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Elmo Hope
Background information
Birth nameSt. Elmo Sylvester Hope
BornJune 27, 1923
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedMay 19, 1967(1967-05-19) (aged 43)
New York City, New York, U.S.
GenresJazz
Occupation(s)Musician, composer, arranger
InstrumentPiano
Years active1940s–1966

St. Elmo Sylvester Hope (June 27, 1923 – May 19, 1967) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, chiefly in the bebop and hard bop genres. Hope's contemporaries included Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell, and he grew up playing and listening to jazz and classical music with Powell.

Hope survived being shot by police as a youth to become a New York-based pianist who recorded with several emerging stars in the mid-1950s, including trumpeter Clifford Brown, and saxophonists John Coltrane, Lou Donaldson, Jackie McLean, and Sonny Rollins. A long-term heroin user, Hope had his license to perform in New York's clubs withdrawn after a drugs conviction, so he moved to Los Angeles in 1957. He was not happy during his four years on the West Coast, but had some successful collaborations there, including with saxophonist Harold Land.

More recordings as leader ensued following Hope's return to New York, but they did little to gain him more public or critical attention. Further drug and health problems reduced the frequency of his public performances, which ended a year before his death, at the age of 43. He remains little-known, despite, or perhaps because of, the individuality of his playing and composing, which were complex and stressed subtlety and variation rather than the virtuosity predominant in bebop.

Early life

St. Elmo Sylvester Hope was born on June 27, 1923, in New York City.[1] His parents, Simon and Gertrude Hope,[2] were immigrants from the Caribbean,[1] and had several children.[3] Hope began playing the piano aged 7.[4] He had classical music lessons as a child, and won solo piano recital contests from 1938.[1] Fellow pianist Bud Powell was a childhood friend;[1] together, they played and listened to jazz and classical music.[5] Hope attended Benjamin Franklin High School, where he studied music, and left before the end of 1940,[6] at which point he lived with his parents at 1663 Madison Avenue.[7]

At the age of 17, Hope was shot by a New York policeman.[6] He was taken to Sydenham Hospital, where doctors reported that the bullet had narrowly missed his spine.[6] Six weeks later, Hope, who had been released from hospital, appeared in court, charged with "assault, attempted robbery and violation of the Sullivan Law".[8] The police officers involved testified in court that Hope had been part of a group of five involved in a mugging.[9] None of the other four, or any of the three alleged white victims, was identified by police; Hope stated that he had been running away with other passers by after police started shooting, and was hit while trying to enter a hallway.[9] The judge freed Hope of all the charges,[9] after which Hope's attorney described the shooting as an "outrage", and the charges as "an attempted frameup".[8]

Hope enlisted as a private in the U.S. Army on March 6, 1943.[10] In the enlistment records, Hope was listed as "Single, with dependents".[10] At some point, he had been married and had a son, who died.[11] The terms of enlistment stated that Hope would be in the army "for the duration of the War [World War II] or other emergency, plus six months".[10]

Life and career

Early career in New York

Saxophonist Johnny Griffin recalled the group of musicians, including Hope, who practiced and learned together in New York in the days of late-1940s[12] bebop: "We'd go to [Thelonious] Monk's house in Harlem or to Elmo's house in the Bronx, we just did a lot of playing. I played piano a bit, too, so I could hear what they were all doing harmonically. But if something stumped me, I'd ask and Elmo would spell out harmonies. We'd play Dizzy [Gillespie]'s tunes or Charlie Parker's."[13]

Hope was part of an octet led by trumpeter Eddie Robinson late in 1947,[14] and played briefly with Snub Mosley around the same time.[15] Hope had gigs in dance halls and clubs[4] before starting his first long-term association – with the Joe Morris band, where he stayed from 1948 to 1951,[15] including for several recordings.[16] This band toured all over the United States.[17] In June 1953 Hope recorded in New York as part of a quintet led by trumpeter Clifford Brown and alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson.[15] Critic Marc Myers suggested that the six songs the band recorded "sparked a jazz revolution that became known as 'hard bop'".[18]

