St. Elmo Sylvester Hope (June 27, 1923 – May 19, 1967) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, chiefly in the bebop and hard bop genres.

He grew up playing and listening to jazz and classical music with Bud Powell, and both were close friends of another influential pianist, Thelonious Monk.

Hope survived being shot by police as a youth to become a New York-based musician who recorded with several emerging stars in the early to mid-1950s, including trumpeter Clifford Brown, and saxophonists John Coltrane, Lou Donaldson, Jackie McLean, and Sonny Rollins.

A long-term heroin user, Hope had his license to perform in New York's clubs withdrawn after a drug conviction, so he moved to Los Angeles in 1957.

[12] Hope's absence from the early bebop scene largely continued after he left the army, as he played principally in rhythm and blues bands for a few years.

"[21] This interest had expanded by June 1953, when Hope recorded in New York as part of a quintet led by trumpeter Clifford Brown and alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson.

[16] This resulted in the 10-inch album Elmo Hope Trio, which had Morris alumni Percy Heath on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums.

[16][17] The tracks recorded illustrated, according to critic Kenny Mathieson in 2012, that Hope was interested in the architecture and aural detail of the music more than in individual virtuosity.

This was followed by the sextet Informal Jazz the following year, with Donald Byrd (trumpet), John Coltrane and Hank Mobley (tenor saxophones), Paul Chambers (bass), and Jones (drums).

Some commentators have suggested that sessions such as this and the ones with Brown and Rollins were a hindrance to Hope's career: "He too often recorded with young, rising overshadowing talents" wrote a Buffalo Jazz Report reviewer in 1976.

[25] In April of the same year, Hope should have appeared on saxophonist Gene Ammons' The Happy Blues, but he left the record company's building before the session began and did not return.

[34] The trio album received a rare five-star review from Down Beat magazine, with the comment that Hope's aesthetic was "a sort of bitter-sweet melancholy that seems to lie at the core of other jazzmen [...] who sometimes find the world 'a bit much', as the English say, to cope with.

[35][39] His wife recounted that he was no longer working with Land, had recording offers from companies based on the East Coast, and still preferred it to Los Angeles, so the couple and their baby daughter moved to New York.

(1961), and another, released as Sounds from Rikers Island (1963) in reference to a New York City jail complex, featured performances exclusively by musicians who had at some point been imprisoned for drug-related crimes.

[35][54] Rosenthal observed that Hope's playing on one of his compositions for the 1953 Donaldson–Brown recording illustrated "many elements of the pianist's emerging style: somber, internally shifting chords in the introduction; punchy, twisting phrases in the solo; and the smoldering intensity that always characterized his best work.

[55] The Billboard reviewer of Hope's final recordings, as reissued in 1996, wrote that "he's dynamically smoother than Monk, with a spidery, spacy touch.

"[50] Coda critic Stuart Broomer also commented on Hope's touch, suggesting that it was unusual and light, and created a combination of delicacy and boldness that was all his own.

[56] Leonard Feather and Ira Gitler summarized Hope's abilities: he had "a style that parallels Powell, [...and] was a pianist and composer of rare harmonic acuity and very personal interpretation.

"[39] The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz states that Hope composed around 75 pieces of music, which "range in character from a tortuous nervousness to an introspective, semi-lyrical romanticism.

"[17] One example, "Minor Bertha", has an unusual 35-bar AABA form, with a nine-bar A-section that "utilizes unconventional rhythms and weakly functional harmonies which obscure its phrases.

"[17] The Penguin Jazz Guide commented that Hope's compositions were strongly melodic, with some containing concepts of fugue and canon taken from classical music, but retaining foundations in the blues.

[4] Hope, Powell, and Monk were considered by their contemporaries to be influences on each other early in their careers, and all, therefore, helped affect the development of jazz piano.

[59] Later pianists who have cited Hope as a major influence include Lafayette Gilchrist,[60] Alexander Hawkins,[61] Frank Hewitt,[62] and Hasaan Ibn Ali.

And upon his ideals, and knowing help was needed, he gave to companions Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell and many others.... [D]uring this time, so much being produced, so much being brought forth by the musicians, still he being the actual cause.