Dwike Mitchell
| Dwike Mitchell | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Ivory Mitchell, Jr. |
| Born |
February 14, 1930 Dunedin, Florida, United States |
| Died |
April 7, 2013 Jacksonville, Florida, United States |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Jazz musician |
| Instruments | Piano |
| Years active | 1954–2011 |
| Labels | Epic |
| Associated acts | The Mitchell-Ruff Duo |
Dwike Mitchell (born Ivory Mitchell, Jr.; February 14, 1930) was an American piano player and teacher. He began his career as pianist for the Lionel Hampton Orchestra before joining Willie Ruff to form The Mitchell-Ruff Duo jazz group.
Mitchell was born and raised in Dunedin, Florida. He began playing piano around the age of three after his father, who had a job driving a garbage truck, brought home an old piano discarded by its owner. With the help of his mother, who made him play exercises and scales, and a cousin, who had been taking piano lessons herself, Mitchell soon displayed an exceptional aptitude for the instrument. He began performing in public at the age of five. His mother, a soloist in her church choir, needed an accompanist and gave the job to her young son. Before long he was playing for the entire Sunday morning service, a role he would continue to perform through the age of seventeen.
In the spring of 1946, Mitchell enlisted in the armed services and eventually was stationed at Lockbourne Air Force Base. Lockbourne, at that time an all-black facility, was renowned for its excellent music program, and in particular its concert band and legendary bandmaster John Brice. This proved to be a major step in Mitchell's musical education. Assigned to the band, he met an older musician, Sergeant Proctor, who suggested that Mitchell "learn the Grieg A Minor Concerto and play it with the concert band." Still a slow reader of music, Mitchell had never before seen a concerto score. But with the help of another pianist at the base, Captain Alvin Downing, he eventually mastered the Grieg score and played the work with the concert band.
It was also at Lockbourne that Mitchell was introduced to the music of Rachmaninoff, whose compositions would influence Mitchell as he developed his unique jazz piano style. A pilot who went by the nickname "Flaps" had recordings of virtually every work Rachmaninoff had written. Mitchell later told a writer that, after hearing the first of those recordings, he "began to cry. . . . The chords . . . go through incredible progressions, and they're also very jazz-oriented."
Following his discharge from the Army, Mitchell enrolled in the Philadelphia Musical Academy, where he studied with Hungarian-born pianist Agi Jambor. Under her tutelage, Mitchell learned the Khachaturian Piano Concerto and performed it with the Academy's orchestra.
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