Elmo Hope

Born in 1923 and coming of age in the bebop and hard bop years, as a youth Elmo Hope was friendly with Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk.  Hope was a creative pianist and inventive composer.  He possessed the fleet linear attributes and innovations of bebop.  However, more significant was his compositional outlook, angular and dissonant in the mode of Herbie Nichols or his close friend Monk, yet with a romanticism that tempered the sometimes harshness of that style and stamped his true individualism.  He lived on Lyman Place in the Bronx and nourished the African-American musical community of the borough.

 Hope was denied widespread opportunities during his playing days, died young in 1967, and is often overlooked in the jazz history canon.

The program will explore his many compositions, as performed in piano-led dates, and we will also highlight notable appearances on classic recordings with the likes of Clifford Brown, Lou Donaldson, Sonny Rollins, Harold Land, Frank Foster, and John Coltrane.

 

originally broadcast July 23, 2023