Melvin Rhyne
Jazz & Blues Pianist / Organist
Inducted into the Indianapolis Jazz Hall of Fame in 2008
Melvin Rhyne
(October 12, 1936 – March 5, 2013)
Melvin Rhyne’s father was a self-taught pianist who taught the basic elements of boogie-woogie to his son. The Rhyne family often attended church where the spiritual music also made an imprint on Melvin. He, like so many others, attended Crispus Attucks High School where Russell Brown initially encouraged him to play the trombone. He played trombone in the band and orchestra but eventually returned to his first love - the piano. He joined a neighborhood band, The Monarchs, which was popular among the teenagers when they performed weekends at Walker Casino.
Rhyne would perform on Indiana Avenue nightly at the Cotton Club and George’s Bar. Earning a reputation on the Avenue, Rhyne would meet Wes Montgomery who invited him to join with he and Willis Kirk on drums at the Hub Bub Night Club. At 19 years old, Rhyne started playing piano with then-unknown tenor saxophonist Rahsaan Roland Kirk and quickly switched over to the instrument that would make him famous: the Hammond B3 organ. Rhyne's piano skills translated to the organ fluently and before long he was backing famous blues players like B.B. King and T-Bone Walker. In 1959 he was asked to join Wes Montgomery's newly formed trio at Jacque Durhams’ Missile Roon and it was during one of these performances that Cannonball Adderley strolled in to catch a set and discovered the performance of Wes and his group.
Rhyne then moved to Wisconsin and largely kept to himself for the next two decades. In 1991, however, he played on Herb Ellis's album Roll Call, Brian Lynch's At the Main Event, and his own album, The Legend. He continued to be prolific in the years to come, releasing eight more solo albums on the Criss Cross Jazz label. Rhyne also recorded with The Mark Ladley Trio for the 1992 release, Strictly Business and the 1994 release, Evidence. Both landed in the Jazz Charts at CMJ New Music Report and The Gavin Report. The group also appeared on a Jazziz Magazine sampler disc during that time. Altenburgh Records posthumously released Final Call in 2013 by the same group.
In 2008 Rhyne teamed up with fellow Indianapolis jazz musician Rob Dixon to form the Dixon-Rhyne Project, a boundary-pushing jazz quartet that also includes Chicago guitarist Fareed Haque and drummer Kenny Phelps. The quartet released the album Reinvention in 2008 on Indianapolis jazz label Owl Studios. Rhyne's later career trio included guitarist Peter Bernstein and drummer Kenny Washington in the same organ, guitar, and drum formation of the original Wes Montgomery Trio.
The Music of Melvin Rhyne
