1954 - May 9

Elmo Hope Quintet – May 9 1954

 

Leonard Feather: Elmo Hope – Volume 2 Liner Notes 1954 

SEVERAL months ago the name of Elmo Hope sprang, apparently from out of nowhere, to a place among the new faces and new sounds of jazz, via his debut on Blue Note LP 5029. 

Annotating Elmo's initial effort, on which he offered eight piano solos with rhythm accompaniment, I pointed out that his career had run parallel in many respects with that of Bud Powell, that he had grown up with Bud and had seen service with rhythm-and-blues bands. 

In this, his second LP, Elmo increases his bodyguard to four men to make it a novel and intriguing quintet session in which one of the principles, trumpeter Freeman Lee, can also claim to be a refugee from the rhythm-and-blues fraternity. Making his first jazz session here, he is an old friend of Elmo's and reveals a great sympathy for the pianist's ideas in interpreting six original Hope compositions. 

Frank Foster, Count Basie's eminent young tenor star, head on his own Blue Note LP as well as in the recent George Wallington orchestral set (Nos. 5042 and 5045 respectively) blows confidently and contently on this session, propelled by a swinging rhythm section that includes, as well as Elmo, those two Blue Note regulars, Percy Heath and Art Blakey. 

Elmo's composing has an exotic flavor, somewhat reminiscent at times of the work of Thelonious Monk. Both Crazy and Abdullah, the first two tracks on the A side, are minor-key themes. 

Frank Foster, whose personality and style seem to lend themselves well to this type of composition, is especially outstanding in both of these numbers, his somber accents relieved by long, smooth-flowing phrases that swing relentlessly. The solo on Crazy, in particular, should rank as one of his best recorded contributions to date. Art Blakey plays an important role in Crazy, both in underlining solos and ensemble and in his own brief solo. 

Abdullah hits a slightly slower groove, using a basic phrase that is rhythmically familiar but melodically new, and offering a particularly colorful solo by Elmo. Chips is a happier, almost jaunty affair by comparison, and is notable for the most effective Freeman Lee performance of the entire set. 

December 1954
New Blue Note Releases

The second side opens with Later For You, a trumpet-and-piano unison theme on the familiar and popular All God's Children chord pattern; Foster and Lee are both very much at ease in the setting, and Elmo has a typical solo in long, flowing single-note lines punctuated by left-hand commas and semi-colons. As a variation on the unison idea, Low Tide offers some slightly vertical writing, with a long, relaxed solo by Elmo, easing into a fine Foster chorus. Maybe So returns to the unison basis, but the integration of piano and drums, and the roles they play during the delineation of the theme, constitute a fine illustration of the smooth, professional cooperation so essential to modern jazz. 

These sides, like many of the best jazz records, were recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Hackensack, N.J. This explains the presence on the cover of 20-year-old Rex, a canine member of the van Gelder family, who is seen observing Elmo as the latter studies his cues (or possibly pencils in a couple of new notes) before going into the session. Rex may not make new sounds, but he is certainly a new face. 

Although the first Elmo Hope LP also included several of his own compositions, I think this new set will give you a broader picture of his talents as you hear six of his works adapted to small-band interpretation. They lend further strength to the conviction that Elmo is a new star to watch in the jazz sky, one who will shine more brightly the longer he is seen and heard on the musical horizon. 

—LEONARD FEATHER 
(Down Beat Magazine) 

Photo by FRANCIS WOLFF

Down Beat 29 December 1954 – Volume 21 Issue 26 

The second volume for Elmo Hope, a vigorous pianist with stylistic resemblances to Bud Powell but with a stimulating way of his own to explore. His magnificent rhythm support here is from Art Blakey and Percy Heath, but the rating is lowered by two factors: the presence of Frank Foster and Freeman Lee plus the uniformly undistinguished lines of all six Hope originals. Foster is a tenorman but simply doesn’t yet have the kind of conception that will sustain him in demanding small combo work, and Freeman Lee has to overcome a jaggedness in tone and conception. Of the two, Foster is easily superior if only for the forcefulness of his atta and the assurance of his swinging beat. (I stand corrected, incidentally, by Ira Gitler, who points out that Foster is much more indebted to Sonny Stitt than to any modern overtones of the Hawkins tradition as I had previously written.) But neither Frank nor Freeman does much in his improvisations to counter the routine writing. The chief virtues here lie in the rhythm section and in Rudy Van Gelder’s reproduction thereof. (Blue Note LP 5044) 

Photo by FRANCIS WOLFF

Notes etc. 

(Charles) Freeman Lee’s only Blue Note recording session. A memoir of Lee, entitled A Jazzman's Tale, was published in 2017.

Session Information 

Freeman Lee, trumpet; Frank Foster, tenor sax; Elmo Hope, piano; Percy Heath, bass; Art Blakey, drums. 

Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, May 9, 1954 

 

BN566-2 tk.3, Crazy, Blue Note BLP 5044 

BN566-3 tk.4, Crazy (alt) 

BN567-3 tk.8, Later For You, Blue Note BLP 5044 

BN568-1 tk.10, Abdullah, Blue Note BLP 5044 

BN569-1 tk.12, Chips, Blue Note BLP 5044 

BN570-2 tk.15, Maybe So, Blue Note BLP 5044 

BN571-2 tk.18, Low Tide, Blue Note BLP 5044