Billy Mitchell born 3 November 1926

William Melvin Mitchell (November 3, 1926 – April 18, 2001) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. He  contrived an exciting and unusual combination of hard swing with bebop. This made him an ideal asset to a big band and his solos always had moment. His life is an important but overlooked page in the history of jazz.

Mitchell was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He and his family moved to Detroit, where he received early music education at Cass Tech. He was playing on the road by the time he was 17. Known for a deep, confident sound that borrowed from Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins, he worked with Nat Towles's band in Detroit and with Lucky Millinder's Orchestra in New York in the late 1940's.

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. A high point of his career was a memorable solo on ''Cool Breeze'' with the band at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival. 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.

Much of his legacy lies in the musical guidance he gave to the next generation. When he worked with young musicians, ‘‘you could see the growth in their playing in a very short period of time,’’ said Bill Easley, now a well respected jazz saxophonist. As an educator during the 1970s, he taught and performed in community-based ventures like the Jazzmobile in Harlem, and in more formal settings in seminars at Hofstra University and Yale University.

He continued to tour in Europe and Japan into the 1990s, and spent 34 years as the resident saxophone star and jam session leader at Sonny’s Place in Seaford, New York, one of the last jazz strongholds. Sonny’s closed in 1997. Billy Mitchell led the last jam session and then retired.

Although he was an eloquent and fiery tenor saxophone soloist, Billy Mitchell was never taken to the bosom of the concert-going jazz public. The heavy-framed spectacles that he wore gave him a Mephistophelian look. The look was not deceptive. Billy didn’t suffer fools at all and made friends slowly. His philosophy of music was as unpretentious as his playing. ''There's 12 notes, and you just shuffle them around,'' he was fond of saying.

He died from lung cancer in Rockville Centre, New York, in 2001.

(Edited from Wikipedia, New York Times & yannalaw)

Here’s a great session from 1980 Solos for Buddy Tate and Billy Mitchell on “Little Pony”