Robertson, Herb
Robertson, Herb
Robertson, Herb , jazz trumpeter, fluegelhornist, cornetist, pocket trumpeter, bugler, valve trombonist; b. Plainfield, N.J., Feb. 21, 1951. He began playing trumpet at 10. He studied at Berklee (1969–72) with Charlie Mariano, Herb Pomeroy and Phil Wilson and became interested in free jazz, falling under the influence of Booker Little, Don Cherry and Don Ellis; he also studied for nearly ten years with a copper specialist, Donald S. Reinhardt. In 1972, he met Mark Helias in N.J. and they formed a quartet; then he toured the U.S. and Canada in various dance and rock bands, after which he worked with Dewey Redman, Paul Motian, Ray Anderson, Rashied Ali, Tim Berne (many times since 1983), Ratzo Harris, Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orch., and played in a group accompanying the Mercé Cunningham dance company. Robertson toured Europe with a quintet (1987); he worked with saxophonist Andy Laster (1988), Charlie Elgart’s big band and Marc Ducret (1991). He moved to Berlin, Germany in the early 1990s.
Discography
Transparency (1985); Little Trumpet (1986); X-cerpts: Live at Willisau (1988); Shades of Bud Powell (1988); Certified (1991).
—Lewis Porter