Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Malcolm Mitchell was born in London, England on November 9, 1926 and was originally taught by Ivor Mairants. In 1947 he was teaching jazz guitar when he formed The Trio with pianist Johnny Pearson and bassist Lennie Bush. At the BBC Maida Vale studios the trio would broadcast live on a Saturday morning.

1948 saw Mitchell become the first British musician to play with Duke Ellington and earn money for doing so.  In 1933 the Duke of Windsor had insisted on sitting in on drums with the Ellington Band when it visited Britain but he didn’t get paid for it. Mitchell’s debut with Ellington was equally eccentric in its way.

Throughout the 40s and into the 50s the brutish Musicians’ Union, in tandem with the all-powerful fraternity, Ministry of Works, had a rule which banned American musicians from playing in England. In 1948 the Dizzy Gillespie and Spike Jones Orchestras had to cancel projected tours and the only way Ellington was able to work there was as a variety act without his band.  He played piano at the London Palladium and music halls in nine other cities with his trumpeter Ray Nance, allowed in as a dancer and thus “Showbiz”, and his singer Kay Davis weren’t banned. The Union presumably didn’t regard them as musicians.

While the Union Ban was in place the Mitchell Trio, now with Johnnie Valmore Pearson on piano and Teddy Broughton on bass, accompanied other bewildered Americans variety artists including Hoagy Carmichael and Maxine Sullivan when they toured England. During those years he toured eight weeks in Sweden with Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt.

His Mitchell Trio, with pianist Johnny Pearson and Teddy Broughton on bass, became well known supporting U.S. jazzmen and singers touring in the UK. Guitarist, bandleader and educator Malcolm MItchell passed away in Bognor Regis, England on March 9, 1998.

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