Billy Mitchell (saxophonist)


William Melvin Mitchell was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.

Career

Mitchell was born in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. He and his family moved to Detroit, where he received early music education at Cass Tech. He was known for his close association with trumpeter Thad Jones, who was also from Detroit, and worked in several big bands, including Woody Herman's when he replaced Gene Ammons. In 1949, Mitchell recorded with the Milt Buckner band, as well as making several recordings with Thad Jones.
From 1951 to 1954, Mitchell led the house band at the Blue Bird Inn in Detroit. The band operated in different configurations, including with drummer Oliver Jackson and his bassist brother Ali; as a quartet with Terry Pollard, Beans Richardson, and Elvin Jones; as a quintet including Thad Jones; and, for several months in 1953, with Miles Davis as a guest soloist.
From 1956 to 1957, he played with Dizzy Gillespie in his big band. From 1957 until 1961, and from 1966 to 1967, Mitchell played with Count Basie. In the early 1960s, he co-led a group with Al Grey, The Al Grey Billy Mitchell Sextet, which won the Down Beat magazine new band award in 1962. Mitchell performed and recorded with the Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big Band in Europe in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was musical director for Stevie Wonder for a short time during this period. From the mid-1970s, through 1997, he led his own quartet at the Long Island NY jazz club Sonny's Place.
He died in Rockville Centre in 2001 of lung cancer at the age of 74.
He is not to be confused with Billy Mitchell, the jazz pianist and keyboardist, whose career was with Optimism Records in the 1980s.

Discography

As leader

This Is Billy Mitchell A Little Juicy Now's the Time The Colossus of Detroit De Lawd's Blues
With Al CohnXanadu in Africa Night Flight to Dakar
With Al GreyDizzy Atmosphere Motor City Scene The Last of the Big Plungers The Thinking Man's Trombone The Al Grey - Billy Mitchell Sextet Snap Your Fingers

As sideman

With Count BasieBasie Plays Hefti Sing Along with Basie Basie One More Time Breakfast Dance and Barbecue Strike Up the Band Chairman of the Board Everyday I Have the Blues Dance Along with Basie Not Now, I'll Tell You When The Count Basie Story Kansas City Suite Count Basie/Sarah Vaughan Back with Basie Basie's Beat
With the Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big BandHandle with Care Now Hear Our Meanin' Off Limits November Girl with Carmen McRae
With Dizzy GillespieWorld Statesman Dizzy Gillespie at Newport Birks' Works Dizzy in Greece
With Milt JacksonMeet Milt Jackson Roll 'Em Bags Soul Brothers with Ray Charles
With others