Eyes So Beautiful As Yours – Elmo Hope
This impassioned ballad is one of Elmo Hope's most exquisite compositions. A full score and parts are available for the recorded sextet arrangement, with piano and bass parts based on what Elmo and Percy Heath played on the original recording.
- Recording: Elmo Hope - Homecoming
- Recorded on: June 22, 1961
- Label: Riverside (RLP 12-381)
- Concert Key: E-flat minor
- Style: Ballad
- Trumpet - Blue Mitchell
- Tenor Sax - Jimmy Heath, Frank Foster
- Piano - Elmo Hope
- Bass - Percy Heath
- Drums - Philly Joe Jones
A romantic, impassioned ballad, Eyes So Beautiful As Yours is one you'll want to add to your repertoire as soon as you hear it for the first time. With its inventive melody and harmonic depth, this song is Elmo Hope at his most creative. The melody flows nonstop through the long sections of the form, without obvious shorter phrase lengths. This form consists of an 18-measure opening section (A1), followed by a 12-measure section (A2) that begins with the same six measures as A1 before going in a different direction. The changes are a fascinating adventure throughout, visiting many key centers and hinting at others as the melody unfolds.
On the recording, tenor saxophonist Jimmy Heath plays the melody; trumpeter Blue Mitchell and tenor saxophonist Frank Foster play mostly backgrounds in half and whole notes. Our 1st part is also the lead sheet; in the score, we have the melody part in the middle to keep the instrumentation of trumpet and two tenors clear. The 1st parts show rhythms of the background parts (and notable bass and piano rhythms) below the staff.
There is a four-measure rubato rhythm section intro; our score and horn parts show the basic piano melody. For the head on the score, there is a rhythm section staff showing the melody and chords. Rhythm section players can read the C 1st part (C lead sheet), but we also have piano and bass parts transcribed from Elmo Hope and Percy Heath on the recording, for an in-depth look at how this song was originally played. Elmo doubles certain phrases of the melody; the rest of the melody in the piano part is shown with smaller notes. The bass part has the melody cued above on a smaller staff.
After the head on this recording, Elmo solos for one chorus; the horns return to take the melody out from A2. As we do with most ballads, we show no specific D.S. in case you'd prefer to play the entire out melody from A1.
On the recording, tenor saxophonist Jimmy Heath plays the melody; trumpeter Blue Mitchell and tenor saxophonist Frank Foster play mostly backgrounds in half and whole notes. Our 1st part is also the lead sheet; in the score, we have the melody part in the middle to keep the instrumentation of trumpet and two tenors clear. The 1st parts show rhythms of the background parts (and notable bass and piano rhythms) below the staff.
There is a four-measure rubato rhythm section intro; our score and horn parts show the basic piano melody. For the head on the score, there is a rhythm section staff showing the melody and chords. Rhythm section players can read the C 1st part (C lead sheet), but we also have piano and bass parts transcribed from Elmo Hope and Percy Heath on the recording, for an in-depth look at how this song was originally played. Elmo doubles certain phrases of the melody; the rest of the melody in the piano part is shown with smaller notes. The bass part has the melody cued above on a smaller staff.
After the head on this recording, Elmo solos for one chorus; the horns return to take the melody out from A2. As we do with most ballads, we show no specific D.S. in case you'd prefer to play the entire out melody from A1.
Elmo Hope dedicated this song to his wife, Bertha Hope. The album title "Homecoming" refers to Elmo's return to New York after four years living in Los Angeles, where he and Bertha had met. Another song he wrote in tribute to her, also recorded on this album, is La Berthe (coming soon to jazzleadsheets.com).
The rhythm section of Elmo Hope, Percy Heath and Philly Joe Jones had first recorded together in trumpeter Joe Morris' band in 1948. In 1953 they played on Elmo's first Blue Note recording (Lou Donaldson's quintet session) and as a trio on Elmo's debut session as a leader.
The rhythm section of Elmo Hope, Percy Heath and Philly Joe Jones had first recorded together in trumpeter Joe Morris' band in 1948. In 1953 they played on Elmo's first Blue Note recording (Lou Donaldson's quintet session) and as a trio on Elmo's debut session as a leader.
- Recording: Sullivan Fortner - Moments Preserved
- Recorded on: June 29-30, 2017
- Label: Impulse (6752301)
- Concert Key: E-flat minor
- Style: Ballad
- Flugelhorn - Roy Hargrove
- Piano - Sullivan Fortner
- Bass - Ameen Saleem
- Drums - Jeremy "Bean" Clemons
Video
- On Sullivan's full performance at the 2015 American Pianists Awards he plays a 1:22 beautiful introduction where he pays tribute to Elmo's very good friend Thelonious Monk, with quotes of Monk's "Crepuscule With Nellie" and "Round Midnight." Our video starts where he introduces Elmo's melody, then treats us to two incredible choruses of "Eyes So Beautiful As Yours," joined by Nick Tucker, bass, and Kenny Phelps, drums.
A quartet version of Eyes So Beautiful As Yours—not as slow as the original recording but just as passionate especially as interpreted by Roy Hargrove on flugelhorn. Pianist Sullivan Fortner plays a solo intro based on Elmo Hope's original intro. The form is two choruses long. After the head, Sullivan solos on A1; Roy comes in at A2, soloing for eight measures and returning to the melody for the last four.
This is one of Roy Hargrove's last recordings; he died in November 2018. Eyes So Beautiful As Yours is one of only two quartet songs with Roy on this album; the rest of "Moments Preserved" features Sullivan Fortner in a trio setting. Though Sullivan performed regularly with Roy, this is their only recording together.
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...