Johannes in retroland

Archive for February, 2005

Blue Mitchell was born March 13, 1930 in Miami, Florida. He took up trumpet in high school where he acquired his nickname. After high school, he toured with R&B bands led by Paul Williams, Earl Bostic, and Chuck Willis. After returning to Miami, he was heard by Cannonball Adderly, who took him to New York to record for Riverside in 1958. Mitchell gained a reputation working with Horace Silver’s quintet from 1958 to March of 1964, where his lyrical playing and beautiful tone perfectly complemented Silver’s simplified, soulful brand of bop. When Silver disbanded in 1963, Mitchell formed his own group, employing most of his fellow musicians, with Silver’s place being taken by Chick Corea. This band continued until the end of the decade, at which time Mitchell joined the band that was backing Ray Charles. During the early 70s, Mitchell played with a number of artists in fields outside jazz, notably bluesman John Mayall and popular singers such as Tony Bennett and Lena Horne. Resident in Los Angeles from the mid-70s, Mitchell freelanced in both small and big bands, including those led by Harold Land, Louie Bellson and Bill Berry.

Bron: jazztrumpetsolos.com

rainfall.com/posters/Theatrical

Born in Nashville, Tennessee, on June 7, probably in 1870 (some sources give 1868 or 1876), Alice Nielsen grew up in Warrensburg and then Kansas City, Missouri. She sang in a church choir and received some voice instruction from a local teacher. About 1886 she had the opportunity to sing in a touring juvenile production of The Mikado. Her marriage to Benjamin Nentwig in 1889 was short-lived. In 1892 she and three other singers formed the Chicago Church Choir Company, and, after an unsuccessful tour through Missouri, she joined the Burton Stanley traveling opera company. In Oakland, California, she appeared as Yum-Yum in the Stanley production of The Mikado in 1893. The next year, after a period at the Wigwam, a San Francisco music hall, she joined the Tivoli Opera Company, with which she made her grand operatic debut in Lucia di Lammermoor.

Bron: britannica.com