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Pioneering Jazz Pianist Elmo Hope Could Be Honored in Bronx Street Naming

By Eddie Small | February 11, 2016 11:05am
 Pioneering jazz pianist Elmo Hope spends some time with his daughter Monica.
Pioneering jazz pianist Elmo Hope spends some time with his daughter Monica.
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Hope Family

MORRISANIA — Pioneering jazz pianist Elmo Hope could soon have his own street in the South Bronx as part of an ongoing effort to pay tribute to the region's notable contributions to the music genre.

Bronx Community Board 3 voted unanimously in favor of naming Lyman Place between Freeman Street and E. 169th Street after the jazz pianist and composer on Tuesday after hearing moving testimony from his wife, Bertha Hope, a famous jazz pianist in her own right.

"It's really very exciting," she said. "It means that people are going to see his name and associate him with an area that is trying to come back to its glory days.

"He did not get the recognition while he was alive that he really deserved," she continued.

Elmo was born in 1923, started studying the piano when he was 7, began making a name for himself as a musician by age 14 and eventually became known as part of the "triumvirate of be-bop" with his fellow jazz pianists Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, according to a biography put together by his daughter Monica Hope.

His albums include "Hope-Full," "Homecoming!" and "Sounds from Rikers Island," which explores themes like drug addiction and hopelessness, according to AllMusic.

Elmo passed away in 1967 at the age of 43, when Monica Hope was only 6 years old. She described the board's vote to honor him as incredible and moving, and almost left her in tears.

"Once this goes all the way through, they’ll be able to walk by and look up at that sign and say, 'Oh, Elmo Hope, that's really interesting. I wonder who he is,'" she said, "and maybe they’ll go home and Google him and find out more about him and go to Amazon and go to iTunes and listen to his music and download some things."

Community Board 3 has previously voted to name streets in the district after jazz trumpeter Henry "Red" Allen and jazz singer Maxine Sullivan, and the City Council recently voted to pay tribute to the borough's contributions to hip-hop by co-naming a portion of Sedgwick Avenue Hip-Hop Boulevard.

The official name of Elmo's street would be "Elmo Hope Way—Jazz Pioneer," and jazz enthusiast Bob Gumbs said he was very happy that the community board approved giving the pianist this honor.

"It's another recognition of the jazz legacy of Morrisania," he said, "which is very important for people to know."