The highlight of the Boston Globe Jazz Festival of 1981 was the March 19 home-grown “Tribute to the Duke,” produced by Herb Pomeroy and Tony Cennamo of WBUR radio. Amidst all the national talent guesting during the festival that year, the Bostonians still stood out with their Duke Ellington tribute.
The evening’s emcee at the Berklee Performance Center was pianist Sabby Lewis, a friend of the Duke’s for decades. Lewis played an Ellington medley accompanied by bassist John Neves and drummer Fred Buda. Then the Pomeroy Orchestra took over. Pomeroy revered Ellington, and even played with the Ellington Orchestra himself. Pomeroy also taught an Ellington course at Berklee. Duke once quipped that he ought to drop in on Herb’s class to find out what he was doing. He eventually did and there’s a picture of it here. On this night Pomeroy’s Orchestra played Ellington favorites such as “Kinda Dukish,” “Rockin’ in Rhythm,” and “Chelsea Bridge.” Soloists singled out in newspaper reviews the next day included Phil Wilson, Jimmy Mosher, and Jimmy Derba. Mae Arnette joined the band to sing “I Let a Song Go out of My Heart” and “I Got It Bad.”
There were longer pieces as well, one being a Pomeroy favorite, the “Tone Parallel To Harlem.” The evening’s most ambitious offering was “The Road of the Phoebe Snow,” an Ellington medley first assembled for the Alvin Ailey dance troupe. The Ailey company danced to recorded music. When the Boston Ballet decided to present Phoebe Snow in 1967, they commissioned Pomeroy to write and perform the score. Pomeroy rarely performed this music. The orchestra did so on this night accompanied by dancers Leon Collins and Adrienne Hawkins.
Perhaps there are tapes of this Duke Ellington tribute concert in the Herb Pomeroy archive, but I have not gone to look for them. Yet. In the meantime, here is the Duke himself performing “Tone Parallel To Harlem.”