FRANKIE BANALI Pays Tribute To JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE's MITCH MITCHELL In New Issue Of Modern Drummer
February 20, 2009, 15 years ago
As previously reported, Mitch Mitchell, drummer for the legendary JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE of the 1960s, was found dead of natural causes at 62 years of age in his Portland hotel room on the morning of November 12th, 2008. QUIET RIOT drummer Frankie Banali issued the following comments on Mitchell and his work in the latest issue of Modern Drummer, which is available now.
"Mitch Mitchell brought the influences of jazz, R&B;, and pop together with a great deal of feel and inventiveness that is still unequaled in popular music. He managed to chart a drumming course through the vastly uncharted waters of the music of Jimi Hendrix. No one had ever written or played music like The Experience, and no drummer had ever played drums in such a definitive way as Mitch Mitchell did. Case in point: 'Purple Haze', 'Manic Depression', 'Fire', 'If 6 Was 9'. The list goes on and on. There could have been no other drummer better suited to the music Jimi helped to create.It took a very special drummer to be able to understand the music of The Experience and how to complement it, enforce it, interpret it, and create it, and Mitch never lost sight of his style and individuality. When I was growing up, the three drummers that set the high-water marks were Mitch Mitchell, Ginger Baker, and John Henry Bonham. Of the three, Mitch was the creative leader. Mitch Mitchell, a very special drummer indeed. God bless him; may he rest in peace with the knowledge that he will never be forgotten.
The influences of drummers such as Mitch Mitchell and other jazz drumming greats was evident in my use of the left hand 'traditional grip' as a young drummer."
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