Elmo Hope and Sonny Rollins co-wrote "Bellarosa" while both were at Rikers Island around 1950. Rollins recalled naming the tune after a friend of Hope's named Rosemary. Hope first recorded the composition in 1953 with Lou Donaldson and Clifford Brown, marking Brown's very first recorded jazz solo. The piece exemplifies the hard bop style that would emerge from bebop.
