Sad to Report the Passing of Harry Colomby
Obituary: Harry Colomby
Fêted in the mainstream for
managing actor Michael Keaton, he was also a major jazz fan who managed
Thelonious Monk and Mose Allison
By John White -13 January 2022197
Harry Colomby, a gifted teacher of English and Social Studies, taught at high
schools in Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island, and died aged 92 on 25 December
from multiple causes at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. He was also
Thelonious Monk’s manager for 14 years.
An avid jazz fan from his teenage years, Colomby was particularly attracted to
Monk even before he became a major figure in jazz. At Far Rockaway High School
in Queens, in 1955, Colomby began to organize Friday night jazz concerts for his
students, and stopped off at the Café Bohemia in Greenwich Village to check out
that Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers had remembered they were due to perform
at his school in a few days’ time. While he was waiting he spotted Monk (they
had met once before) and fell into conversation.
As he retailed subsequently, Monk said: “Harry, I remember you. Say you got your
car here? You can drive me uptown.” Before they left, Monk asked him: “Do you
want to be my manager?” Colomby recalled: “I totally identified with him. I knew
where he was at. No job, no nothing, no police card. I had no illusion about how
much money there is in jazz. But I realized that Monk was much more than a jazz
musician. He was potentially a symbol of strength, purity, you know, beyond
music, beyond jazz.”
So began a relationship and friendship that brought Monk to a national (and
international) audience, in large part because of Colomby’s managerial talents
but also because Monk trusted him implicitly. Although he was not prepared to
abandon teaching, Colomby needed to supplement his income, and secured a week’s
booking for Monk at the Comedy Theatre in Baltimore. Monk was paid $300, and
immediately gave Colomby $60.
The new partnership was not without its problems: Monk was increasingly erratic
in his behavior and often came late to gigs and recording sessions – or missed
them entirely – and once damaged Colomby’s car.
Not the least of Colomby’s achievements was getting Monk’s cabaret licence
reinstated in 1955. Four years earlier he had been convicted of possessing
narcotics after refusing to betray his friend Bud Powell. Colomby led an appeal
to the State Liquor Authority (SLA) arguing that Monk was “a drug-free,
law-abiding citizen, whose productivity and growing popularity as a recording
artist demonstrates his standing as a respectable working musician”.
Colomby’s next move was to secure an engagement for Thelonious at the Five Spot
Café (also in Greenwich Village). He said: “I wanted to find a place that was
small. I once drove past this place in the Village and there was a bar and I
heard music. A place where poets hung out.” With Monk’s cabaret license
reinstated, the Five Spot engagement marked the start of his increasingly
popular residency – with John Coltrane on tenor.
Colomby’s long relationship with Monk was revealed in the documentary (directed
by Charlotte Zwerin and produced by Clint Eastwood) Thelonious Monk: Straight No
Chaser (1968). After Monk was signed up by the Riverside label, Colomby
suspected that he was not receiving the proper royalties for his recordings, and
persuaded producer Orrin Keepnews to increase his advances and royalties. When
Monk left Riverside in 1962, Colomby helped him to land a lucrative contract
with Columbia and to become one of the only five jazz musicians to appear on the
cover of Time magazine.
Born on 20 August 1929 in Berlin, Colomby fled with his parents and brother
Jules to New York City in 1939 to escape Nazi persecution. They joined other
family members who had emigrated to the United States, changing their surname
from Golombek to Colomby. Harry’s father, Saul, founded a watch-making company
in Manhattan, and his mother, Elsie (Ries) Colomby, worked there. Jules became a
jazz trumpeter and another brother, Bobby, was a founding member of Blood, Sweat
& Tears. After his graduation from Columbia University in 1950 with a degree in
English, Harry embarked on his teaching career. Bobby Colomby relates that Harry
had learned English by memorizing a dictionary.
Although Monk was Colomby’s first client, he later managed comedian John Byner,
actor Michael Keaton and pianist/and singer Mose Allison. In a long and
productive career he produced 13 film or TV projects. He is survived by his
wife, Lee, son Scott (an actor) and younger brother Bobby.
Keaton, Colomby’s client for 25 years, reflected: “I was probably the only
stand-up whose manager was funnier than he was.” One of his former students
remembered: “Harry was this quintessentially cool guy, always dressed well. A
bunch of us fell in love with the guy. And he just started talking about jazz.
It was far-out stuff.”
