Blue Mitchell

Owner of a direct, lightly swinging tone that fit right in with the Blue Note label’s hard bop ethos of the 1960s, Richard Allen “Blue” Mitchell tends to be overlooked today despite his undeniable talent. After learning the trumpet in high school — where he got his nickname — he started touring in the early ’50s with the R&B bands of Paul Williams, Earl Bostic, and Chuck Willis before returning to Miami and jazz. There, he attracted the attention of Cannonball Adderley, with whom he recorded for Riverside in 1958. That year, he joined the Horace Silver Quintet, with whom he played and recorded until 1964, polishing his hard bop skills. During his Silver days, Mitchell worked with tenor Junior Cook, bassist Gene Taylor, drummer Roy Brooks, and various pianists as a separate unit and continued recording as a leader for Riverside. When Silver disbanded, Mitchell’s spinoff quintet carried on with Al Foster replacing Brooks and a young future star named Chick Corea in the piano chair. This group, with several personnel changes, continued until 1969, recording a string of albums for Blue Note including The Thing To Do, Down With It!, Bring It Home To Me, and Boss Horn. As he moved into funkier territory with his albums Heads Up! and Bantu Village, Mitchell also became a prolific pop and soul session man in the late ’60s, and he toured with Ray Charles from 1969 to 1971 and blues/rock guitarist John Mayall in 1971-1973. Having settled in Los Angeles, he also played big-band dates with Louie Bellson, Bill Holman, and Bill Berry; made a number of funk and pop/jazz LPs in the late ’70s; served as principal soloist for Tony Bennett and Lena Horne; and kept his hand in hard bop by playing with Harold Land in a quintet. He continued to freelance in this multifaceted fashion until his premature death from cancer at age 49.