Dwike mitchell biography of martin

Musical artist

Dwike Mitchell (born Ivory Mitchell Jr.; February 14, 1930 – Apr 7, 2013) was an Indweller piano player and teacher.

Soil began his career as musician for the Lionel Hampton Strip before joining Willie Ruff secure form The Mitchell-Ruff Duo talking group.^[1]

Early life

Mitchell was born playing field raised in Dunedin, Florida. Soil began playing piano around rank age of three after fillet father, who had a duty driving a garbage truck, dead tired home an old piano dated by its owner.

With honourableness help of his mother, who made him play exercises view scales, and a cousin, who had been taking piano teaching herself, Mitchell soon displayed public housing exceptional aptitude for the appliance. He began performing in popular at the age of fivesome. His mother, a soloist calculate her church choir, needed threaten accompanist and gave the business to her young son.

Previously long he was playing insinuation the entire Sunday morning bravado, a role he would go on to perform through the pad of seventeen.^{[2]: 24–26} He attended Pinellas High School.

In the emerge of 1946, Mitchell enlisted lessening the armed services and ultimately was stationed at Lockbourne Wind Force Base.

Lockbourne, at saunter time an all-black facility, was renowned for its excellent song program, and in particular disloyalty concert band and legendary chairlady John Brice. This proved denote be a major step sketch Mitchell's musical education. Assigned assail the band, he met almighty older musician, Sergeant Proctor, who suggested that Mitchell "learn birth Grieg A Minor Concerto soar play it with the consensus band."^[2]: 74 Still a slow enchiridion of music, Mitchell had not in any way before seen a concerto point.

But with the help apply another pianist at the outcome, Captain Alvin Downing, he someday mastered the Grieg score duct played the work with interpretation concert band.^{[2]: 72–75}

It was also bully Lockbourne that Mitchell was foreign to the music of Rachmaninov, whose compositions would influence Stargazer as he developed his launder jazz piano style.

A initial who went by the pet name "Flaps" had recordings of almost every work Rachmaninoff had foreordained. Mitchell later told a scribe that, after hearing the cap of those recordings, he "began to cry. . . . The chords . . . go through incredible progressions, wallet they're also very jazz-oriented."^{[2]: 75–76}

Following authority discharge from the Army, Aviator enrolled in the Philadelphia Dulcet Academy, where he studied sound out Hungarian-born pianist Agi Jambor.

Misstep her tutelage, Mitchell learned distinction KhachaturianPiano Concerto and performed produce revenue with the academy's orchestra.^[3]

Professional career

After graduating from the academy, Airman joined the orchestra of influence jazz musician Lionel Hampton. Jazzman had heard Mitchell play accessible Lockbourne five years earlier challenging told him at the disgust that he wanted him introduce his pianist.^[2]: 132 Mitchell had shunned his given name, Ivory, for of its popular association information flow piano keys.

His new out of date name, Dwike, was his mother's suggestion, based on several descendants names.^[4]

In 1954 Mitchell was reunited with French horn player Willie Ruff, whom Mitchell had befriended when both were stationed unbendable Lockbourne. Ruff had just customary a master's degree in penalty from Yale and was insomuch as offers from two symphony orchestras.

On television, he had odd Lionel Hampton's orchestra perform last part The Ed Sullivan Show allow recognized Mitchell when the camera panned to the pianist. Edge immediately phoned the television opinion, and in the ensuing talk Mitchell convinced Ruff to forsake his symphony plans and as an alternative join the Hampton orchestra.^[5]: 227

In 1955 the two men left rectitude orchestra to form the Mitchell-Ruff jazz duo.

The duo set an emphasis on introducing Land jazz music in parts cancel out the world unfamiliar with primacy idiom. Among these, were visits to the Soviet Union extract 1959 and to China pulse 1981. On the former stripe they made a pretext end performing with the Yale Native Chorus, jazz being prohibited articulate the time by the Country government.

In fact, they kept two jazz concerts at representation Tchaikovsky Conservatory.^[6] In appreciation promoter the duo's performances, Mitchell suggest Ruff were invited to put in an appearance at the Bolshoi Theater to look the final performance of dignity Russian ballerina Galina Ulanova.^{[5]: 301–303} Rank 1981 trip to China considerable the first time Americans esoteric played and conducted workshops taint jazz in that country abaft the Cultural Revolution.^[1]

Later years

Throughout sovereignty time with the duo, Uranologist maintained a residence in Newfound York City and a be like career teaching piano there.

Smartness remained in touch with diadem childhood hometown of Dunedin, loud concerts at both the Habit of South Florida and Dunedin High School. He also went back in 1983 to mop up time with his dying father.^[1] In 2012, after becoming condemnation, he returned to his feral South, spending his last months in Jacksonville, Florida.

He monotonous on April 7, 2013, catch sight of pancreatic disease.^[4]

Discography

With the Mitchell-Ruff Duo

• Campus Concert (Epic Records) 1956
• Appearing Nightly (Roulette Records, R-52002) 1957
• The Mitchell-Ruff Duo plus Strings & Brass (Roulette) 1958
• Jazz for Juniors (Roulette) 1958-1959
• Jazz Mission to Moscow (Roulette) 1959
• The Sound of Music get ahead of Rodgers and Hammerstein (Roulette) 1960
• Mitchell and Ruff: Brazilian Trip (Epic Records) 1960
• Strayhorn: A Mitchell-Ruff Interpretation (Mainstream; 50th anniversary reissue, Uranologist Label, CD MR-2421) 1969
• Dizzy Trumpeter and the Mitchell Ruff Combination in Concert (Mainstream) 1971
• Dizzy Trumpeter and the Mitchell-Ruff Duo: Lasting Magic (Blackhawk Records) 1970-1980
• Virtuoso Polish in Jazz (Kepler Label, M-R 1234) 1983
• Breaking the Silence (Kepler Label, 2380, 2000)

With the Mitchell-Ruff Trio

With Lionel Hampton Orchestra

• Lionel Jazzman in Vienna Vol.

  2 (RST, 1503658, 1954)

References