That 1953 session also helped Hope gain exposure with Blue Note Records' producer Alfred Lion, who supervised his debut recording as a leader around a week later.[15] This resulted in the 10-inch album Elmo Hope Trio, which had Morris alumni Percy Heath on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums.[15][16] The tracks recorded illustrated, in critic Kenny Mathieson's view, that Hope was interested in the architecture and aural detail of the music more than in individual virtuosity.[19] A further Blue Note recording session 11 months later led to Elmo Hope Quintet, Volume 2.[15][20]

In August 1954 Hope was pianist for a Prestige Records session led by saxophonist Sonny Rollins, which was released as Moving Out, and for another session with Donaldson.[21] Hope signed to Prestige in 1955,[22] and recorded the trio album Meditations for them that year. This was followed by the sextet Informal Jazz the following year, with Donald Byrd (trumpet), John Coltrane and Hank Mobley (tenor saxophones), Paul Chambers (bass), and Jones (drums). Some commentators have suggested that sessions such as this and the ones with Brown and Rollins were a hindrance to Hope's career: "He too often recorded with young, rising overshadowing talents" wrote a Buffalo Jazz Report reviewer in 1976.[23]

In January 1956 Hope recorded with another rising star, Jackie McLean, for the saxophonist's Lights Out![21] In April of the same year Hope should have appeared on saxophonist Gene Ammons' The Happy Blues, but left the studio before the session began and did not return.[21] Hope claimed that he had gone to visit an aunt in hospital, but his absence was attributed by others to his heroin addiction.[21] This drug problem led to the withdrawal of Hope's New York City Cabaret Card around 1956, following a conviction for possession of narcotics, so he was no longer permitted to play in clubs in the city.[1][16]

Life and career in Los Angeles

Unable to earn a living in New York because of the performance ban, Hope toured with trumpeter Chet Baker in 1957 and then began living in Los Angeles.[1] He soon found other musicians who had been influenced by bebop, including saxophonist Harold Land and bassist Curtis Counce.[24] Hope played with Rollins again, and, in October 1957, recorded another album, The Elmo Hope Quintet Featuring Harold Land.[16] In March of the following year Hope became part of Counce's band, and went on to record two albums with the bassist.[11] Hope also did some arranging for others around this time, including for Land's 1958 Harold in the Land of Jazz.[24] Hope also had his own band, with personnel that varied.[24] In 1959 he played with Lionel Hampton in Hollywood.[1][16] Later that year, after performances in San Francisco with two quartets – the first containing Rollins, bassist Scott LaFaro, and drummer Lennie McBrowne;[16][25] the other with Rollins replaced by Land – Hope travelled north with the Land group to play at a venue in Vancouver.[25]

Back in Los Angeles in August 1959, Hope was pianist for Land's quintet album The Fox;[16] he also wrote four of the album's compositions.[11] This recording, along with Elmo Hope Trio from the same year, were, in the opinion of jazz historian David Rosenthal, illustrative of Hope's musical development on the West Coast, and "ensured his place in history".[26] The trio album received a rare five-star review from Down Beat, with the comment that Hope's aesthetic was "a sort of bitter-sweet melancholy that seems to lie at the core of other jazzmen [...] who sometimes find the world 'a bit much', as the English say, to cope with."[27]

In 1960 Hope married the pianist Bertha Rosemond, whom he first met when he was playing with Baker.[3] As a jazz musician on the West Coast, Hope found his life frustrating.[28] In his only major published interview[29] (written up for Down Beat in January 1961 and entitled "Bitter Hope"), he criticized the lack of creativity in the then-popular church-influenced soul jazz, complained about the shortage of good musicians in Los Angeles, and lamented the lack of work opportunities in the few jazz clubs in the area.[28] Hope left Los Angeles later in 1961. His wife recounted that he was no longer working with Land, had recording offers from companies based on the East Coast, and still preferred there to Los Angeles, so the couple and their baby daughter moved to New York.[3]

