Happy Hour – Elmo Hope
A medium swing that uses plenty of swing and bebop language to create a sparkling sound.
- Recording: Elmo Hope - New Faces-New Sounds: Elmo Hope Trio
- Recorded on: June 18, 1953
- Label: Blue Note (BLP 5029 10" LP)
- Concert Key: A-flat
- Style: Swing (medium)
- Piano - Elmo Hope
- Bass - Percy Heath
- Drums - Philly Joe Jones
Video
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Elmo Hope's HAPPY HOUR performed by Eric Borczuk, clarinet; Sam Glick, guitar; Ben Caine, piano; Greg Momjian, bass; Cameron Johnson, drums. May 3, 2015, at the jazzleadsheets.com studio.
On June 9, 1953, Elmo did his first Blue Note recording as a sideman on a Lou Donaldson date that featured Clifford Brown. This was recorded at WOR Studios in NYC. Nine days later, Elmo made his first trip to Hackensack, New Jersey, to record his own date for Blue Note (it was Elmo's first date as a leader) in the legendary living room studio of Rudy Van Gelder's parents' house. This was a trio date, New Faces, New Sounds, and the first composition they recorded on that day was Happy Hour.
For more details about Elmo Hope's recordings, check out the Elmo Hope Discography on Noal Cohen's 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...