Bertha Hope

Bertha Hope-Booker (née Rosemond, born November 8, 1936, in Los Angeles, California) is an American jazz pianist and jazz educator. She is the widow of fellow pianist Elmo Hope, with whom she collaborated. She has toured Europe and Japan and played with a diverse group of artists. In the 1990s, she had her first CDs as a leader and additionally worked with her later husband, bassist Walter Booker.

Hope-Booker was born in Los Angeles in 1936. Both of her parents worked in the entertainment industry. Her mother, Corinne Meaux Rosemond, worked as a chorus line dancer and her father, Clinton Rosemond, was a stage manager and singer who had worked with Mabel Mercer and Eubie Blake. She began studying classical piano with her parents at the age of three. Her interested in jazz came from listening to Shelly Manne, Shorty Rogers and, most importantly, Bud Powell. Seeing Powell play at the Haig in the early 1950s influenced Hope-Booker’s decision to play jazz herself.

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