Homecoming!

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Homecoming!
Studio album by Elmo Hope

Publication
(s)

1961

Label (s) Riverside , Fantasy Records

Format (s)

LP / CD

Genre (s)

jazz

Title (number)

7/9

running time

39:18 (LP), 59:30 (CD)

occupation

production

Orrin Keepnews , Bill Grauer

Studio (s)

Bell Sound Studios, New York City

chronology
High Hope
(1961) 		Homecoming! Hope Full
(1962)

Elmo Hope Sextet and Trio - Homecoming! is a jazz album by Elmo Hope , recorded in New York City on June 22nd (sextet) and 29th (trio) June 1961. The recordings were first released on the Riverside Records label and later on Fantasy and in 1998 in an expanded version under the title The All-Star Sessions on Milestone Records .

The music of the album

The homecoming! -Session refers in the title to the fact that the pianist and composer Elmo Hope came to New York to record on Orrin Keepnews ' label Riverside Records after a lengthy - commercially unsuccessful - stay in Los Angeles . His trio partners Percy Heath and Philly Joe Jones were there ; trumpeter Blue Mitchell and the two tenor saxophonists Frank Foster and Jimmy Heath also took part in the session in sextet line-up, in which four of the seven tracks on the LP were created a week earlier .

Percy and Jimmy Heath

Philly Joe Jones and Percy Heath had already been Elmo Hope's accompanist in the early 1950s when he made an album on Blue Note Records ( Trio and Quintet ); Percy's brother Jimmy Heath and Blue Mitchell had also recorded with the pianist during this period. For Frank Foster it was the first recording session outside of his membership in the Count Basie Orchestra ; According to Ira Gitler , these recordings demonstrate his musical maturation process, just as Elmo Hope had grown, so that comparisons with Bud Powell are no longer necessary.

The album begins with the sextet number Moe Jr. , which Elmo Hope dedicated to his son, a cheerfully swinging number associated with Tadd Dameron's bop compositions . In his commentary, Ira Gitler particularly emphasizes the composition A Kiss for My Love ; it is “just as harmoniously provocative as it is melodically attractive.” The changes also did not always go in the expected direction, which makes the piece increasingly interesting. Blue Mitchell plays the main melodic voice, with Hope, Foster and Jimmy Heath following each other in the solos. Gitler describes the "dark beauty" of Eyes So Beautiful As Yours , in which Jimmy Heath takes over the lead voice, as another highlight . Elmo Hope's solo, Gitler quotes the critic John Tynan, expresses "the essence of Hope [...], a kind of bittersweet melancholy [...]".

One week later Hope played his four compositions La Berthe, Homecoming, One Mo 'Blues and Imagination in trio ; La Berthe was a reference to his wife Bertha Hope and, according to Ira Gitler, evoked associations with the jazz avant-garde without losing its foundation. One Mo 'Blues is a slow blues ; Imagination is his personal interpretation of a standards ballad.

review

Allmusic awarded the album four (out of five) stars and commented on the recordings,

" The Dameron-esque bop numbers sizzle and weave and the tenor work of Frank Foster is especially rewarding on the album's bouncing opener, Moe, Jr., take four on the CD. The three ballads are equally fresh and less doom-ridden than comparable performances found elsewhere in his catalog. Expect fine performances by all. This great hard bop record is highly recommended. "

Richard Cook and Brian Morton rated it 3½ (out of four) stars and praised the intelligent arrangements on this "very nice album".

Brian Priestley highlighted the album in the Elmo Hope discography and particularly mentioned the unusually structured La Bertha and the lyrical A Kiss for My Love among its compositions .

List of titles

  1. Moe, Jr. (take 4) - 5:52
  2. Moe, Jr. (take 2) - 4:37 (alternate take)
  3. La Berthe - 3:10
  4. Eyes So Beautiful As Yours - 6:28
  5. Homecoming - 5:04
  6. One Mo 'Blues - 6:44
  7. A Kiss for My Love (take 5) - 5:29
  8. A Kiss for My Love (take 4) - 5:35 (alternate take)
  9. Imagination ( Johnny Burke - Jimmy Van Heusen ) - 6:39
  • All other compositions are by Elmo Hope.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ The titles of the LP also appeared (except for the title Moe, Jr. (take 4), for which the alternate take 2 was chosen) on the album Elmo Hope - The All-Star Sessions ( Milestone M 47037), coupled with one Session Hopes with trumpeter Donald Byrd and tenor saxophonists John Coltrane and Hank Mobley .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Riverside Records Diskography 1961 at jazzdiscography.org
  2. ↑ a b c d Cf. the liner notes by Ira Gitler .
  3. ↑ a b Review of the Homecoming album ! by Brandon Burke at Allmusic (English). Retrieved June 18, 2011.
  4. ↑ Elmo Hope discography ( memento of the original from March 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.attictoys.com
  5. ↑ Cook & Morton, Penguin Guide to Jazz, 6th Edition, 2003. pp.
  6. ^ Brian Priestley , Digby Fairweather , Ian Carr: Jazz: Rough Guide. Rough Guides 1995, ISBN 1-84353-256-5 . P. 305.