Billy Cox, Colette Mimram, Jimi Hendrix, Devon Wilson and Mitch Mitchell on June 27, 1970 at the Boston Garden. Hendrix has been characterized as the greatest guitarist of the 20th century.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7726024.stm
Mitch Mitchell drummed with the Jimi Hendrix Experience on the Lulu Show in 1969
Mitch Mitchell, the British drummer in the seminal 1960s band the Jimi Hendrix Experience, has been found dead in his US hotel room, authorities say.
The 61-year-old was discovered in the Benson Hotel in Portland, Oregon, in the early hours of Wednesday.
A medical examiner told the Associated Press news agency that his death appeared to be from natural causes, but said there would be an autopsy.
Hendrix died in 1970 and the band's bassist Noel Redding died in 2003.
Mitchell, from Ealing in west London, had been touring with the Experience Hendrix Tour.
'Rock 'n' roll hero'
Janie Hendrix, chief executive of the tour and step-sister of Jimi Hendrix, paid tribute to Mitchell.
"He was a wonderful man, a brilliant musician and a true friend," she said.
"His role in shaping the sound of the Jimi Hendrix Experience cannot be underestimated."
Terry Stewart, chief executive of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, also paid tribute to Mitchell.
He said the musician had added a "strictly percussive element to a lead instrument".
He added: "His interplay with Jimi Hendrix's guitar on songs like Fire is truly amazing.
"Mitch Mitchell had a massive influence on rock 'n' roll drumming and took it to new heights."
Mitchell performed on Hendrix classics such as Are You Experienced? Electric Ladyland and Axis: Bold As Love.
The top session drummer also played with the likes of Eric Clapton, John Lennon, Keith Richards and Muddy Waters.
Bob Merlis, a spokesman for the tour, called his death "devastating".
He had seen Mitchell perform two weeks ago in Los Angeles and the drummer appeared healthy and upbeat, he said.
Blues-rock guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd, who is also part of the tour, said Mitchell was to drums what Hendrix was to guitar.
"Today many of us have lost a dear friend, and the world has lost a rock 'n' roll hero," he said.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr//2/hi/entertainment/7726024.stm
Published: 2008/11/13 13:20:59 GMT
Obituary: Mitch Mitchell
Mitch Mitchell, the British drummer in the seminal 1960s band the Jimi Hendrix Experience, has been found dead in his US hotel room.
His frenetic drumming was the bedrock of Hendrix's music. Mitchell treated the drums more like a lead instrument than the rhythm section.
The late 61-year-old provided a brilliant counterpoint for Hendrix's unique guitar sound.
But Mitchell's career faltered after Hendrix died in 1970.
He never quite recaptured the heights achieved with the Experience.
Established reputation
Born in Ealing, west London on 9 July 1947, John 'Mitch' Mitchell taught himself to play drums as a boy.
He honed his skills while working in Jim Marshall's music shop in central London.
By his late teens Mitchell had established a reputation as a session musician, playing with a number of bands including the Tornados.
His big break came when he joined Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames, a well-established jazz based outfit.
In 1966, he was invited to audition for a new band being formed to back Hendrix, who had arrived in the UK as a complete unknown.
"We met in this sleazy club," he later recalled. "We did some Chuck Berry and took it from there. I suppose it worked."
Together with bassist Noel Redding, the band became one of the innovators of the 'power trio' style of rock.
This format allowed Mitchell to indulge his extrovert style, and contribute far more to the band than the traditional drummer's role as a timekeeper.
As well as the music, the band set out to make a visual statement, with psychedelic clothes and outrageous perms.
Power trio
The band really hit the headlines with their performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, when Hendrix set fire to his guitar.
Mitchell played on all five of the Hendrix hit singles, including Hey Joe and Purple Haze, as well as the bands three best-selling albums.
But Hendrix was feeling constrained by the power trio format, and the band broke up after their performance at the Denver Pop Festival in June 1969.
Mitchell returned two months later as part of a new, much bigger, line-up which backed Hendrix at Woodstock.
He played in a brief reincarnation of the three-man Experience in 1970 but any thoughts of repeating earlier success ended when Hendrix died later that year.
Mitchell worked on a number of uncompleted Hendrix tracks - which were later released - before forming his own band with limited success.
Mitchell and Redding had been paid a salary by Hendrix 's manager and were not entitled to any royalties from the recordings.
And by the mid 1970's Mitchell was facing severe financial problems, and the work was drying up.
He failed the audition for Paul McCartney's new band, Wings, and spent the following 20 years doing low-key session work.
Just five days before his death he had been playing a series of dates with the Experience Jimi Hendrix tour in the US, reaching a new generation of fans.
Mitchell brought the concept of drums as a lead instrument from jazz, to set a new trend in rock music.
His style blended perfectly with Hendrix's revolutionary playing, to create a sound that is still unique in rock music.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr//2/hi/entertainment/7726982.stm
Published: 2008/11/13 13:08:42 GMT
Hendrix drummer Mitch Mitchell was rock hero
He's discovered dead in hotel room
BY MARY HUDETZ
ASSOCIATED PRESS
November 13, 2008
PORTLAND, Ore. -- Mitch Mitchell, drummer for the legendary Jimi Hendrix Experience of the 1960s and the group's last surviving member, was found dead in his hotel room early Wednesday. He was 61.
Mitchell was a powerful force on the Hendrix band's 1967 debut album "Are You Experienced?" as well as the trio's albums "Electric Ladyland" and "Axis: Bold as Love." He had an explosive drumming style that can be heard in hard-charging songs such as "Fire" and "Manic Depression."
