Quintessential Elmo Hope: a relentlessly intricate bebop song, full of melodic interest in its twisting and turning lines. It has that plaintive lilt heard in many other of his minor-key compositions, such as
Crazy and
Minor Bertha. What really gives
Hot Sauce its kick is a two-measure rhythmic figure starting in the fifth measure of the A and C sections. These rhythmic hits are also played as an intro, three times plus a break; the coda is the same (with a pause and final chord instead of a break) but starting four measures before the end of the form.
Though the form is AABC, the melody is different in the first two and last two measures of the two A sections. C is like the first A but the last two measures are a break. The A section changes on the head are based on a stepwise descending cycle from C down to G, with a III-VI7-II-V7 cadence in the third and fourth measures which brings an unexpected parallel major sound. The bridge has a descending series of II-V7s eventually landing in G♭ major before a final G7. The stepwise descending cycles are not played in the solo choruses, and on the recording Elmo really skims over the changes, sometimes barely touching the Em7 and A7 (III-VI7) in the third measure.
Our bass clef lead sheet has a couple of phrases in the bridge written an octave higher to be less difficult for trombone. Click on Piano Corner and Bass Corner for details about our piano and bass parts. In a trio setting, drummers can read either part.
"New Faces, New Sounds, Vol.1" was recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's legendary
Hackensack Studio.
With this song (plus the trio version of
Carvin' The Rock) we now have all the Elmo Hope compositions from his
first session as a leader. Besides six originals, Elmo, Percy Heath, and
Philly Joe Jones also recorded three standards at this session:
Sweet And Lovely, I Remember You, and
It's A Lovely Day Today.
Elmo recorded this song again eight years later on the album "
Here's Hope," featuring Philly Joe Jones again with
Paul Chambers on bass. This later version is even faster; Elmo improvises around the melody on both the in and out choruses, playing the first two measures of each section similar to the first version and then taking the lines in different directions.
Freffie and
Stars Over Marrakesh were also recorded on both of these sessions.
For more details about Elmo Hope's recordings, check out the
Elmo Hope Discography on Noal Cohen's Jazz History website.
Our piano part reflects how Elmo Hope plays the melody on this first recording. It's written in the range where he plays it—an octave above the C treble clef lead sheet. The rhythmic hits are voiced with a third below. In the intro he plays each repeat of this same figure an octave higher than the last; in the coda he reverses the order with the first phrase in the middle octave, the second low and the third phrase highest. The left hand is notated for the bridge, including all single-note figures; left-hand chords here are shown as rhythmic hits.
Our bass part is a melody part which also shows the bass rhythms for the intro, and for the rhythmic hits elsewhere in the head, as played on this recording. Because the rhythms are quite fast, a couple of notes played by the piano and drums in these figures are omitted from the bass line. In the last two measures of the bridge, the bass plays syncopated figures (beat 1 and the "and" of 2), going to half notes in the first two measures of C and then back to walking. This is also shown in the piano part.
