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Red Mitchell
Red was raised in New Jersey by a father who was an engineer and loved music, and a mother who loved poetry. His first instruments were piano, alto saxophone, and clarinet. Although Cornell University awarded an engineering scholarship to Mitchell, by 1947 he was in the US Army playing bass. The next year he was in a jazz trio in New York City.
Mitchell became known for performing and/or recording with Mundell Lowe, Chubby Jackson, Charlie Ventura, Woody Herman, Red Norvo, Gerry Mulligan, and, after joining the West Coast jazz scene in the early 1950s, with Andre Previn, Shelly Manne, Hampton Hawes, Billie Holiday, Ornette Coleman, and others. He also worked as a bassist in the TV and film studios around Los Angeles, occasionally appearing on screen. Mitchell also appeared in documentaries about Tal Farlow, and Zoot Sims.
Saxophonist Harold Land and Mitchell founded and co-led a quintet in the early 1960s. In 1966, Red began tuning his bass in fifths (as the violin, viola, and cello are tuned), and his tuning method opened up many possibilities for bassists.
Mitchell moved to Stockholm in 1968 and he won Swedish Grammy Awards in 1986 and 1991 for his recorded performances as a pianist, bassist, and vocalist, and for his compositions and poetic song lyrics.
During this period, Mitchell performed and/or recorded with Clark Terry, Lee Konitz, Herb Ellis, Jim Hall, Joe Pass, Kenny Barron, Hank Jones, Bill Mays, Warne Marsh, Jimmy Rowles, Phil Woods, Roger Kellaway, Putte Wickman and others. He frequently collaborated in duos, most notably with pianist Kellaway after the mid-1980s.
Returning to the United States in early 1992, Mitchell settled in Oregon where he died at age 65 later that year. A collection of his poetry was published posthumously. His widow is preparing a biography.
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Andre Previn and his pals Shelly Manne & Red Mitchell: West Side Story
by Richard J Salvucci
André Previn was always something of a mystery to jazz critics and listeners. By common consent, he had astonishing instrumental technique. On the other hand, a lot of listeners were sure they could hear everyone but Previn in his playing. Along with Shelly Manne, he sold a lot of records and probably made a good deal of money doing so. That alone would have been a problem for some--commercial success and jazz are not supposed to be compatible--but then Previn ...
Continue ReadingOrnette Coleman: Genesis of Genius: The Contemporary Albums
by Jeff Kaliss
For many an Ornette Coleman devotee, devotion was pledged with the singular saxophonist's The Shape of Jazz to Come (Atlantic). It was recorded in May and released in November of 1959, and it's a matter of when in our life we caught up with it. For some of us, that's when we first felt liberated by jazz. That album, produced by Nesuhi Ertegun, remains a hard act to follow, even for Coleman himself. Or to precede. But Hollywood ...
Continue ReadingRed Mitchell / Warne Marsh: Big Two
by Chris Mosey
In the 1950s, critics talked of East and West coast jazz. It was a way of playing the racial card, with East coast representing black, played from the gut; while West was white, played from the mind. As far as the dogmatists were concerned: East good, West bad. The word cerebral" became a term of abuse. No group of musicians was more cerebral than the one centered around Lennie Tristano, a pianist and teacher, based awkwardly in ...
Continue ReadingRed Mitchell / George Cables: Live at Port Townsend
by Ken Dryden
Piano/bass duos are not as commonplace as piano/bass/drums trios, probably because duos rarely make up a regularly working group. That doesn't mean that the frequently one-off recordings by duos aren't of immense interest. The remarkable duo concert featuring bassist Red Mitchell and pianist George Cables (who had never played together) turned out to be Mitchell's final recording, made only a few months prior to his death in 1992. No rehearsal took place, aside from a brief discussion ...
Continue ReadingCal Tjader: Plays Harold Arlen and West Side Story
by David Rickert
Like the recently reissued Our Blues, this double CD presents Cal Tjader before he seriously delved into the Latin tunes that made his name in jazz circles. Unlike the previous album, which presented the vibraphonist as a serious improviser, Tjader is content to let the songs take the center stage; about three-fourths of this CD features a string section in the background. The strategy works well. Tjader cuts loose on a few Arlen standards before settling into melodic passages on ...
Continue ReadingRed Mitchell: A Declaration of Interdependence
by Jack Bowers
An out–of–the–ordinary 1988 session by the “Red Mitchell Trio,” which, courtesy of modern technology, is composed of Red Mitchell on bass, Red Mitchell on piano and Red Mitchell on vocals. The “leader,” of course, was known primarily as a bassist (the past tense is used because he passed away in November ’92), but his “sidemen” are respectable enough, especially pianist Mitchell who has an uncluttered, easygoing style and sensitive touch that lend themselves well to the trio format. On the ...
Continue ReadingRed Mitchell and Tony Fruscella
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
After my post last week on trumpeter Tony Fruscella, reader Don Frese wrote and asked if knew of bassist Red Mitchell's vocalese rendition of Fruscella's recording of I'll Be Seeing You. That song appears on Fruscella's Tony Fruscella, recorded by Atlantic in April 1955. I wasn't aware of Mitchell's vocal so I tracked it down and gave a listen. I was astonished. Before I share with you how this recording came to be, let's listen to the two tracks. Here's ...
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Jim Hall And Red Mitchell - "Live At Sweet Basil 1978" Released On ArtistShare And Submitted For Grammy Nomination Consideration
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Brian Camelio
Considered by many to be the father of modern jazz guitar," Jim Hall is revered by peers and audiences around the world. The previously unreleased recording, Valse Hot – Sweet Basil 1978, captures the exciting, spontaneous musical dialogue between Jim Hall and bassist Red Mitchell, featuring the legendary duo’s inventive and lyrical approach to jazz standards. One listen and you will agree that it is quite possibly the greatest jazz guitar recording in history. Hear Jim and Red tear it ...
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Weekend Extra: Dizzy Gillespie and Red Mitchell
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Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
The image to the left captures a moment in a short, happy period in thehistories of two major figures in the jazz of the late twentieth century. In 1970 bassist Red Mitchell joined Dizzy Gillespie’s quintet for a European tour that included concerts in Holland and France. When I recently visited Mike Longo in New York, he recalled the tour as one of the highlights of his eight years as Gillespie’s pianist and music director. Guitarist George Davis and drummer ...
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Listen to the Bass Player: Part 5, Red Mitchell
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Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
In the first paragraph of Part 3 of this series, it was not by random choice that I included Red Mitchell's name in the short list of important bassists who emerged in the 1940s. He discovered ways of playing the instrument that made a difference in the bass's role in jazz. Bill Crow, the hero of part 3, has kindly agreed to expand on some of the reasons for Mitchell's importance.
In between the Blanton (and Pettiford) soloing styles that ...read more
Bill Mays and Red Mitchell
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Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Bill Mays and Red Mitchell constituted one of the great piano-bass duos of the 1980s. Musicians and dedicated listeners still talk about their gigs at Bradley's in New York's Greenwich Village. Their album Two of a Mind has been out of print for years, although it shows up from time to time on web sites including this one, at prices ranging from high to heart-stopping. In 1982, Mays and Mitchell made two programs that ran on KCET, the Los Angeles ...
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