Harry Colomby, Teacher Who Helped Jazz Master’s Career Dies at 92


Harry Colomby was a jazz-loving teacher when he stopped by Cafe Bohemia in Greenwich Village in 1955 to remind drummer Art Blakey that he and his band, the Jazz Messengers, would be performing there in a few days. Mr. Colomby taught.

While waiting, Mr. Colomby greeted the famous composer and pianist Thelonious Monk; they had met once before. “Oh, Harry. Yes, I remember you,” Mr. Colomby recalled, as detailed in the internal notes for 1965 Monk’s live album “Misterioso.” “Tell me, is your car here? Can you take me out of town?”

In the car, Monk asked if Mr. Colomby was ready to quit teaching. “So I drove Thelonious home at 2:30 in the morning and became his personal manager half an hour later at 3 am,” he wrote. “I’m still not sure how.”

Mr. Colomby’s younger brother Bobby, the original drummer for Blood, Sweat & Tears, and later a record producer and manager of several record companies, said in a phone call that Monk saw Harry as “a smart, honest and able to work person”. . It’s hard,” he added, “Harry said to him, ‘I can’t promise you that you’ll be rich, but you will be appreciated as an artist.'”

Mr. Colomby died in a hospital in Los Angeles on December 25. He was 92 years old. His brother confirmed the death.

When Mr. Colomby started working with Monk, he was little known beyond the jazz connoisseur, and his unorthodox approach divided critics. It was also rarely heard in New York because in those days there was no cabaret card to perform in the bars and nightclubs there; hasn’t had it since 1951, when it was canceled due to a drug pill. In 1957, Mr. Colomby helped Monk get his card back. His later involvement in Five Spots in the East Village was the beginning of his emergence as a jazz star.

For most of the 14 years he led Monk from obscurity to fame, Mr. Colomby taught English and social studies at high schools in Brooklyn, Queens, and Plainview on Long Island. “I have had no illusions about how much money is in jazz,” Mr. Colomby told historian Robin DG Kelley for his biography “Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original” (2009). But I realized that Monk was more than just a jazz musician. He was potentially a symbol. It was a symbol of strength, devotion, purity, you know, beyond music, beyond jazz.”

Harry Golombek was born in Berlin on August 20, 1929, and fled to New York with his family and brother Jules in the spring of 1939 to escape Nazi persecution. Family members who had previously immigrated to the United States changed their surname to Colomby. His father, Saul, who is Fred in the United States, started a watchmaking company in Manhattan. His mother, Elsie (Ries) Colomby, worked there.

After graduating from New York University with a BA in English in 1950, Harry began his teaching career.

As a manager, Mr. Colomby had only four clients: Monk; singer and pianist Mose Allison; comedian and impressionist John Byner; and actor Michael Keaton.

Mr. Byner said he met Mr. Colomby at a John F. Kennedy screening competition in the early 1960s. “He was great,” she said in a phone call. “He knew everybody.” However, they broke up in 1986 as Mr. Colomby focused on his business with Mr. Keaton.

“She left me for another man,” said Mr Byner.

Mr. Colomby first met Mr. Keaton, a stand-up comedian performing at the Comedy Store in Hollywood in the late 1970s.

“What I saw in Michael was original,” Mr. Colomby told the Los Angeles Times in 1988. “I also saw charisma on stage. Something about his appearance and timing was just perfect. ”

Mr. Colomby also appeared in “Working Stiffs” (1979) and “Report to Murphy” (1982) and “Mr. Anne” (1983), “Johnny Dangerously” (1984) and “One Good Cop” (1991).

In addition to his brother Bobby, Mr. Colomby is survived by his wife Lee and son actor Scott Colomby. His brother Jules, who briefly ran the jazz label Signal, To winHe died in the 1990s.

Mr. Keaton was a client of Mr. Colomby for nearly 25 years and the two remained friends afterward.

“What we shared was that we saw everything in an unusual way and talked for hours and made each other laugh,” Mr. Keaton said in a phone call. “I was probably the only stand-up manager whose manager was funnier than him.”



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