Grover Mitchell

Grover Mitchell ( born March 17, 1930 in Whatley, Alabama; † August 6, 2003 in Manhattan, New York) was an American jazz trombonist of Swing. He was a lively and expressive soloist, who was best known for his involvement in sizes of Swing. He had an appealing sensitive clay that was influenced by Tommy Dorsey.

Life and work

Mitchell grew up in Pittsburgh; in the early 60s, he moved to the East Coast of the USA. In 1961 he worked in the Duke Ellington Orchestra before for a short time boarding at Lionel Hampton in 1962. In this year he joined Count Basie, with whom he remained until 1970; he already wrote in the first eight months Basie music, but there was no opportunity to write an arrangement for the band. 1980 Mitchell Basie joined again and stayed with him until his death in 1984.

In the early 1970s, Mitchell began music for film and television writing, including the music for the hit film Lady Sings the Blues, in which Diana Ross played Billie Holiday. In the 1970s, he started his own bands to perform, including a big band for the label Jazz Chronicles in the 1970s and a similar Basie Orchestra, which began in the second half of the 80s for the label stash. Mitchell took another for the label Ken Music on, and since 1995 he headed the Basie Orchestra. In 1997 he received a Grammy Award for his big band work. The delicate and soft sounding trombonist ill with cancer and died on August 6, 2003.