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Blue Mitchell

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I heard 'Something Old, Something Blue' from the Blue Mitchell Live album while listening to Pandora. I have several Blue Mitchell LP's. I went to Rhapsody and listened to the entire album, and to me, it is the best Blue Mitchell ever. If you have Rhapsody, check it out.

The album was recorded in 1965. It was not released in Blue's lifetime, Blue passed away in 1979 and the cd was not released until 1995. I didn't even know this album existed until a couple of days ago when it popped up on Pandora.

I met Blue Mitchell in 1978 at the Queen Mary Jazz Festival. I was in the audience sitting next to his wife and she noticed that I was really into his performance. She asked if I would like to meet him. After the performance, she took me to the private area reserved for performers and introduced me to Blue. It was a great thrill for me, I was a young cat only a couple of years out of college. He chatted with me for about 15 minutes and gave me an autograph.
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7 responses Add your response
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,250 posts
 
You have good taste, Blue Mitchell was a very fine trumpeter. I'll search for this recording on CD, thanks for the tip. I bet you'd like Kenny Dorham, another very talented trumpeter as well.
Charles,
lak's avatar
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lak
4,626 posts
 
Mitch, very cool story :-)!
I'll see if I can find it.
Thanks for sharing...
jazzcourier
205 posts
 
That session was actually recorded in 1976 at Pete Douglas' Half Moon Bay beachside home known for it's weekly concerts.Lots of major Jazz soloists were featured over the years at these concerts. The Rhythm section was all local San Francisco area players with Veteran drummer Smiley Winters. So this was just a few years before Blue died of cancer.
I count myself among the fortunate who heard Blue many times and never did he not play with total conviction, summoning forth his immense talents.In the early to mid 70's he played often with tenor saxophonist Harold Land and co-led a quintet that focused on Charlie Parker compositions with Saxophonist Richie Kamuca, who performed on the Alto,not the Tenor, as he was so well known for.They did make one record for Concord under Richie's name.Kamuca himself died right around that same time from the same disease.
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,250 posts
 
Harold Land and Richie Kumuca, I loved those guys, sigh.
Charles,
mitch4t's avatar
mitch4t OP
1,610 posts
 
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Jazzcourier, thanks for the date correction. It was
amazingly well recorded for that type of situation. I
wonder if the guy that owned the home has more recordings of
the musicians that played at his place. This one is a gem.

I googled the Pete Douglas house and wow!! I'd never heard
of the place. What an incredible history of musicians that
have played there. Amazing.
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abucktwoeighty's avatar
abucktwoeighty
1,079 posts
 
Saw him in the early 70's when he was with John Mayall. Those were the days...great memories.
jazzcourier
205 posts
 
Just to list a few who have had performances released from the beach house are Bill Evans and Art Pepper.This was a subscription concert series that sold the leftover seats to the public.The one time I visited there was for a concert in the 1980's with Flip Phillips,Ralph Sutton,and Kenny Davern.The acoustics were excellent and the audience was very attentive.The pounding waves on the coastline....they are pretty good too.I have the impression that the tapes were rolling for pretty much every gig, and that would be quite a little honeypot of good Jazz.
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