Building a Library Zan Stewart
Blue Mitchell
lue Mitchell was awonderful career as aleader for Riverside Records Mainstream Records and made aseries mainstream jazz trumpeter in 1958, he was an unadulterated of albums that mostly emphasized the Bwho could deliver as pretty a jazzman, about to join the prestigious funk side of jazz, though the quintet melodic line as you'd like, and could do quintet of jazz great Horace Silver for a date Blue Mitchell (Mainstream, current- it with considerable rhythmic wham- seven-year ride. Then, in the late '60s, ly o.p.) was an exception. Subsequent my. Throughout much of his career, toward the end of his 1963-69 hitch albums, for RCA and what was then which ran from around 1950 until his with Blue Note Records when work was ABC/Impulse, were also intended to death from cancer in 1979, he offered his more spotty, he made apair of commer- appeal to acrossover audience, though own take on the approach espoused by cial-leaning albums: Collision in Black and they still had their appealing moments, the magnificent bebop trumpeter Fats Bantu Village (both currently out of print). such as the buoyant "Melody for Thel- Navarro, relaxedly playing one smoothly He subsequently toured with both blues- ma," from Stratosonic Nuances (RCA, cur- stated series of hip notes after another, man John Mayal! —where his front-line rently o.p.). But on two of his last employing grace and economy rather partner was Red Holloway, another recordings Mitchell did nothing but than virtuosic displays, all with awarm jazzman well versed in the rigors of blues play it pure: 1977's Mapenzi (Concord and glowing sound that caressed the ears. and R&B —and Ray Charles. Jazz, 044), where he co-leads with When Mitchell began his recording In the early '70s Mitchell signed with Harold Land, and 1978's Louie Bellson Jam with Blue Mitchell (Pablo/OJC 802). Perhaps this bouncing back and forth between styles, in what seemed acalcu- lated attempt by record labels (and maybe by Mitchell himself) to attract an audience, sell records, and sustain a career, cost the trumpeter his core fol- lowing. Whatever the reason, the result is that today —as when he was active — Mitchell remains one of the most under-recognized of major-league jazz- men. This was aman of huge talent who, at 18, could give tips about impro- vising to afellow, rising-star trumpeter named Nat Adderley; an artist who, as Horace Silver said recently, didn't know the ins and outs of harmony, "but man, he could hear all the right notes." Silver later called Mitchell and tenor- man Junior Cook, both of whom had performed and recorded with him from 1958 to 1964, his most versatile horn- men. "Blue and Junior played more well rounded than any front-line I've had," said Silver. "I could fully utilize my tal- ents in terms of writing. Icould write funky and they could handle that, solo- wise. A ballad, they could handle that. Hip, they could handle. Icould depend on them and we had alot of success." Sadly, that success never really came for Mitchell as aleader. Blue Mitchell's life ended far too early —he was only 49 when he died — but he did pack alot of musical living into those years. Born in Miami in 1930, he took up trumpet in high school at age 17, and was initially influenced by Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Fats
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