[2] He also took lessons from Professor Valmore Victor and began playing in a local Works Progress Administration big band.

His first trio performed at the Hurricane Bar (3726 S. Claiborne Avenue, in New Orleans, a few blocks from where he was living) with Hardesty playing double bass accompanied by a guitarist and pianist, similar to Nat King Cole's group.

[1] Upon returning to New Orleans, Hardesty again recorded with Bartholomew, including the November 29, 1949, sessions for Jewel King ("3 x 7 = 21") and Tommy Ridgley ("Shrewsbury Blues").

During the first half of the 1950s, Hardesty continued to do studio work with Domino and other artists, including Lloyd Price (Hardesty contributed the saxophone solo on "Lawdy Miss Clawdy"),[1] Shirley and Lee, Smiley Lewis, T-Bone Walker, Big Joe Turner, Little Richard, and others, and occasionally performed in local clubs.

"[7] Other well-known tenor saxophone solos by Hardesty with Domino were on "I'm Walkin'", "Ain't That a Shame", and "Let the Four Winds Blow".

The first time that Hardesty's name appeared on a single was with the Canadian vocal quartet the Diamonds, "Don't Let Me Down" (also known as "Chick-Lets"), which was recorded on March 4, 1958, and released the following month as Mercury 71291.

Hardesty recorded four more songs in October 1961, which were released in 1962 by Federal; two are not instrumentals and had vocals by the New Orleans guitarist Walter "Papoose" Nelson.

He became a member of the house band at the Hilton Hotel and backed vocalists including Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, and Frank Sinatra.

Reviewing his solos at the 2012 festival, the newspaper Gambit wrote: "All hail Herb Hardesty, one of the few remaining alums of the J&M Studio Band whose talents helped create so many hits and classic songs for Fats Domino, Little Richard, Shirley and Lee, and so many others.

"[12] He led his own group, Herb Hardesty & The Dukes, on April 28, 2013, in the Blues tent at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

[13][14] For most of his career, Hardesty played a gold-plated Selmer Mark VI tenor saxophone with an Otto Link mouthpiece.

His trumpet was custom-made by Henri Selmer Paris, one of two made in France by a master craftsman; the other was owned by Louis Armstrong.