The Englishman had been drumming for the Experience Hendrix Tour, which performed Friday in Portland. It was the last stop on the West Coast part of the tour. The tour appeared in Detroit in October.
Hendrix died in 1970. Bass player Noel Redding died in 2003.
An employee at Portland's Benson Hotel called police after discovering Mitchell's body.
Erin Patrick, a deputy medical examiner, said Mitchell apparently died of natural causes. An autopsy was planned.
"He was a wonderful man, a brilliant musician and a true friend," said Janie Hendrix, chief executive of the Experience Hendrix Tour and Jimi Hendrix's stepsister. "His role in shaping the sound of the Jimi Hendrix Experience cannot be underestimated."
One-of-a-kind musician
Bob Merlis, a spokesman for the tour, said Mitchell had stayed in Portland for a four-day vacation and planned to leave Wednesday.
"It was a devastating surprise," Merlis said. "Nobody drummed like he did."
He said he saw Mitchell perform two weeks ago in Los Angeles, and the drummer appeared healthy and upbeat.
Merlis said the tour was designed to bring together veteran musicians who had known Hendrix -- like Mitchell -- and younger artists, such as Grammy-nominated winner Jonny Lang, who have been influenced by him.
Blues-rock guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd, who is 31 and was part of the tour, said Mitchell was to the drums what Hendrix was to the guitar.
"Today many of us have lost a dear friend, and the world has lost a rock 'n' roll hero," he said.
Mitchell was a one-of-a-kind drummer whose "jazz-tinged" style was influenced by Max Roach and Elvin Jones, Merlis said. The work was a vital part of both the Jimi Hendrix Experience in the 1960s and the Experience Hendrix Tour that ended last week, he said.
"If Jimi Hendrix were still alive," Merlis said, "he would have acknowledged that."
Played with the best
During his career Mitchell played with the best in the business -- not just Hendrix, but also Eric Clapton, John Lennon, Keith Richards, Jack Bruce, Jeff Beck, Muddy Waters and others.
Mitchell was a member of a later version of the Jimi Hendrix Experience that performed the closing set of the Woodstock Festival in August 1969 -- where Hendrix played a psychedelic version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" before the band launched into "Purple Haze."
The Jimi Hendrix Experience was inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame in 1992. According to the Hall of Fame, Mitchell was born July 9, 1947, in Ealing, England.
Terry Stewart, chief executive of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, said Mitchell transformed his instrument from a "strictly percussive element to a lead instrument."
"His interplay with Jimi Hendrix's guitar on songs like 'Fire' is truly amazing," Stewart said Wednesday. "Mitch Mitchell had a massive influence on rock 'n' roll drumming and took it to new heights."
In an interview last month with the Boston Herald, Mitchell said he met Hendrix "in this sleazy little club."
"We did some Chuck Berry and took it from there," Mitchell told the newspaper. "I suppose it worked."
November 13, 2008
Mitch Mitchell Dies at 62; Drummer for Jimi Hendrix
By BEN SISARIO
New York Times
Mitch Mitchell, the jazzy and versatile British drummer in the Jimi Hendrix Experience, died on Wednesday in a hotel in Portland, Ore. He was 62 and had recently finished a national tribute tour, Experience Hendrix.
The cause was unknown, said Bob Merlis, publicist for the tour.
Mr. Mitchell was one of two Englishmen in the Experience, the group that catapulted Hendrix to fame in the late 1960s. Along with the bassist Noel Redding, who died in 2003, Mr. Mitchell was recruited in a rush in the fall of 1966, after the journeyman Hendrix had been discovered in a New York club and whisked to London by Chas Chandler of the Animals.
Hendrix’s guitar pyrotechnics caused an immediate sensation among the British rock elite — the audience at one early gig included John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Brian Jones — and a backup band was needed for a last-minute French tour. Mr. Redding was hired first, followed a few days later by Mr. Mitchell, who was barely out of his teens but already an established session player with the Pretty Things and Georgie Fame.
Mr. Mitchell did not expect much from the job. “I’ll give it a crack,” he later remembered telling Mr. Chandler, who became one of Hendrix’s managers. “I’ll have a go for two weeks.”
But led by Hendrix’s explosive and rhapsodic style, the group revolutionized rock music and became an archetypal power trio. Its style was built around Hendrix’s improvisations, with Mr. Redding’s steady bass lines acting as an anchor and Mr. Mitchell — who was influenced by jazz players like Elvin Jones — playing a lighter, looser counterpoint to the guitar.
The group also developed a signature look that embodied the dandyish flamboyance of the British psychedelic era. The members sought out bell-bottoms and vintage clothes in British shops and teased out their hair. “For Noel, the curly Afro came naturally,” wrote Charles R. Cross in his 2005 Hendrix biography, “Room Full of Mirrors.” “Mitch had to get a permanent to achieve the same result.”
The Jimi Hendrix Experience released three albums: “Are You Experienced” (1967), “Axis: Bold as Love” (1967) and “Electric Ladyland” (1968). Mr. Mitchell continued to play with Hendrix until his death in 1970, and later played in the band Ramatam.
Born John Mitchell in London, he worked as a child actor, appearing in the BBC television show “Jennings at School.”
Survivors include his mother; wife, Dee; a daughter; and two grandchildren.
After Hendrix died Mr. Mitchell worked with the producer Eddie Kramer in completing the albums “The Cry of Love” and “Rainbow Bridge,” and he long worked with Experience Hendrix, the company founded by Hendrix’s father, in promulgating the Hendrix legend.
Mitch Mitchell's book, 'Inside The Experience' (written with Robert Platt), is well worth reading.
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