Biography
Even after accompanying jazz luminaries such as Charlie Parker, Stan Kenton, and Lionel Hampton, the instrumental mastery and full-bodied, songful sound of trumpeter Herb Pomeroy stayed largely unheralded, because at the height of his abilities he stepped away from the bandstand to instruct aspiring musicians in the classroom rather than on stage. Irving Herbert Pomeroy entered the world on April 15, 1930, in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and first took up the trumpet after watching a motion picture that starred the legendary Louis Armstrong. Following a single year in Harvard University’s dentistry curriculum, he enrolled at Boston’s Schillinger House, later renamed the Berklee School of Music, and at age 23 made his professional entrance supporting bop innovator Parker, cutting a quintet date later included on the anthology The Bird You Never Heard together with several live appearances at Boston venues such as Storyville and the Hi-Hat.
Pomeroy embarked on his initial nationwide tour with Hampton, yet the pervasive racism he encountered in the South prompted his return to Gloucester, where he assembled his own thirteen-piece orchestra and earned widespread acclaim during an extended engagement at the Boston club The Stable. After finishing a stint with Kenton, he again came home and formed a collaboration with Boston baritone saxophonist Serge Chaloff that produced the underground-favorite recordings The Fable of Mabel and Boston Blow-Up! In 1955 he led his debut album, the Transition label release Jazz in a Stable, and two years afterward issued the widely praised Roulette set Life Is a Many Splendored Gig. Throughout his career, however, he showed scant enthusiasm for studio sessions, maintaining that jazz reaches its fullest expression when performed live before an audience.
After joining the faculty of Boston’s Jazz Workshop with saxophonist Charlie Mariano, Chaloff, and the talented yet short-lived pianist Dick Twardzik, Pomeroy joined the Berklee staff in 1955 and stayed there for more than forty years; among his pupils were Gary McFarland, Gary Burton, Alan Broadbent, and Toshiko Akiyoshi. In March 1963 he also consented to direct the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s student jazz ensemble, a unit he later confessed was so deficient that “I actually lied and told them I was busy on the nights of the concerts.” Still, he dedicated himself to improving the group and subsequently established MIT’s prize-winning Festival Jazz Ensemble, which became one of the country’s foremost collegiate jazz orchestras; over his twenty-year leadership the FJE appeared at the Montreux Jazz Festival and additional international events while introducing dozens of newly commissioned works. Pomeroy likewise oversaw the first university-level program focused on the music of Duke Ellington, whom he had briefly accompanied years before.
Pomeroy was granted Berklee’s inaugural Alumni Association Award before stepping down in the spring of 1995, after which he received an Honorary Doctor of Music degree. The following year he was elected to the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE) Hall of Fame, and in 1997 he gained admission to the Down Beat Jazz Education Hall of Fame. In retirement he resumed live performance, forming a duo with bassist John Repucci; alongside vocalist Donna Byrne he also recorded the well-received album Walking on Air. Following an extended struggle with cancer, Pomeroy passed away at his Gloucester residence on August 11, 2007.
Pomeroy embarked on his initial nationwide tour with Hampton, yet the pervasive racism he encountered in the South prompted his return to Gloucester, where he assembled his own thirteen-piece orchestra and earned widespread acclaim during an extended engagement at the Boston club The Stable. After finishing a stint with Kenton, he again came home and formed a collaboration with Boston baritone saxophonist Serge Chaloff that produced the underground-favorite recordings The Fable of Mabel and Boston Blow-Up! In 1955 he led his debut album, the Transition label release Jazz in a Stable, and two years afterward issued the widely praised Roulette set Life Is a Many Splendored Gig. Throughout his career, however, he showed scant enthusiasm for studio sessions, maintaining that jazz reaches its fullest expression when performed live before an audience.
After joining the faculty of Boston’s Jazz Workshop with saxophonist Charlie Mariano, Chaloff, and the talented yet short-lived pianist Dick Twardzik, Pomeroy joined the Berklee staff in 1955 and stayed there for more than forty years; among his pupils were Gary McFarland, Gary Burton, Alan Broadbent, and Toshiko Akiyoshi. In March 1963 he also consented to direct the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s student jazz ensemble, a unit he later confessed was so deficient that “I actually lied and told them I was busy on the nights of the concerts.” Still, he dedicated himself to improving the group and subsequently established MIT’s prize-winning Festival Jazz Ensemble, which became one of the country’s foremost collegiate jazz orchestras; over his twenty-year leadership the FJE appeared at the Montreux Jazz Festival and additional international events while introducing dozens of newly commissioned works. Pomeroy likewise oversaw the first university-level program focused on the music of Duke Ellington, whom he had briefly accompanied years before.
Pomeroy was granted Berklee’s inaugural Alumni Association Award before stepping down in the spring of 1995, after which he received an Honorary Doctor of Music degree. The following year he was elected to the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE) Hall of Fame, and in 1997 he gained admission to the Down Beat Jazz Education Hall of Fame. In retirement he resumed live performance, forming a duo with bassist John Repucci; alongside vocalist Donna Byrne he also recorded the well-received album Walking on Air. Following an extended struggle with cancer, Pomeroy passed away at his Gloucester residence on August 11, 2007.
Singles