Life and career back in New York

In June 1961 Hope was part of Jones' quintet, which included trumpeter Freddie Hubbard.[30] Hope recorded four albums in New York around 1961,[20] including Hope-Full, which contained his only piano solo tracks and some duets with his wife, also playing piano.[29][31] She later commented that "It was unexpected and I was scared to death."[31]

Some of the companies that he recorded for at this stage in his career reduced Hope's dignity, in the view of musician and critic Robert Palmer.[32] One album was entitled High Hope! (1961), and another, released as Sounds from Rikers Island (1963) in reference to a New York City jail complex, featured performances exclusively by musicians who had at some point been imprisoned for drug-related crimes.[32] Between these two sessions as leader, Hope was briefly in prison again for drug offenses.[33] These and other album releases in the early 1960s did little to develop a wider awareness of Hope.[33]

Hope played with McLean again late in 1962.[34] He also led a piano trio: early in 1963 it contained Ray Kenney on bass and Lex Humphries on drums;[35] in late 1964 it had John Ore on bass and Billy Higgins on drums.[36] In 1965 Hope was still leading a trio and quartet in the New York area.[37][38] Drug and health problems, however, meant that he played less often late in his career.[1][27] His last recordings were made in 1966, but not released for eleven years.[39] Hope's final concert was at Judson Hall in New York City in 1966.[11] Fellow pianist Horace Tapscott reported that, later, Hope's "hands were all shot up and he couldn't play."[40] Hope was hospitalized with pneumonia in 1967 and died a few weeks later, on May 19, of heart failure.[15] His wife was aged 31 at the time of his death.[41] They had three children;[11] their daughter, Monica Hope, became a singer.[3]

Playing style

Hope's playing was strongly based in the blues-influenced jazz tradition.[42] He employed dissonant harmonies and jagged, contrasting lines and phrases.[27][42] Rosenthal stated that Hope's playing on one of his compositions for the 1953 Donaldson–Brown recording illustrated "many elements of the pianist's emerging style: somber, internally shifting chords in the introduction; punchy, twisting phrases in the solo; and the smoldering intensity that always characterized his best work."[5] Hope's sense of time meant that his note placement was unpredictable, falling at various points either side of the beat but not exactly on it.[43] His use of keyboard dynamics was similarly flexible, as the listener could not predict when in a performance the level would change.[43] The Billboard reviewer of Hope's final recordings, as reissued in 1996, commented that "he's dynamically smoother than Monk, with a spidery; spacy touch. His harmonic and compositional approach is intricate in design and almost eerie in execution."[39] Coda critic Stuart Broomer also commented on Hope's touch, suggesting that it was unusual and light, and created a combination of delicacy and boldness that was all his own.[44] Leonard Feather and Ira Gitler summarized Hope's abilities: he had "a style that parallels Powell, [...and] was a pianist and composer of rare harmonic acuity and very personal interpretation."[1]

Compositions

The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz states that Hope composed around 75 pieces of music, which "range in character from a tortuous nervousness to an introspective, semi-lyrical romanticism."[16] One example, "Minor Bertha", has an unusual 35-bar AABA form, with a nine-bar A-section that "utilizes unconventional rhythms and weakly functional harmonies which obscure its phrases. Such other pieces as "One Down, Barfly, and Tranquility" [...] also offer fine examples of his idiosyncratic creativity."[16]

The Penguin Jazz Guide commented that Hope's compositions were strongly melodic, with some containing concepts of fugue and canon taken from classical music, but retaining foundations in the blues.[45] Atkins stated that Hope wrote highly structured, complex compositions that he played with improvisational flexibility.[43] Mathieson pointed out that, despite the originality of Hope's compositions, they had been taken up by other musicians only rarely, and he indicated that "it may be that they were ultimately too closely linked to his own personal expression – and in some cases perhaps simply too difficult – to encourage much in the way of such experiment."[4]

