Saturday, March 24, 2018

Elmo Hope Quintet - Elmo Hope Quintet

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 75:45
Size: 173.4 MB
Styles: Piano jazz
Year: 1954/1991/2015
Art: Front

[2:48] 1. It's A Lovely Day Today
[2:51] 2. Mo Is On
[2:59] 3. Sweet And Lovely
[2:52] 4. Happy Hour
[3:53] 5. Hot Sauce
[3:06] 6. Stars Over Marakesh
[3:05] 7. Freffie
[2:56] 8. Carvin' The Rock
[2:46] 9. I Remember You
[2:52] 10. Mo Is On (Alternate Take)
[4:17] 11. Crazy
[3:48] 12. Abdullah
[3:36] 13. Chips
[4:01] 14. Later For You
[4:12] 15. Low Tide
[4:25] 16. Maybe So
[4:23] 17. Crazy (Alternate Take)
[6:08] 18. So Nice
[5:56] 19. St. Elmo's Fire
[4:45] 20. Vaun-Ex

Bass – Percy Heath; Drums – Art Blakey; Piano – Elmo Hope; Tenor Saxophone – Frank Foster; Trumpet – Freeman Lee.

Of the collections of Elmo Hope's '50s recordings, Trio and Quintet is the one to get. It includes his prime Blue Note sessions and features a stellar cast of hard bop musicians including Art Blakey, Frank Foster, Philly Joe Jones, and Harold Land. The majority of the tunes are Hope originals which, in their angular introspection, bear the influence of both Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk. Things begin with ten mostly hard bop swingers from a trio date in 1953. Prominently featured is Hope's Powell like, single line attack. Solos stay brisk and straightforward on uptempo numbers like "Hot Sauce," but turn a bit mercurial on slower pieces like "Happy Hour." Standout tracks include Hope's "Mo Is On" with its "off to the races" opening statement and "Carvin' the Rock," which falls somewhere between Powell's "Parisian Thoroughfare" and "So Sorry Please." Percy Heath and Philly Joe Jones provide sympathetic support throughout. The Quintet tracks start with an East Coast session featuring Foster and Blakey. "Crazy"; it causes some problems for trumpeter Freeman Lee, but finds Foster in command with a vigorous solo statement. The remainder of the session impresses with a series of rhythmically rich Hope compositions which, like the majority of Monk's tunes, stay memorable in spite of their complexity. Three more Hope tunes from a West Coast date round out the quintet tracks and close the CD. This Blue Note release is great not only for its cross-section of Hope compositions, but also for the many fertile ideas they've inspired in top-drawer soloists. ~Stephen Cook

Elmo Hope Quintet mc
Elmo Hope Quintet zippy

2 comments:

  1. Thx! Such a great but underrated musician. Remember when I heard him for the 1s.t time as sideman in Jackie McLean's "Lights Out" (1956) --I was completely bowled over, and immediately became an EH fan. Cheers Daniel, from Spain...

    ReplyDelete
  2. thanks as always Mat...

    ReplyDelete

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