De-Dah – Elmo Hope
De-Dah is memorable for the contrast of two bars of Latin and two bars of swing in the A section. It may not be the easiest for the rhythm section, but it's well worth learning. Clifford Brown trumpet solo available in B-flat and C editions.
- Recording: Lou Donaldson - Lou Donaldson 10-inch
- Recorded on: June 9, 1953
- Label: Blue Note (BN 5030)
- Concert Key: E-flat
- Style: Swing (medium)
- Trumpet - Clifford Brown
- Alto Sax - Lou Donaldson
- Piano - Elmo Hope
- Bass - Percy Heath
- Drums - Philly Joe Jones
Video
- The Music of Elmo Hope: Eric Reed (p) featuring Bertha Hope (p), Kenny Washington (d), Barak Mori (b), Mike Rodriguez (tpt), Joe Lovano (ts), and Wycliffe Gordon (tb) live from Miller Theater
For more details about Elmo Hope's recordings, check out the Elmo Hope Discography on Noal Cohen Jazz History website.
Elmo Hope
June 27, 1923 – May 19, 1967
An imaginative pianist who valued subtlety over virtuosity in the landscape of bebop, Elmo Hope never achieved the fame that his close friends did, perhaps because he so rejected stylistic norms of the time. Elmo was a classically trained pianist with technique rivaling that of his childhood friend Bud Powell and a composer of music whose inventiveness and complexity approaches that of Thelonious Monk. In fact, Elmo, Thelonious and Bud used to hang out so much together in the late 1940s they became known as "The Three Musketeers." Powell, in Francis Paudras' book "Dance of the Infidels" is quoted as saying, "You gotta hear Elmo. He's fabulous. His stuff is very hard. He does some things that even I have trouble playing." Read more...