 BLUE MITCHELL - BANTU VILLAGE - CD - SOUL BROTHER - NEW - £12.99
BLUE MITCHELL – SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Richard Allen Mitchell, better known as ‘Blue’ Mitchell was born in Miami Florida on March 13 1930 and passed away from cancer forty nine years later on May 21 1979. He recorded over 30 albums of fine Hard Bop and Soul Jazz music, primarily for the Riverside, Blue Note and Mainstream labels.
Mitchell’s early grounding was in Rhythm and Blues where the trumpeter played with the likes of Paul Williams, Earl Bostic and Chuck Willis. Mitchell’s big chance came when Orrin Keepnews brought him to New York to record A Portrait of Cannonball with Cannonball Adderley on Keepnews’ Riverside label. The same year Blue Mitchell recorded his first solo album Big 6 for that label. He went on to record seven albums for Riverside in a four year stint.
The same year Mitchell joined the Horace Silver Quintet and alongside tenor saxophonist Junior Cook provided Silver with a muscular and soulful horn section. Cook and Mitchell recorded on some of Horace Silver’s finest albums such as Cape Verdean Blues, Blowin the Blues Away, and The Tokyo Blues. He stayed with Silver’s quintet for six years.
Blue’s smooth and rich tones suit the mood of Soul Jazz perfectly. He can play hard like the best of them – witness his solo on Horace Silver’s Filthy McNasty – or he can play warm and soft with unrivalled beauty.
Blue Mitchell recorded eight albums for Blue Note Records between 1963 and 1969 and Bantu Village is the last of those eight, though 1963’s Step Lightly did not earn a release until after his death.
After a two year stint touring with Ray Charles, Mitchell signed for Bob Shad’s Mainstream Record label in 1971 and recorded six albums of funky Jazz one of which included a sublime version of Cymande’s The Message.
Subsequently he released albums on RCA and ABC Impulse, as well as the highly regarded Mapenzi with the Harold Land/ Blue Mitchell Quintet for Concord Jazz in 1977.
His last album Summer Soft highlighted his lyricism, but proved to be his swan song as the cancer that he succumbed to in 1979 forced his retirement in the October of the previous year.
BLUE MITCHELL - BANTU VILLAGE
Bantu refers to a large category of African languages or more generally as a general label for 300 – 600 ethnic groups in Africa who speak one of the Bantu languages. Blue Mitchell’s Bantu Village is inspired by those African roots and his trumpet playing is as expressive and eloquent as any verbal language.
Monk Higgins’ arrangements reflect the Soul influenced Jazz of their time. Mitchell recorded Bantu Village on successive days May 22 and May 23 1969 with two slightly different bands. On 22nd the rhythm section consisted of John Guerin (drums), Bob West (bass) and Alan Estes (conga). They are replaced by Paul Humphrey, Wilton Felder and King Errison, respectively on the second date. The horn section, pianist Monk Higgins and rhythm guitarist Freddy Robinson play on both sessions.
The second date delivered the funkier session and features H.N.I.C that owes a passing nod to the Isley Brothers’ It’s Your Thing and the slower Bantu Village. It also produced the huge dance track Na Ta Ka that garnered much interest during the Jazz dance era of the eighties and early nineties.
The first session has its moments such as the infectious Funk of Heads Down and the slower Soul fuelled Blue Dashiki. Throughout Mitchell’s rich warm tone shines on a series of Soul orientated grooves that musically hark back to a simpler place in time and space.
We are delighted to release Bantu Village on CD for the first time, remastered from the original masters, in our classic album series. This album is the first in a series of classic Blue Note albums that we plan to release over the next couple of years.
Malcolm Prangell
June 2011.
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