Herb Pomeroy, Berklee educator passes
Wednesday, August 15th, 2007
It is with great sadness that I am posting Herb Pomeroy’s death. I went to Berklee College of Music from 90-95 and played in his phenomenal recording orchestra, the performance group for his legendary Duke Ellington arranging class.
Herb was a rare, intuitive, and educator that knew when to be tough, when to be gentle, and always extracted the best and pushed me on to greater and greater accomplishments (Sound familiar, Miss Cayler?)
Next to my memories of amazing talent, wonderful people, and outstanding education provided by Miss Cayler and BrassBeat, learning at Herb’s instruction was the height of my musical career. My heart goes out to his wife Dodie.
Part of his tribute page, posted at the Berklee web site:
A Letter to the Berklee Community
It is with a great sadness that I write today to tell you of the passing of Herb Pomeroy on Saturday.Herb has been a founding father of this institution, a vibrant, garrulous presence in our midst for much of the college’s history. His influence on Berklee’s educational approach, curriculum, even our institutional attitude to the world at large would be hard to overstate. He was a friend and colleague, teacher and mentor to some of the greatest talents to pass through these halls, and this is a loss of indescribable dimensions, as many of you who knew him for so many years will know.
I am told that when he retired from Berklee in 1995, the college presented a huge tribute concert featuring some of his greatest former students and colleagues. That May, after he received an honorary doctorate alongside Natalie Cole and James Taylor, he said he was ready to leave the classroom behind, and get back to playing his horn. And he did. But he loved working with great young musicians, and before too long he was right back teaching as well. In fact, we had hoped to have him with us again this coming semester, but it was not to be.
Our hearts go out to Herb’s wife Dodie, and the other members of their family.
Larry Simpson
Senior Vice President for Academic AffairsBiography
Herb Pomeroy was born April 15, 1930 in Gloucester, Massachusetts. His mother was a pianist trained at New England Conservatory of Music and his father was a dentist. At the age of 11, after seeing a movie starring Louis Armstrong, Herb took up the trumpet. By the time he was in high school, he was playing Dixieland jazz, swing, and dance band music professionally. After a friend loaned him some recordings by Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, Herb immersed himself in bebop.As a student at Williston Academy, a prep school in Easthampton, MA, Herb played with musicians at the school and graduated second in his class. His family prodded him to become a dentist like his father and grandfather, but Herb felt drawn to a career as a jazz musician. In the summer of 1948, he took courses at Schillinger House (later renamed Berklee) before enrolling at Harvard University in a pre-dental program that fall. Within a few months, Herb left Harvard to become a full-time student at Schillinger House.
After completing five semesters, he began performing around New England with a number of acts before hitting the road with the Lionel Hampton and Stan Kenton bands, and the Serge Chaloff sextet. In 1953, Herb performed for a week with the legendary Charlie Parker in Boston. Recordings of the performances were later issued on Bird at the Hi Hat and Charlie Parker at Storyville. In 1955, at the invitation of Lawrence Berk, Herb became a full-time teacher at Berklee. It was as an educator that Herb would make his greatest contributions in the field of music.
During his years at Berklee, Herb developed three specialized courses: Line Writing, Jazz Composition, and Arranging in the Style of Duke Ellington, which attracted students from around the world during his more than 40-year tenure at the college. Among the distinguished musicians who studied with Herb were producer Arif Mardin, Simpsons composer Alf Clausen, composer-arrangers Alan Broadbent and Rob Mounsey, film composers Mike Gibbs, Alan Silvestri, and many others.
Herb continued writing and performing in addition to teaching at Berklee and M.I.T. He received commissions to compose for the Boston Ballet, the National Jazz Ensemble, and other organizations and was in demand as a guest bandleader and clinician in Europe, Scandinavia, Israel, Malaysia, and elsewhere. After his retirement from Berklee, Herb recorded Walking on Air with vocalist Donna Byrne and This Is Always with clarinetist Billy Novick, both in 1996, and maintained an active performing schedule. Herb also returned to the classroom on occasion, teaching courses at Berklee, M.I.T., and the New England Conservatory of Music.
Herb will be remembered as one of Berklee’s most revered and beloved faculty members. His influence as an educator will continue to resonate among the thousands of musicians he mentored, and through the music they make.
