Elmo Hope Quintet - Volume 2

A top pianist and composer who emerged during the bop era, Elmo Hope never gained the acclaim of his contemporaries Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk but he had a strong talent of his own. Hope first recorded as a leader in 1953 and made records as a sideman with Sonny Rollins, Lou Donaldson, Clifford Brown, and Jackie McLean. Originally released in June of 1954 on the Blue Note label, the Elmo Hope Quintet's Volume 2 features six of the leader's own hard bop compositions adapted to small-band interpretation with Frank Foster (tenor saxophone), Freeman Lee (trumpet), Percy Heath (bass) and Art Blakey (drums). As Leonard Feather's liners state, Volume 2, "lends further strength to the conviction that Elmo is a new star to watch in the jazz sky, one who will shine more brightly the longer he is seen and heard on the musical horizon."