Joined: 08 Aug 2003 Posts: 943 Location: Terra Firma, Ether Sea
Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2008 8:11 pm Post subject:
Mitch died in Portland, Oregon at the Benson Hotel, downtown.
Apparently he had just finished the Jimi Hendrix Tribute Tour. I know Mitch wanted to talk with Robben a year or two ago about being the guitarist on that tour.
Noel died in 2003.
Mitch, Noel, Jimi... all gone.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience is now fully dead.
Long live the Experience.
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Hendrix's drummer, remembered as a "mind-blowing" musician, dies in Portland hotel room
by Joseph Rose and Stuart Tomlinson, The Oregonian
Wednesday November 12, 2008, 4:50 PM
Mitch Mitchell, the iconic drummer who provided the heartbeat of the Jimi Hendrix Experience on rock classics such as "Voodoo Child" and "Purple Haze," was found dead early today in a Portland hotel room.
Mitchell, 61, who pioneered a fusion style that allowed him and one of history's greatest guitar players to feed off each other, died of natural causes, the Multnomah County medical examiner said. He was found about 3 a.m. in his room at the Benson Hotel in downtown Portland.
Still considered one of rock's greatest drummers, Mitchell was behind the kit at Hendrix's legendary sets at Woodstock, Monterey and the Isle of Wight.
Mitchell's final performance was Friday night at Portland's Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. It was the last stop on the West Coast leg of the Experience Hendrix tribute tour.
Looking pale and tired, he played only one song before the sold-out crowd, said Terry Currier, owner of the Music Millennium record shop.
"A friend who was waiting outside the Schnitz to get an autograph told me he saw a couple people helping Mitch walk into the auditorium that night," Currier said. "He didn't seem to be in great health."
Born in England in 1947, John "Mitch" Mitchell was a child actor who quickly moved onto music, becoming an accomplished jazz drummer before the age of 20. Eventually, he became Hendrix's most important musical collaborator, said Jacob McMurray, senior curator at the Experience Music Project in Seattle.
The museum's centerpiece is the world's largest collection of Jimi Hendrix artifacts and memorabilia, including the drum set Mitchell played at Woodstock in 1969. Seattle was Hendrix's boyhood home.
"Jimi was an amazing guitarist and he needed somebody behind the drum kit who could hold his own," McMurray said. "That was Mitch Mitchell."
At 5-feet-5, the wild-haired Mitchell was a small guy who played "lead drums," combining meat-and-potatoes beats with rapid-fire jazz in the three-person group. He was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame as part of the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1992.
Hendrix's manager treated both Mitchell and original bassist Noel Redding as paid employees, limiting their rights to future revenue. In the 1970's, according to Eddie Kramer's book "Hendrix: Setting the Record Straight," Mitchell was forced to sell a prized Hendrix guitar to pay the bills.
"The bonds between Jimi and Mitch kept them together," McMurray said.
Mitchell and Hendrix recorded several tracks on their own, including "Fire," "Voodoo Child" and "Manic Depression," before bringing in original bassist Noel Reddding to finish them, McMurray said. Hendrix died after a drug overdose in 1970. Redding was 57 when he died in 2003.
Bob Merlis, a publicist for the Experience Hendrix tour, said Mitchell obviously wasn't feeling well during the last couple stops on the 17-date tour.
"We thought it was the flu," Merlis said.
Mitchell told Merlis he planned to stay in Portland for a few days to wind down from the tour before heading home to his wife, Dee, in England.
Sgt. Brian Schmautz, a Portland police spokesman, said an employee at the Benson called police after discovering Mitchell's body. Since police didn't suspect any foul play, Schmautz said, "we weren't involved beyond that."
Tom Chappelle, a deputy medical examiner for Multnomah County, said Dr. Cliff Young conducted the autospy on Mitchell's body this afternoon.
"At this point, we're still saying natural causes," Chappelle said. "Cliff wants to talk to his family first before releasing additional details."
Merlis said Mitchell was a "really warm, enthusiastic guy who was a lot of fun. He didn't hold back and liked to talk about Jimi" from their first meeting in a sleazy London club in 1966 to watching Hendrix light his guitar on fire at the Monterey Pop Festival a year later.
