Driving down Elmo...

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

"ELMO HOPE honored with ELMO HOPE WAY

JAZZ PIANIST, COMPOSER AND ARRANGER ELMO HOPE HONORED IN SOUTH BRONX STREET CO-NAMING CEREMONY NEW YORK, NY
Elmo Hope, one of the forerunners of the Be-Bop style of Jazz, will be honored with a sign unveiling ceremony on Saturday, September 10, 2016 at 11 :00 am, when Lyman Place, Bronx, New York, will be co-named Elmo Hope Way - Jazz Pioneer. The sign unveiling will be on Lyman Place between Freeman Street and East 169th Street/Rev. James Polite Avenue. Immediately following, the Bronx Music Heritage Center, founded by Bobby Sanabria and Elena Martinez, will host a reception. The Jazz Foundation of New York is sponsoring the musical performance at BMHC by jazz pianist and educator, Bertha Hope, who will perform Elmo's compositions with her band, Nu-Trio."

A tad late with this but I've only just seen a picture of Elmo's very own street sign! Long overdue. Can we soon expect similar in London... "Tubby Hayes Terrace"...."Stan's Street"...."Dudu Drive".... " Ron Coltrane Parking Lot"...

BN.

[eighthobstruction]

....excellent....

[Ian Thumwood]

It is intriguing to see percussionist and bandleader Bobby Sanabria's name in this article. He is usually associated with Latin jazz and the Manhatten Music School. Both his own ensembles and the school Latin big band under his name are well worth checking out. Sanabria seems big on jazz heritage and has done a lot to raise the profile of the music about which he passionately believes. I have heard him speak enthusiastically about the likes of Art Blakey, Tito Puente and Machito but I would never had particularly associated him with Elmo Hope. Sanabria is a bandleader is performs with honesty and integrity but it is strange just how little he seems to be known in the UK. For my money, he is one of the main men in Latin Jazz at the current point in time and probably taken over form Dizzy Gillespie as the greatest exponent of this oeuvre in this century. Imagine a Latin version of the current Mingus Big Band and you will get a good impression.

[elmo]

Nice to have some good news coming out of the US......


The legend Elmo Hope on The Block Where He Lived

Posted on 16 September 2016.

by Corinna Burford


The new Elmo Hope Way street sign

Lyman Place was co-named during a ceremony last Saturday to honor the legendary jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, Elmo Hope. Its now called ‘Elmo Hope Way – Jazz Pioneer.’

Local Bronx residents, historians, musicians, and extended family gathered to celebrate Hope’s legacy, through speeches and musical tributes. Even in the sticky heat, everybody wore their Sunday best and bounced to the jazz rhythms of Jimmy Owens on trumpet and George Braith on Saxophone.

Jazz drummers Bobby Sanabria and T.S. Monk shared personal anecdotes about Hope’s impact on their careers and Mark Naison, who is a professor of history at Fordham University, discussed Hope’s contributions – both cultural and personal – to the local community. Hope is a key figure in Naison’s book “Before The Fires: An Oral History of African American Life in The Bronx”.

“Elmo Hope was at the center of what happened on this block,” said Naison.

Following the ceremony, the party continued in the air-conditioning of the Bronx Music Heritage Center, with a live performance by pianist Bertha Hope, Elmo Hope’s wife.

The son of Caribbean immigrant parents, Hope grew up in New York City and spent many years living on Lyman Place in an apartment building between Freeman and 169th Streets. For two years in the early 1960s, the block was also home to his close friend, another jazz legend, Thelonious Monk.

“Thelonious Monk didn’t use the word genius very often,” his son, T.S. Monk, told the crowd of 30 Bronx residents and jazz fans. “But he said that Elmo was a genius.” “Nobody recognizes genius like another genius.”

In his 20-year career, Hope performed on over 70 albums, including the early works of John Coltrane. He is knows to many as one of the creators of hardbop – a more aggressive of evolution of bebop.

“The contributions of this man have been so important to the history of jazz,” Monk said, “that the city of New York and the citizens of Lyman Place feel that it is absolutely necessary to name this area for the late, great Elmo Hope.”

© 2016 The Bronx Ink.

elmo