Low Tide – Elmo Hope
A nuanced medium swing that shows Elmo Hope's harmonic genius. Two recordings: lead sheets, quintet parts and solo piano arrangement available.
- Recording: Elmo Hope - New Faces-New Sounds: Elmo Hope Quintet, vol.2
- Recorded on: May 9, 1954
- Label: Blue Note (BLP 5044 10" LP)
- Concert Key: C
- Style: Swing (medium)
- Trumpet - Freeman Lee
- Tenor Sax - Frank Foster
- Piano - Elmo Hope
- Bass - Percy Heath
- Drums - Art Blakey
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Low Tide seems like an easy swing in all senses of the word: the melody is simple, easy to learn and it has an easygoing swing groove. But it's far more than that: it's based on an eight-measure harmonic progression that was far ahead of its time in complexity and modernity. What seems like a simple melody is actually a repeating note that works with every chord under it. The result is an unconventional swing that pushes soloists into new, unexpected, and delightfully surprising places.
Available Editions: This composition evolved somewhat over time, so we're releasing editions from two separate dates. The first recording was done by a quintet; we've made available the condensed score in concert C treble clef (melody, harmony, and introduction; best for rhythm section players) and first and second parts for each instrument. There is no second part for trombone because the second part is above the melody, making it too high for the instrument.
Available Editions: This composition evolved somewhat over time, so we're releasing editions from two separate dates. The first recording was done by a quintet; we've made available the condensed score in concert C treble clef (melody, harmony, and introduction; best for rhythm section players) and first and second parts for each instrument. There is no second part for trombone because the second part is above the melody, making it too high for the instrument.
"New Faces, New Sounds, Vol.2" was recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's legendary Hackensack Studio.
After quite a few recordings with Joe Morris in the 1940s and early 1950s, Elmo played on a Blue Note date with Lou Donaldson and Clifford Brown. A year later he had his own leader date on Blue Note, this album. Alfred Lion, Blue Note's founder, was a great judge of talent.
Bertha Hope, Elmo's widow, also recorded Low Tide on her album "Elmo's Fire"
in 1991.
Check out Bertha talking about Elmo and his life in California with bassist Putter Smith and saxophonist Jerry Dodgion on our YouTube channel: Interpreting Elmo Hope's Compositions.
For more details about Elmo Hope's recordings, check out the Elmo Hope Discography on Noal Cohen's Jazz History website.
Don Sickler's Octet arrangement, recorded by "Superblue," is available at MusicDispatch.com and other music dealers.
After quite a few recordings with Joe Morris in the 1940s and early 1950s, Elmo played on a Blue Note date with Lou Donaldson and Clifford Brown. A year later he had his own leader date on Blue Note, this album. Alfred Lion, Blue Note's founder, was a great judge of talent.
Bertha Hope, Elmo's widow, also recorded Low Tide on her album "Elmo's Fire"
in 1991.Check out Bertha talking about Elmo and his life in California with bassist Putter Smith and saxophonist Jerry Dodgion on our YouTube channel: Interpreting Elmo Hope's Compositions.
For more details about Elmo Hope's recordings, check out the Elmo Hope Discography on Noal Cohen's Jazz History website.
Don Sickler's Octet arrangement, recorded by "Superblue," is available at MusicDispatch.com and other music dealers.
Solo Piano Arrangement: Arranged by Bertha Hope, the solo piano arrangement of Low Tide presents the melody three times, each time slightly differently, with changing harmonies. This intermediate-level arrangement offers an example of how to make the most of the appealing harmonic alterations under the repeating melodic pattern. The featured "Hope Is In The Air"
recording is quite similar to this arrangement; make sure to download it if you're getting the solo piano arrangement so you can hear how to master this piece.
recording is quite similar to this arrangement; make sure to download it if you're getting the solo piano arrangement so you can hear how to master this piece. - Recording: New Stories - Hope Is In The Air
- Recorded on: April 28, 1998
- Label: Origin (82434)
- Concert Key: C
- Style: Swing (medium)
- Piano - Bertha Hope
- Bass - Doug Miller
- Drums - John Bishop
This composition evolved somewhat over time, so we're releasing editions from two separate dates. Elmo changed the melody slightly from his first quintet version ("New Faces-New Sounds" in 1954) for his trio recording in 1961 (Celebrity LP209). Elmo's Celebrity recording is not currently available. However, because this became the enduring version, our lead sheet editions here are of his revised melody as played on the 1961 album. Bertha Hope, Elmo's widow, recorded Low Tide herself with the revised melody; her version with the "New Stories" bassist and drummer featured here provides a good example of how to phrase and perform the piece.
In 1998 the New Stories Trio (pianist Marc Seales with Doug Miller and John Bishop) came to New York from Seattle, Washington, on the urging of Don Sickler. Don wanted them to play the music of Elmo Hope with the fiery New York alto saxophonist Bobby Porcelli. The meeting of West Coast musicians with the East Coast, in the recording studio of jazz engineer Rudy Van Gelder, proved successful and produced the album "Hope Is In The Air." Bertha Hope, Elmo's widow and also a pianist, lives in New York. Don wanted to include her in the project, so she came to the studio one day and recorded this trio version of Low Tide.
Solo Piano Arrangement: Arranged by Bertha Hope, the solo piano arrangement of Low Tide presents the melody three times, each time slightly differently, with changing harmonies. This intermediate-level arrangement offers an example of how to make the most of the appealing harmonic alterations under the repeating melodic pattern. The featured "Hope Is In The Air" recording is quite similar to this arrangement; make sure to download it if you're getting the solo piano arrangement so you can hear how to master this piece.
recording is quite similar to this arrangement; make sure to download it if you're getting the solo piano arrangement so you can hear how to master this piece. 
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...