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Vibraphonist Gary Burton, a former Berklee student of Pomeroy who later became dean of the school, told the Boston Globe:

He was one of the most skillful and clever of improvisers. A lot of improvisers, when they soloed, played familiar jazz licks, as we say. Herb was one of the players where you could really see his mind at work. When he played solos, you could see him telling stories, developing themes, creating serious content.

To read all of the Globe article, go here.
Pomeroy.jpg
Herb Pomeroy
There is regrettably little of Pomeroy’s playing and little of his superb big band on CD. For his trumpet work of the early 1950s, I recommend Boston Days by saxophonist Charlie Mariano, one of Pomeroy’s closest Boston colleagues. Pomeroy’s splendid big band, with sidemen including pianist Jaki Byard, trumpeter Joe Gordon and alto saxophonist Boots Mussulli, is heard on the 1957 album Life is a Many Splendored Gig. A year later, Pomeroy backed Irene Kral in The Band and I, a collaboration of singer and big band that quickly became a classic and was recently reissued on CD.
Herb Pomeroy, dead at seventy-seven.

Comments

  1. Having been in the news business a long time, one gets used to daily stories of death, destruction, disasters natural and man-made. But the past 48 hours has been especially sobering – the suicide truck bombings in Iraq, the earthquake in Peru. Then, yesterday afternoon came the news of Max Roach’s passing. Now, soon after I wake up, I find your notice of Herby Pomeroy checking out, too. Jeez, sometimes it just gets to be a bit much.
    I don’t have any Max stories to share, but I can recall hosting the Quinnipic College (now University), Connecticut jazz festivals in the 70s. Herb always brought his band from MIT to Quinnipiac – and it was always something to look forward to… always interesting, different and new. The MIT students were wildly varying in their skill levels – as you might expect from math and engineering majors, but Herb could mold them into a band and bring out their best. I don’t recall Herb’s bands ever winning top honors from the festival judges, but they were never boring – and neither was Herb. May he RIP.
    John Birchard
    Voice of America
    Washington, DC

  2. One of the best recorded examples of Herb’s trumpet playing and arranging skills can be found on the Serge Challoff CD “Boston Blow Up” (Capitol)*. Herb’s arrangement of “Yesterday’s Gardenias” for the sextet is the work of a master.
    *http://www.amazon.com/Boston-Blow-Up-Serge-Chaloff/dp/B000F9RM8Y

  3. You can find some excellent examples of Herb’s trumpet playing and writing on Serge Chaloff’s “Fable of Mabel” and “Boston Blow-Up” CDs, and on John Lewis’ “Wonderful World of Jazz” (all available online at Amazon and others).
    Besides the big band recordings you mentioned, there are three others: “Pramlatta’s Hips: Live At The El Morocco” (a Shiah LP never issued on CD, but sometimes available on eBay) and “Live At Sandy’s,” on Red Rose (SACD only). And of course the legendary “Band In Boston,” LP only, and good luck finding one. (I have them all, he said smugly).
    By the way, on “Life Is A Many Splendored Gig,” you’ll find that pianist Jaki Byard is actually tenor saxophonist Jaki Byard! I saw the band at the Stable in Boston in 1957 and Jaki was playing tenor then, as well as on the record. Ray Santisi was the pianist.

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