Mel Henke

Featuring: Mel Henke (p), Bill Newman (g), Bob Reed (b), Lou Singer, Shelly Manne or Sammy Weiss (d)

About the things I play: I’d say my treatment of tunes should be classed as repertoire rather than a particular jazz style. This is probably due to the fact that years ago when I first started to play jazz, I would imitate various jazz greats such as Earl Hines, Tatum, and Cleo Brown. (She was the first musician I’d ever heard who played eight-beat piano.) With imitation we can come close but we never really achieve what we try to achieve by imitation, at least I didn’t. So I started to develop each tune as an individual composition rather than trying to play every tune in the same style. I had the best luck with this kind of approach, and now I have a repertoire built up over twenty years… Incidentally, I usually write the piano parts out note for note even though when I play I never work from the music. This is a kick I got on years ago. I think we get the sound we do because a lot of our stuff is worked out carefully. It isn’t what you’d call free improvisation.

Track Listing:

CD 1
01. Dream A Little Dream Of Me
02. I Can’t Give You Anything But Love
03. Sentimental Journey
04. Frankie & Johnny
05. Where Or When
06. Sleepy Time Down South
07. The Man I Love
08. Ain’t Misbehavin’
09 Kammenoi Ostrow
10. Four Deuces
11. Nola
12. Liza

CD 2
01. In A Little Spanish Town
02. Little Rock Getaway
03. Mean To Me
04. Toccata
05. Stardust
06. Turkey In The Straw
07. Shock Treatment
08. Pennies From Heaven
09. Tea For Two
10. I Surrender Dear 5
11. Cocky Coo-Coo Clock
12. In A Mist
13. Frenzied Flight

Sessions recorded in Hollywood, between November, 1954 and October, 1955