Trumpeter. Harold A. Posey, Jr. born September 19, 1930 in Reading, Pennsylvania; died March 31, 2017 in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Played with Eddie Phyfe at Olivia Davis’ Patio Lounge in 1956 and with the Swanee Six at the Bayou in 1957. Toured with Woody Herman Orchestra in 1958. Joined Charlie Byrd’s group in 1966 and toured Europe and Africa. Appeared at Blues Alley as a leader through the 1970s. Recorded with Bill Potts in 1987. Member of the Gene Donati band in 1980s and 1990s before retiring from music in 1995.
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3A51Z%22%7D%7D%5D%7D
Roberts, Byron. “Posey’s Horn Commands Audience.” Washington Post, May 10, 1964.
Segraves, John. “After Dark: Lonely Opening for a Fine Act.” Washington Star, February 3, 1972.
Washington Post. “Notable Deaths in the Washington Area.” May 2, 2017.
Washington Post. “Trumpeter at Showboat.” January 9, 1966.
Hal was my first teacher of the trumpet. He was a truly great musician and a fine flautist as well. In general the flute is not the normal doubling instrument for trumpet players. Two things I’ll always remember about Hal,
His appearance with bandleader Charlie Byrd on National television back in 1967. He’d taken the week off from teaching lessons and told me what channel that he’d appear on. And?
He brought a flugel horn into my lesson one day. An instrument I’d never been exposed to previously.
I was very young when I met and studied with Hal. He taught a number of my fellow students. A real tester on music theory. Much of my foundation and background in melody & harmony is rooted in my weekly lessons with Hal.
As a personality, he was kind of old school. A little gruff. Meaning quite strict. He insisted that I practice hard. I was a very young boy at the time and the strong desire that I’d eventually develop to play the trumpet wouldn’t blossom until a few years later when I became a teen.
I sorta feared him.
Hal was my first trumpet teacher as well. The lessons were at the Music and Arts Center. I believe was on Wisconsin Ave in Bethesda. He left there and moved to Florida to work at Disney World when it first opened. I also bought my first trumpet from Hal. A French Selmer which I still have to this day.
Hal was a young musician when he played with my father in Virginia Beach, VA . My father, Danny Teagarden, had a 5 piece combo for many years in VB. I remember Hal played one summer, around 1949 or 50 with a full cast on his back. He had a beautiful sound . I caught up with him a number of years later at Ft Bragg, where I was stationed when he was with the Herman orchestra.
I took trumpet lessons from Hal starting in 1961 at a little music store in the Twinbrook Shopping Center in Rockville, Md. I was trying to play with puffed out cheeks like Dizzy, and Hal put a stop to that immediately. When we moved across town in Rockville in 1963, Hal started coming to my house for our lessons, and continued doing that until I graduated from High School in 1965 and left to study at Berklee on full scholarship, which probably wouldn’t have happened without Hal’s instruction. I was already interested in Jazz when I started with Hal, and he taught me about chords and improvisation, and even showed me the modes, as well as helping me select a mouthpiece, and later on helping me find a flügelhorn to buy. It’s my recollection that he had the steady gig with Charlie Byrd in D.C. the whole time I studied with him. I thought he was a great guy, and he was definitely a big influence in my formative years.
I took trumpet lessons from Hal starting in 1964 to 1965 at my house in Kennington MD, I went to Walter Johnson high school grad 1965. He came to our school and did a show and left all his mutes I returned them at my next lesson. I remember that he also played in a circus band. I was him in Washington DC Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey I think.