Legacy and influence

Hope, Powell, and Monk were considered by their contemporaries early in their careers to be influences on each other, and all, therefore, influenced the development of jazz piano.[46] Later pianists who have cited Hope as a major influence include Lafayette Gilchrist,[47] Alexander Hawkins,[48] Frank Hewitt,[49] and Hasaan Ibn Ali.[50] Hawkins stated in 2013 that Hope was important because "[he] seems to be just a guy who did something completely distinctive but without that kind of awesome baggage that Monk has".[48] Modern jazz guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel has mentioned Hope's rhythms, phrasing, and compositions as influences.[51]

Bertha Hope has released albums dedicated to his compositions. She and her later husband, bassist Walter Booker, created a band called "Elmollenium" in 1999,[31] which played Elmo's compositions.[52] She said, "Here's a new millennium and Elmo's music still needs more delivery to the planet. [...] We didn't have a large amount of arrangements due to an apartment fire we had some years ago in the Bronx that ruined most of the manuscripts. I had to listen to a lot of Elmo's music to get it down."[31]

Another to have attempted a reassessment of Hope's career is Chuck Berg, writing for Down Beat in 1980. He attributed the ignoring of Hope by most jazz fans and critics largely to his "unique pianistic approach", which differed from that prevalent in jazz generally and in bebop in particular.[53] Berg compared the "aggressive assertiveness, massive outpourings of raw energy and displays of technical athleticism" that, he argued, are valued in jazz, with Hope's more nuanced and intellectual approach: "He was a master of the subtle gesture, an Alexander Calder of jazz whose delicately balanced sonic mobiles seemed to float in space. Today, with the parameters of jazz considerably stretched since his final years, the climate is right for a careful reassessment of Hope's sublime pianistics."[53]

Palmer wrote on Hope and fellow pianist Herbie Nichols in 1987: they "had their problems, but they certainly deserve far better than they got; they were practically categorized out of existence. Dismissed as second-stringers and copyists when they were both prolifically creative and highly original, they suffered a neglect that is only now beginning to be dispelled in the case of Nichols, and that still continues in the case of Hope."[32]

Discography

As leader

Year recorded Title Label Personnel/Notes
1953 Elmo Hope Trio Blue Note Trio, with Percy Heath (bass), Philly Joe Jones (drums)
1954 Elmo Hope Quintet, Volume 2 Blue Note Quintet, with Charles Freeman Lee (trumpet), Frank Foster (tenor sax), Percy Heath (bass), Art Blakey (drums)
1955 Meditations Prestige Trio, with John Ore (bass), Willie Jones (drums)
1955 Hope Meets Foster Prestige Quartet, with Frank Foster (tenor sax), John Ore (bass), Art Taylor (drums); quintet on some tracks, with Charles Freeman Lee (trumpet) added
1956 Informal Jazz Prestige Sextet, with Donald Byrd (trumpet), John Coltrane and Hank Mobley (tenor sax), Paul Chambers (bass), Philly Joe Jones (drums)
1957 The Elmo Hope Quintet Featuring Harold Land Pacific Quintet, with Stu Williamson (trumpet), Harold Land (tenor sax), Leroy Vinnegar (bass), Frank Butler (drums)
1959 Elmo Hope Trio Hifijazz Trio, with Jimmy Bond (bass), Frank Butler (drums)
1961 Here's Hope! Celebrity Trio, with Paul Chambers (bass), Philly Joe Jones (drums)
1961 High Hope! Beacon Trio, with Paul Chambers and Butch Warren (bass; separately), Philly Joe Jones and Granville T. Hogan (drums; separately)
1961 Homecoming! Riverside Sextet, with Blue Mitchell (trumpet), Frank Foster and Jimmy Heath (tenor sax), Percy Heath (bass), Philly Joe Jones (drums); some tracks trio, with Heath and Jones
1961 Hope-Full Riverside Solo piano; some tracks are duo, with Bertha Hope (piano)
1963 Sounds from Rikers Island Audio Fidelity Sextet on most tracks, with Lawrence Jackson (trumpet), John Gilmore (tenor sax), Freddie Douglas (soprano sax), Ronnie Boykins (bass), Philly Joe Jones (drums); Earl Coleman and Marcelle Daniels (vocals; separately) on some tracks
1966 Last Sessions – Volume One Inner City Trio, with John Ore (bass), Philly Joe Jones and Clifford Jarvis (drums; separately); released 1977[20]
1966 Last Sessions – Volume Two Inner City Details as Last Sessions – Volume One

