While I'm not really going to pretend to be an expert and probably can't tell you much that you can't figure out with a relatively quick Internetting, I will drop enough characters to let you know that ELMO HOPE was a fukkn beast, a tortured beast but a beast nonetheless. Contemporaries with Monk, shot by the pigs as a teenager, plagued by heroin, and blessed with an approach to jazz/bop piano that was truly his own, Hope died in 1967 after just 43 years on earth, but managed a legacy on influence that extended (extends) far beyond his years. Also, he recorded this motherfukkr in 1963 with an ensemble who were all veterans of Rikers Island. My first real exposure to jazz was from my boss on a graveyard bakery shift in Oklahoma...her partner was named Morris, and that fool played the shit out of the piano and we would all listen to jazz all night long, both of them schooling me and telling me stories just like I probably bore kids today foolish enough to feign interest in whatever I'm into. Morris fukkn loved ELMO HOPE, and this record swings and bangs hard, from the drum intro to "One For Joe" right through to the slightly off kilter "Kevin."
1 comment:
This is great. Really love all the jazz you've posting lately.
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