ONE LP PORTRAITS: MUSICIANS: A - B: BILLY MITCHELL: Billy Mitchell: Musician

{quote}OK. Live at The Pershing by Ahmad Jamal. One of my total inspirations in music. I listened to this before I was really serious about music. I didn’t even think about being a professional musician so we were exposed to many of the greats at a young age. In New York, where I grew up, at the time the drinking age was 18 so we were sneaking into clubs early on, very early - 15, 16 years old. All you needed was a fake draft card. So we were kind of inspired at an early stage by the great artists and Ahmad Jamal was one of them. But when I heard this album, that was very popular at the time… But that tune ‘Poinciana’, in particular, it created a whole new idea of what jazz was about. In his ways he was very minimalistic, you might say - but everything that he played had a purpose and it just really inspired me to play and always I had that at the back of my mind. Ahmad Jamal and another name like Gene Harris. Stylistically different but emotionally very, very similar.{quote}Billy Mitchell: The Boardwalk, Culver City, Los Angeles, May 2013Ahmad Jamal: Live at The Pershing 1958Billy Mitchell
Billy Mitchell: Musician, Ahmad Jamal: Live at The Pershing

 

"OK. Live at The Pershing by Ahmad Jamal. One of my total inspirations in music. I listened to this before I was really serious about music.  

I didn’t even think about being a professional musician so we were exposed to many of the greats at a young age.  

In New York, where I grew up, at the time the drinking age was 18 so we were sneaking into clubs early on, very early - 15, 16 years old. All you needed was a fake draft card.  

So we were kind of inspired at an early stage by the great artists and Ahmad Jamal was one of them. But when I heard this album, that was very popular at the time… But that tune ‘Poinciana’, in particular, it created a whole new idea of what jazz was about. In his ways he was very minimalistic, you might say - but everything that he played had a purpose and it just really inspired me to play and always I had that at the back of my mind. Ahmad Jamal and another name like Gene Harris. Stylistically different but emotionally very, very similar." 

Billy Mitchell: The Boardwalk, Culver City, Los Angeles, May 2013 

Ahmad Jamal: Live at The Pershing 1958 

Billy Mitchell