MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble's 19th Annual Herb Pomeroy Memorial Concert—Giant Steps in Jazz

About this event

19th Annual Herb Pomeroy Memorial Concert— Giant Steps in Jazz MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble Special guest: Trombonist Elliot Mason

Friday, November 13, 2027, 8:00pm

Linde Music Building, Thomas Tull Concert Hall, MIT

$20 general admission, free for MIT community

Watch the Livestream

MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble, Frederick Harris, Jr., Music Director collaborates with special guest trombonist Elliot Mason for MIT’s 19th annual celebration of Herb Pomeroy (1930-2007), “the father of jazz at MIT,” the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble (MIT FJE). This special concert includes music of Ellington, Coltrane, ChickCorea, Miguel Zenón and others.

Elliot Mason is an internationally acclaimed trombonist, composer, educator, and bass trumpet specialist. For more than two decades, he has been a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra under the direction of Wynton Marsalis and performs regularly with the Wynton Marsalis Septet.

Alongside his work with Jazz at Lincoln Center, Mason leads his own Quintet, co-leads the Mason Brothers Quintet with his brother, Brad Mason, and performs with the Sofijazz Quintet. An accomplished educator, Mason has served on the jazz faculty at The Juilliard School since 2016, as their Jazz Trombone Instructor, Studio Class Resident Artist, and Brass Mentor.

Throughout his career, he has performed with many of jazz's most celebrated ensembles, including the Count Basie Orchestra, the Mingus Big Band, the Maria Schneider Orchestra, Maynard Ferguson's Big Bop Nouveau, and the Toshiko Akiyoshi Orchestra. As a featured performer and collaborator, Mason has shared the stage with an extraordinary range of artists, including Paul Simon, Wayne Shorter, Branford Marsalis, Chick Corea, Kenny Garrett, Bobby Hutcherson, Ahmad Jamal, Chucho Valdés, Chano Domínguez, Chris Potter, Randy Brecker, Joe Lovano, Carl Fontana, and Bill Watrous.

His distinctive musical voice, technical mastery, and fearless innovative improvisation have made him one of the most influential jazz trombonists of his generation.

“Elliot’s unbelievable as a trombonist, there’s unworldly facility, virtuosity and clarity in his playing, he can sing a melody out from the trombone; it’s like a human voice the way he plays it” – Wynton Marsalis