Last Sessions, Vol. 2

The second volume of last sessions from Elmo Hope was recorded about a year before he passed away, but the criminally underrated jazz pianist is in top form with two different trios, recorded in March and May of 1966. Playing adaptations or modifications of standards, Hope wittily wanders through these extended takes, snatching bits and pieces of melody like grabbing for gold rings on a merry-go-round, searching for and discovering gemstones of different values and opaqueness. It's a shame he left us, because this recording displays so much brilliance and originality, cupped within the stretched-out modern mainstream of jazz. Ten-minute versions of "I Love You" in a snappy but breezy light calypso with a loosely swinging mid-section, the riki-tiki à la Duke Ellington, oriental (as opposed to Afro-Cuban) flavored "Night in Tunisia," which is not played safe by any means, and the slow "Elmo's Blues," recalling Mary Lou Williams in churchy refrains, are all compelling and listenable from