As sideman

Year recorded Leader Title Label
1958 Curtis Counce Exploring the Future Dooto
1958 Curtis Counce Sonority Contemporary
1953 Lou Donaldson and Clifford Brown New Faces New Sounds Blue Note
1953 Lou Donaldson and Clifford Brown Alternate Takes Blue Note
1954 Lou Donaldson Lou Donaldson Sextet, Vol. 2 Blue Note
1958 Harold Land Jazz at The Cellar 1958 Lone Hill Jazz
1959 Harold Land The Fox Hifijazz
1956 Jackie McLean Lights Out! Prestige
1954 Sonny Rollins Moving Out Prestige

Sources:[20][54]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Feather, Leonard; Gitler, Ira (1999) The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-507418-5.
  2. ^ New York Amsterdam News 1940, pp. 1, 6.
  3. ^ a b c d Weeks, Todd Bryant (2010) "Bertha Hope-Booker Interviewed for Allegro". Associated Musicians of Greater New York. [Interview transcript.] Retrieved January 13, 2014.
  4. ^ a b c Mathieson 2002, p. 308.
  5. ^ a b Rosenthal 1993, p. 55.
  6. ^ a b c New York Amsterdam News 1940, p. 1.
  7. ^ New York Amsterdam News 1940, p. 6.
  8. ^ a b New York Amsterdam News 1941, p. 1.
  9. ^ a b c New York Amsterdam News 1941, p. 8.
  10. ^ a b c "Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, ca. 1938 – 1946 (Enlistment Records)". The National Archives. Retrieved January 30, 2014.
  11. ^ a b c d e Kernfeld, Barry (February 2000) "Hope, Elmo". American National Biography Online. Oxford University Press.
  12. ^ Kart, Larry (2004) Jazz in Search of Itself. p. 31. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-10420-2.
  13. ^ Watrous, Peter (April 20, 1990) "Saxophone Virtuosos of Whisper and Howl". The New York Times. p. C19.
  14. ^ Dimples, June (November 15, 1947) "Cocktale Sips". New York Amsterdam News. p. 22.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g Gitler, Ira Trio and Quintet. [Liner notes]. Blue Note. Reproduced at hardbop.tripod. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
  16. ^ a b c d e f g h i Smith, Gregory E.; Kernfeld, Barry "Hope, (St.) Elmo (Sylvester)". In Kernfeld, Barry (ed.) The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (2nd edition). Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved January 13, 2014. (Subscription required.)
  17. ^ Mattingly, Rick (1998) The Drummer's Time: Conversations with the Great Drummers of Jazz. p. 33. Hal Leonard. ISBN 978-0-634-00146-8.
  18. ^ Myers, Marc (August 28, 2010) "'Sweet Poppa Lou', Still in His Groove". The Wall Street Journal. p. A20.
  19. ^ Mathieson 2002, p. 309.
  20. ^ a b c d Cohen, Noal (August 28, 2013) The Elmo Hope Discography. attictoys.com
  21. ^ a b c d Mathieson 2002, p. 311.
  22. ^ "Music as Written" (July 23, 1955) Billboard. p. 22.
  23. ^ Mazzone, Tom (October 1976) "Elmo Hope – The All-Star Sessions – Milestone M47037". Buffalo Jazz Report. Issue 32. p. 12.
  24. ^ a b c Mathieson 2002, p. 312.
  25. ^ a b LaFaro-Fernandez, Helene (2009) Jade Visions: The Life and Music of Scott LaFaro. pp. 89–90. University of North Texas Press. ISBN 978-1-57441-273-4.
