Elmo Hope: "Hope Meets Foster"

Tonight's Jazz Feature is a very fine recording from the mid-fifties that typifies New York modern Jazz of the time. The people involved are the leader, legendary pianist/composer Elmo Hope who in many ways is as important to the development of piano as Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell although he didn't get the same notoriety. For the fist 3 tunes the group is a quintet with tenor saxophone great Frank Foster and a fine lesser known trumpeter named Freeman Lee. On bass is John Ore and on drums is New York's Arthur Taylor. The set was done for Prestige Records in on Oct.4, 1955. The quintet plays one composition by Hope and 2 by Foster. That is the formal part of the date. The final 3 tunes are by Foster, Hope, Ore and Taylor and are all likely first takes created on the spot. Both sets are solid Jazz without compromise and bring in all the qualities of great Jazz....good solos, cohesion, swing and assertive playing by all. This was an album I grew up with and is still meaningful to me and I hope it is to you. Enjoy "Hope Meets Foster".