Judging from Mitchell's Myspace page, most of his friends and fans had not heard about his death this afternoon. The last post was from Sept. 27. On July 9, a fan wished him happy birthday.
But at Trade Up Music in Southeast Portland, the instrument shop's 27-year-old drum specialist remembered Mitchell as a "mind-blowing" musician.
"He came along at a great time," said Joey Ficken, who also plays in the band Sea Wolf. "He came along when there weren't really rock guitarists and rock drummers, and all these styles of music came together. People were seing something they had never seen before."
These days, drummers tend to stay in the background. They really aren't like Mitchell any more, Ficken said.
"He was a star. People still idolize him." _________________ B C-ing U!
( }:-Daved
"This boy's diseased with rhythm!" -Bing Crosby (Road To Rio, '49)
Joined: 05 May 2008 Posts: 35 Location: South East UK
Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 3:11 am Post subject:
Another one I thought would be around forever. I must listen to the slow Voodoo Chile again tonight on vinyl - he is superb on that track and it sums up his jazzy style really well. The perfect drummer for that band.
I feel really bad as I didn't go to the film launch special gig last year in London with Billy Cox on Bass and Mitch on drums because it had Gary Moore on guitar who I though wouldn't do the material justice (in terms of showing the appropriate restraint/respect and would overplay as usual)
Joined: 26 Jan 2008 Posts: 12 Location: Lee Vining,California
Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 2:51 pm Post subject:
Hard to beleive when musicians approximately your own age, that you've admired since they were first being heard have died. Makes me realize in an immediate way that there is no getting off this train and you've got to do your very best while you can. Saw the Experience at the Los Angeles Forum with Chicago Transit Authority and Cat Mother and the Allnight Newsboys opening(Mom bought the tickets for me and my brother's birthday/$3.50 still have the stub). _________________ "Music is a personal experience" -Robben Ford Clinic Dec.7,2002
I feel really bad as I didn't go to the film launch special gig last year in London with Billy Cox on Bass and Mitch on drums because it had Gary Moore on guitar who I though wouldn't do the material justice (in terms of showing the appropriate restraint/respect and would overplay as usual)
Dont feel bad at all. Gary M... would have ruined your evening anyways;
Joined: 08 Aug 2003 Posts: 943 Location: Terra Firma, Ether Sea
Posted: Thu May 07, 2009 9:16 am Post subject:
Ean Evans has been the bass player for Lynard Skynard since 2001.
Late last year he was diagnosed with cancer and yesterday, May 6, he passed away at the young age of 48.
I knew him personally and always found him to be a very pleasant person.
Skynard will continue to tour this year with a replacement. _________________ B C-ing U!
( }:-Daved
"This boy's diseased with rhythm!" -Bing Crosby (Road To Rio, '49)
I was broken the day I learnt the die of Kris Whitley because a lung cancer. He smoked a lot but it's always a sad thing to loose a great artist like him ... or like Ean Evans.
Joined: 08 Aug 2003 Posts: 943 Location: Terra Firma, Ether Sea
Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 11:55 am Post subject:
Farrah Fawcett - actress, cancer
Sky Saxon - singer for the Seeds ("Pushin' Too Hard"), infection _________________ B C-ing U!
( }:-Daved
"This boy's diseased with rhythm!" -Bing Crosby (Road To Rio, '49)
Joined: 29 Jan 2004 Posts: 1504 Location: Methuen, MA
Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 12:07 pm Post subject:
Re: Farrah Fawcett. This was with a photo of her famous pin-up...
THE PIN-UP: The photo of Farrah Fawcett in her red swimsuit first appeared in Life magazine in 1976 as an image that defined a decade. The poster soon found a home on the walls of teenage boys' bedrooms, making Fawcett the most popular pin-up of our time, with 12 million copies sold.
Must've been a good time to own Kleenex stock...
P.S. no disrespect intended _________________ Soul on Eleven
Joined: 08 Aug 2003 Posts: 943 Location: Terra Firma, Ether Sea
Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 2:43 pm Post subject:
Michael Jackson : apparent heart failure is suspected at this time _________________ B C-ing U!
( }:-Daved
"This boy's diseased with rhythm!" -Bing Crosby (Road To Rio, '49)
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