Herb Pomeroy
| Herb Pomeroy | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Irving Herbert Pomeroy III |
| Born |
April 15, 1930 Gloucester, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | August 11, 2007 Gloucester, Massachusetts |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, educator |
| Instruments | Trumpet, flugelhorn |
| Associated acts | MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble |
Irving Herbert "Herb" Pomeroy, III (April 15, 1930 in Gloucester, Massachusetts – August 11, 2007) was a jazz trumpeter, teacher, and the founder of the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble.
Herb Pomeroy began playing trumpet at an early age, and in his early teens started gigging in the greater Boston area, claiming inspiration from the music of Louis Armstrong. In 1946, at the age of 16, he became a member of the Musicians Union in Gloucester after the union did not have enough members to conduct a meeting. After high school, he studied music at the Schillinger House in Boston, which is now the Berklee College of Music, and began to develop his interest in bebop.
Herb Pomeroy studied dentistry at Harvard University for a year but dropped out to pursue his jazz career. Charlie Parker liked Pomeroy's playing and hired him frequently when the alto saxophonist performed at Boston's Hi-Hat and Storyville clubs. Pomeroy also played with Lionel Hampton, Duke Ellington, Stan Kenton, and Serge Chaloff, among other jazz musicians. After his experience as a sideman in the big bands of Hampton and Kenton (separated by a five-month stint at leading his own 13-piece band in the early 1950s), Pomeroy put together a big band that drew national attention in the late 1950s in a Boston club called the Stable. He led the band from 1957 through the mid-1960s and intermittently until 1993. During that time, and afterward, he led additional small groups ranging typically from duo (usually with bassist John Repucci) to quintet. His big band played in Carnegie Hall and established series such as the Newport Jazz Festival on the same bill with Benny Goodman, Ellington, and other major jazz figures. Pomeroy also backed up several singers, including Mel Torme, Tony Bennett, Irene Kral, Ella Fitzgerald, and Frank Sinatra. He became noted as a master of music theory and musical form. Pomeroy's playing exhibited a limited upper range on the trumpet, but his extraordinary improvisational resources counteracted that limitation. Gradually during the mid-1990s, as Pomeroy performed more frequently with small groups, he abandoned the trumpet for the flugelhorn.
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