Personnel:

Mel Henke (p), Bill Newman (g), Bob Reed (b), Lou Singer, Shelly Manne, 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.

—Mel Henke, 1956

TRACKLIST:

CD 1

01. Dream A Little Dream Of Me (Kahn-Schwendt) 3:42

02. I Can't Give You Anything But Love (McHugh-Fields) 3:03

03. Sentimental Journey (Brown-Green) 2:32

04. Frankie & Johnny (Traditional) 3:43

05. Where Or When (Rodgers-Hart) 5:00

06. Sleepy Time Down South (Renee-Muse) 4:50

07. The Man I Love (G. & I. Gershwin) 5:48

08. Ain't Misbehavin' (Waller-Razaf) 3:15

09. Kammenoi Ostrow (Anton Rubinstein) 3:52

10. Four Deuces (Alex North) 2:57

11. Nola (Felix Arndt) 3:32

12. Liza (G. & I. Gershwin) 3:25

CD 2

01. In A Little Spanish Town (Wayne-Lewis-Young) 3:33

02. Little Rock Getaway (Joe Sullivan) 2:19

03. Mean To Me (Turk-Ahlert) 3:27

04. Toccata (Pietro Domenico Paradies) 2:25

05. Stardust (Carmichael-Parish) 3:34

06. Turkey In The Straw (Traditional) 1:29

07. Shock Treatment (Mel Henke) 2:21

08. Pennies From Heaven (Johnston-Burke) 2:26

09. Tea For Two (Youmans-Caesar) 3:40

10. I Surrender Dear (Barris-Clifford) 4:25

11. Cocky Coo-Coo Clock (Mel Henke) 2:27

12. In A Mist (BIx Beiderbecke) 4:25

13. Frenzied Flight (Mel Henke) 3:04

Sources:

CD 1, from the 12-inch album "Dig Mel Henke" (Contemporary C5001)

CD 2, from the 12-inch album "Now Spin This! Mel Henke, Vol.2" (Contemporary C5003)

Personnel on "Dig Mel Henke":

Mel Henke (piano), Bill Newman (guitar), Bob Reed (bass), Lou Singer (drums).

Recorded in Hollywood, November 15 & 19, 1954

Personnel on "Now Spin This!":

Mel Henke (piano), Bill Newman (guitar), Bob Reed (bass), Shelly Manne (drums), or Sammy Weiss (drums on #4,5,9).

Recorded in Hollywood, October 4, 5 & 10, 1955

Sound engineer: John Palladino

Recording supervisor: Roy DuNann

Photography: Alex de Paola, Tommy Mitchell & Pauline Annon

Cover design: Robert Guidi (Tri-Arts)

Liner notes: Mel Henke

Sessions originally produced by Lester Koenig

This compilation produced for CD release by Jordi Pujol

Mono · Digitally Remastered