[Dixielandjazz] Eddie Harvey obituary

[Steve Voce]

 From today's The Independent.

Eddie Harvey: Expressive trombonist who became one of the finest 
teachers of jazz

*'Show us your balls, pal!' was Woody Herman's cry to any player who he 
felt was underperforming*

*STEVE VOCE* 
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*<http://www.independent.co.uk/topic/Music>*

As well as distinguishing himself as one of the most accomplished 
arrangers in British jazz, Eddie Harvey became an outstanding teacher of 
the music that he loved. He devoted most of his later years to spreading 
his knowledge, whether it was to individual students, at music colleges, 
collectively to the youngsters in his big bands, or to jazz appreciation 
courses that he organised in his retirement. He amassed a huge range of 
qualifications and, with his amiable outlook on life, was an ideal 
teacher -- no one would argue that he was the best in the jazz field.

He was also an expressive trombone soloist or section player and, in the 
Humphrey Lyttelton band, switched between piano and trombone. "Show us 
your balls, pal!" Harvey liked to tell the story of his experience 
working for Woody Herman. If Herman called you "pal" it meant you were 
in trouble. Harvey played trombone in Herman's Anglo-American Herd that 
toured Britain in 1959. It included a sprinkling of American musicians 
like Bill Harris, the trombonist who had been Harvey's and every other 
trombone player's hero since the 1940s.

At its first rehearsal the Anglo-American Herd sounded insipid and 
awful. Herman and his Americans overawed the British musicians and there 
was no team spirit in the band. After one of the British saxophone 
players had played a particularly limpid solo Herman stood before him 
and put his face close to the man's.

"Show us your balls, pal!" roared Herman. The shock wave hit the whole 
band and it was instantly galvanised. Within an hour it had become one 
of the most exciting big bands ever put together in this country. No one 
enjoyed the tour more than Harvey, who throughout it sat in the next 
chair to Bill Harris. He admired Harris's Conn trombone and Harris 
arranged to get him one. "Unfortunately I had no money at the time," 
said Harvey, "so he had to send it back." The two became close friends 
and stayed in touch until Harris's death in 1973.

Harvey's playing pleased innumerable American stars, not least 
cornettist Rex Stewart and trumpeter Buck Clayton. Between them Clayton 
and Harvey wrote the repertoire for the successful tours with Humphrey 
Lyttelton's band in the late 1950s.

Harvey had begun to learn to play classical piano when he was seven, and 
took up the trombone as a teenager when his family had moved south from 
Blackpool to live first in Gosport and then Sidcup during the 1930s. His 
first job was in an accordion band in Kent, where he played alongside 
his lifelong friend, the clarinettist Wally Fawkes.

Harvey was a founder member of George Webb's Dixielanders, generally 
regarded as the band that started the "revival" movement (of New Orleans 
jazz) in Britain in 1943. Such was the purity of ideal that the band 
members held a kangaroo court to try Harvey when they suspected him of 
having "dance band" leanings. He left the Webb band for National Service 
in the RAF in 1946.

By the time Harvey joined trumpeter Freddy Randall's band in 1948 he was 
a sophisticated and eloquent trombone soloist. It was while with Randall 
that he first began writing arrangements. Leaving after more than a 
year, he worked for Carlo Krahmer, Graeme Bell and Joe Daniels. He then 
became the first traditional musician to escape into modern jazz when he 
played briefly for Vic Lewis and then, in March 1950, joined the Johnny 
Dankworth Seven. At this time he also studied at the Guildhall School of 
Music for two years. He stayed with Dankworth, by now leading a big 
band, until January 1955, when he left to become a freelance arranger 
and instrumentalist.

Throughout the late 1950s Harvey worked with bands led by tenor 
saxophonist Don Rendell. He appeared with Phil Seamen's band in the film 
The Golden Disc: The In Between Age (1958). He began writing for 
television, ran his own occasional big band and played on the Top Brass 
tour of Britain with Clark Terry, Bob Brookmeyer and Maynard Ferguson in 
1966. He was also in small groups that shared the bill on tours by the 
Gerry Mulligan Quartet and the Modern Jazz Quartet. He wrote music for 
the Benny Goodman Orchestra that recorded in Britain and for Jack 
Parnell's ATV Orchestra.

Harvey joined Humphrey Lyttelton's band as its pianist and arranger, 
staying from autumn 1963 until 1972. He qualified as a teacher and 
became assistant music master at Haileybury College in Hertford, from 
1969 to 1985. He rose to the forefront of jazz education in Britain and 
stayed there for several decades while continuing to play in a variety 
of jazz groups. He taught at the City Literary Institute in London and 
at various summer schools. He worked for the Arts Council of Great 
Britain and provided training for teachers, working in colleges and 
schools. From 1985 to 2003 he was Head of Jazz Studies at the London 
College of Music and Director of the London College Big Band. "The whole 
thing about teaching arts, and particularly jazz," he said, "is that 
you're not actually teaching them to play, you're teaching them how to 
teach themselves."

He taught at the Royal College of Music in 2004 and directed its big 
band. He was also an external examiner for the Trinity College of Music. 
Over the last years of his life he continued to compose and led his own 
big band for his own pleasure and for the benefit of the students who 
made up its ranks.

In 1974 he published Teach Yourself Jazz Piano and the book went into 
half a dozen editions. His Jazz in the Classroom: Practical Sessions in 
Jazz Improvisation appeared in 1988.

*Edward Thomas Harvey, trombonist, pianist, arranger, composer and 
teacher: born Blackpool 15 November 1925 (twice married: two daughters 
from first marriage); died Twickenham, London 9 October 2012.*