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Elmo Hope: Trio and Quintet

By C. Michael Bailey
August 23, 2025
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Pianist and composer

Elmo Hope

piano
1923 - 1967

" data-original-title="" title="">Elmo Hope has more in common with

" data-original-title="" title="">Tadd Dameron than most of his other jazz peers. Both men were primarily composers and arrangers who concentrated on their own music rather than standards. Both men spent their professional lives in New York City during the twilight of bebop and the flourishing of hard bop. Neither man boasted large discographies as leaders, but appeared on a significant number of recordings as sidemen. Their careers were both shortened dramatically by drugs and neglect, with Hope dying in 1967 at 43, and Dameron in 1965 at 48.

Trio and Quintet was a 1989 CD release combining three recording sessions from 1953, 1954 and 1957 that produced the 10-inch LP titles, Elmo Hope Trio (Blue Note Records, 1954), Elmo Hope Quintet, Volume 2 (Blue Note Records, 1957) and Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers/The Elmo Hope Quintet Featuring Harold Land (Pacific Jazz, 1962). This cobbling together of sessions took advantage of the extended capacity of the CD to bring together under one release multiple sessions too short to be released individually. The result is an excellent cross-section of Hope's abilities as a trio and quintet leader and arranger.

Hope's trio sides reveal a composer and performer influenced by his association with

Thelonious Monk

piano
1917 - 1982

" data-original-title="" title="">Thelonious Monk, producing an elegant piano style like that of

Duke Ellington

piano
1899 - 1974

" data-original-title="" title="">Duke Ellington (with the blues aspects toned down). Hope, with bassist

Percy Heath

bass, acoustic
1923 - 2005

" data-original-title="" title="">Percy Heath and drummer

Philly Joe Jones

drums
1923 - 1985

" data-original-title="" title="">Philly Joe Jones, introduces the collection with a tightly arranged performance of

Irving Berlin

composer / conductor
1888 - 1989

" data-original-title="" title="">Irving Berlin's "It's a Lovely Day," where the leader expresses Monk's influence in dissonant left-hand bombs during the piece's crescendos. The pianist provides two readings of his "I Got Rhythm" contrafact, "Mo is On," each featuring his taught arranging and brief solo space for Jones. The head has rhythmic complexity predating its increased definition in hard bop. "Hot Sauce" demonstrates Hope's grasp of the panoramic and dramatic with cinematic-like cascades of notes and ideas.

The quintet selections reveal the expansion of Hope's informed arranging to the larger format. "Crazy" (and its alternate take) features trumpeter

Charles Freeman Lee

trumpet

" data-original-title="" title="">Charles Freeman Lee and tenor saxophonist

Frank Foster

saxophone
1928 - 2011

" data-original-title="" title="">Frank Foster recalling the Jazz Messengers, appropriately, with

Art Blakey

drums
1919 - 1990

" data-original-title="" title="">Art Blakey playing the drums and delivering a tasty break to contrast with Jones' trio drumming. "Later for You" shows Hope's contribution to the transition point between bebop and hard bop, with Foster's extended saxophone solo driving the rhythm section rather than the other way around. "St. Elmo's Fire" from Hope's Pacific Jazz release is the only blues of the collection. Bassist

Leroy Vinnegar

bass, acoustic
1928 - 1999

" data-original-title="" title="">Leroy Vinnegar's 4/4 coaxes the piece, providing tenor saxophonist

Harold Land

saxophone, tenor
1928 - 2001

" data-original-title="" title="">Harold Land and

Stu Williamson

trumpet
1933 - 1991

" data-original-title="" title="">Stu Williamson's muted trumpet plenty of solo space. Elmo Hope was and is certainly underappreciated, and like Dameron, he merits greater retrospective attention. This is transitional music produced when the evolution was rapid and productive.

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Track Listing

It��s A Lovely Day Today; Mo is On; Sweet And Lovely; Happy Hour; Hot Sauce; Stars Over Marrakech; Freffie; Carvin�� The Rock; I Remember You; Mo is On [alternate]; Crazy; Abdullah; Chips; Later for You; Low Tide; Maybe So; Crazy [alternate]; So Nice; St. Elmo��s Fire; Vaun Ex.

Personnel

Elmo Hope

piano

Charles Freeman Lee

trumpet

Stu Williamson

trumpet

Frank Foster

saxophone

Harold Land

saxophone, tenor

Percy Heath

bass, acoustic

Leroy Vinnegar

bass, acoustic

Art Blakey

drums

Philly Joe Jones

drums

Frank Butler

drums

Album information

Title: Trio and Quintet | Year Released: 1989 | Record Label: Blue Note Records

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