Legendary saxophonist, Herbert Hardesty, dies

12th December 2016   ·   0 Comments

By Geraldine Wyckoff
Contributing Writer

Saxophonist Herb Hardesty, a core and decades-long member of Fats Domino’s band, knew what audiences wanted when they came to a show headlined by the legendary pianist and vocalist. They expected to hear is his tunes like “I’m Walking,” “Blue Monday” and “Ain’t That a Shame” just as they sounded on the records. Hardesty, who played on Domino’s first, 1949 hit, “The Fat Man,” never disappointed. He blew his signature solos that became almost as recognizable and as anticipated as Domino’s opening piano notes. Herbert Hardesty died on December 3, 2016 at the age of 91.

“Oh, yeah that was their thing,” declares saxophonist Roger Lewis, who joined Domino’s band in 1971. “That cat learned his solos – not only the same solo but the same style. There was one solo that you had to play exactly the way it was recorded,” Lewis continues. “That was the solo that Herb played on baritone on ‘Blue Monday.’ If you played anything different, you got a ticket back to New Orleans.” It has been written that Hardesty picked up the baritone for the first time for that recording.

“Fats had the right people in his band,” the late drummer Smokey Johnson, who was in Domino’s band for 28 years, said in a 2004 interview. “Fats had people like Lee Allen and Herb Hardesty that could play bebop, swing, rhythm and blues and everything else.”

Hardesty, who was born in Covington, Louisiana, jumped into music at the early age of six with his first instrument being a trumpet given to his step-father by Louis Armstrong. He took lessons from the noted music educator Valmore Victor and soon played traditional jazz with acclaimed bandleaders such as trumpeter Papa Celestin and drummer Chick Webb. Though he became renowned as a tenor saxophonist, Hardesty would blow trumpet throughout his career, occasionally picking it up when Domino’s band would warm up a crowd with a few numbers.

Hardesty’s connection to Domino came through the great Dave Bartholomew, a prominent figure as producer, arranger and composer in the hit-maker’s career. Besides playing in Fats’ band, Hardesty was among the talents that became the studio band at Cosimo Matassa’s J&M Recording Studio. He was in on the session for vocalist Lloyd Price’s 1952 hit “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” among many others. Hardesty worked, recorded and toured with a number of musicians who would become legendary like Roy “Good Rockin’ Tonight” Brown, pianist/vocalist Professor Longhair and vocalist and guitarist Smiley Lewis. His place in history, however, remains with his decades with Fats Domino.

Hardesty proudly served as a radio technician attached to the now renowned Tuskegee Airman, a Black military division of pilots during World War II. He returned home to attend Dillard University and further pursued his musical career.

“Herb was my ‘pardna’,” pianist/vocalist Dr. John lovingly declares of Hardesty who he knew and played with through the decades and as recently as at the 2012 Jazz and Heritage Festival. Hardesty’s sax was onboard on the good doctor’s definitive 1992 album, Goin’ Back to New Orleans. “He would give me some guide lines,” Dr. John continues. “That’s what I appreciated. He always gave me something that I didn’t get from nobody else. He was a great saxophonist and had such a natural sound – he was on top of the thing.”

“I learned a lot of stuff from Herbert Hardesty about life – discipline and stuff like that as a young guy,” says Lewis, echoing Dr. John’s comments. “Herb was the type of guy who always had your back.”

“I started off playing tenor saxophone back in the ‘40s before I played baritone,” Lewis continues. “Herbert Hardesty was one of my main idols on the tenor. Back then that was the era of the tenor saxophone. I knew the sound of that horn, but I didn’t know he was the guy who was producing the sound.”

Hardesty wasn’t in Domino’s band in 1971 when Lewis came onboard as he had moved to Las Vegas where he performed with both the Duke Ellington and Count Basie orchestras. When the saxophonist returned to New Orleans and rejoined Domino, Lewis says he was just blown away by having the opportunity to be around “this cat” who created the many solos on Fats’ records.

“He was like a Charlie Parker to me – just being around a creator,” Lewis exclaims still awed by the experience after all these years. “He just had a beautiful spirit – he always had a smile on his face. When Herbert was feeling good, everybody had a good night. He would start doing this little dance that he used to do. We used to call it ‘Doing the Herbie.’”

Hardesty also produced some singles as leader including instrumentals such as the kicking “Perdido Street” and Latin-tinged “Just a Little Bit of Everything.” They were compiled and released on the Ace label on 2012’s cleverly named The Domino Effect. In 2013, the saxophonist also led his own band at Jazz Fest that included Lewis and a next generation of musicians such as saxophonist Roderick Paulin, drummer Shannon Powell and bassist Roland Guerin.

“He was a blessing in so many ways,” Dr. John offers. “He was a great musician and he was a great guy.”

Lewis seconds those sentiments: “Herbert was the real deal – a master musician and a great human being.”

Funeral services for Herbert Hardesty were held at 11 a.m. on, December 10, 2016 at Rhodes Funeral Home, 1933 Washington Ave.

This article originally published in the December 12, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.