  26. ^ Rosenthal 1993, pp. 55–56.
  27. ^ a b c Rosenthal 1993, p. 56.
  28. ^ a b Tynan, John (January 1961) "Bitter Hope". Down Beat. Volume 28/1. p. 61.
  29. ^ a b Mathieson 2002, p. 314.
  30. ^ "Philly Joe Jones Joins Monk". (June 24, 1961) New York Amsterdam News. p. 20.
  31. ^ a b c d Scott, Ron (March 21, 2002) "Bertha Hope's Quartet Set for Brooklyn". New York Amsterdam News. p. 23.
  32. ^ a b c Palmer, Robert (November 22, 1987) "Jazz Injustice: Genius in the Shadows". The New York Times. p. H29.
  33. ^ a b Mathieson 2002, p. 315.
  34. ^ Levin, Robert (December 6, 1962) The Village Voice. p. 10.
  35. ^ Womble, Bertha (February 9, 1963) "MacLean Concerts Draw, Provide Excellent Jazz". New York Amsterdam News. p. 14.
  36. ^ "'Jazz on the West Side' Launches Fall Season Sat". New Pittsburgh Courier. (November 14, 1964) p. 11.
  37. ^ "Who Makes Music and Where". The New York Times. (October 31, 1965) p. X17.
  38. ^ "Music Notes". The New York Times. (April 26, 1965) p. 39.
  39. ^ a b Verna, Paul (November 16, 1996) "The Final Sessions". Billboard. Volume 108/46. p. 77.
  40. ^ Tapscott, Horace (2001) Songs of the Unsung: The Musical and Social Journey of Horace Tapscott. p. 49. Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-2531-4.
  41. ^ Gourse, Leslie (1996) Madame Jazz: Contemporary Women Instrumentalists. p. 116. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-510647-3.
  42. ^ a b West, Hollie I. (October 25, 1970) "Flood of New Discs at Record Prices: Rhythm Mode". The Washington Post. p. H5.
  43. ^ a b c Atkins, Ronald (August 15, 1979) "Living in Hope: Ronald Atkins Reports". The Guardian. p. 10.
  44. ^ Broomer, Stuart (January/February 1997) "Elmo Hope: Omission". Coda. Volume 271. p. 36.
  45. ^ Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2010) The Penguin Jazz Guide: The History of the Music in the 1000 Best Albums. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-104831-4.
  46. ^ Palmer, Robert (August 30, 1985) "Spectrum of Jazz Piano Masters in Village Clubs". The New York Times. p. C19.
  47. ^ Wynn, Ron (September 2004) "Lafayette Gilchrist". JazzTimes.
  48. ^ a b Sharpe, John (15 January 2013) "Alexander Hawkins: Retaining the Sense of Discovery". All About Jazz.
  49. ^ Conrad, Thomas (June 2005) "Frank Hewitt: Never Stop Playing". JazzTimes.
  50. ^ "The Max Roach Trio Featuring the Legendary Hasaan". [Liner notes]. Atlantic Records.
  51. ^ Ouellette, Dan (July 2013) "Kurt Rosenwinkel: Dreamer". Down Beat. p. 29.
  52. ^ Tunzi, Kristina (January 6, 2007) "Deaths: Walter Booker". Billboard. Volume 119/1. p. 65.
  53. ^ a b Berg, Chuck (March 1980) "Last Sessions/Hope from Rikers Island". Down Beat. Volume 47/3. p. 44.
  54. ^ "Elmo Hope Discography Project". jazzdisco. Retrieved January 12, 2014.
Bibliography
  • "Another Youth Shot by Policeman". New York Amsterdam News. November 30, 1940.
  • "Policeman Faces Lawsuit for Shooting Harlem Boy". New York Amsterdam News. January 18, 1941.

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