Nicole Mitchell | |
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| Background information | |
| Born | February 17, 1967 Syracuse, New York, U.S. |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, teacher |
| Instrument(s) | Flute |
| Website | nicolemitchell |
Nicole Mitchell (born 1967) is an American jazz flautist and composer who teaches jazz at the University of Virginia. [1] [2] She is a former chairwoman of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). [3]
Mitchell was born in Syracuse, New York, and moved to Anaheim, California at the age of eight. [4] Her first instruments were piano and viola, which she started playing in fourth grade. She was classically trained in flute and played in youth orchestras as a teenager. [5] Though she intended to major in computer science in college, she took a class in improvisation from Jimmy Cheatham at University of California, San Diego, [6] and started busking in the streets playing jazz flute. [5] After two years at UCSD, she transferred to Oberlin College in 1987, then moved to Chicago in 1990. [7]
Mitchell returned to school in 1993 and 1996, completing her degree at Chicago State University in 1998; she earned a master's degree from Northern Illinois University in 2000. [5]
In Chicago, Mitchell performed on the streets and worked for Third World Press, a publisher of black culture. [5] She also met drummer Maia, and bassist, sitarist and storyteller Shanta Nurullah, forming the all-female ensemble Samana and eventually joining the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). [8] [4]
After earning her master's degree, she began teaching at schools around Chicago at the end of the 1990s, holding positions at Northern Illinois University, Chicago State University, Northeastern Illinois University, Wheaton College, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. [5]
In 1995 Mitchell met Hamid Drake and worked with him throughout the second half of the decade. In 1997 she began an association with saxophonist David Boykin , who encouraged her to start her own group, leading to Mitchell's establishment of the Black Earth Ensemble. [5] In the early 2000s, she became a co-host for the Avant-Garde Jazz Jam Sessions in Chicago that were started by Boykin, bassist Karl E. H. Seigfried, and drummer Mike Reed. [9]
Mitchell issued her debut album, Vision Quest , with Black Earth Ensemble in 2001 on her label, Dreamtime Records. The album included appearances by Hamid Drake, Savoir Faire, Edith Yokley , Darius Savage , and Avreeayl Ra . [10] Vision Quest was expanded into a theater piece in 2003. [11]
In 2006, Mitchell worked in the group Frequency with Harrison Bankhead, Edward Wilkerson, and Avreeayl Ra. Thrill Jockey released their album during that year. [12] Beginning in 2017, she toured and recorded with the Art Ensemble of Chicago. [13]
The Artifacts trio—Mitchell, Tomeka Reid, and Mike Reed—released albums in 2015 and 2019. (In 2008–2009, the three were the executive team of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).) [14]
As of 2022, Mitchell has continued to use the Black Earth and Black Earth Ensemble names for many of her projects, including recordings. For example, in 2022 she led performances by Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth SWAY quartet, with Chicago-based musicians Alexis Lombre on keyboard, JoVia Armstrong on drums and electronics, and Coco Elysses on diddley bow, and everyone singing. [15] (In 2022, Elysses and Armstrong are Chair and Secretary, respectively, of the AACM.) [16]
Mitchell published her first book in 2022, The Mandorla Letters: for the hopeful, under the name Nicole Mitchell Gantt.
Mitchell joined the music department at the University of California, Irvine as an assistant professor and was promoted to professor in 2013. [17] She participated in the Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology graduate program. [18] In 2019, she moved to the University of Pittsburgh as the Williams S. Dietrich II Chair of Jazz Studies and Professor of Music. [1] [19] In 2022, she took on a position as professor of music at University of Virginia.
Mitchell's husband of ten years, Calvin Bernard Gantt, died on July 31, 2021. [25]
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The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) is a nonprofit organization, founded in 1965 in Chicago by pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, pianist Jodie Christian, drummer Steve McCall, and composer Phil Cohran. The AACM is devoted "to nurturing, performing, and recording serious, original music," according to its charter. It supports and encourages jazz performers, composers and educators. Although founded in the jazz tradition, the group's outreach and influence has, according to Larry Blumenfeld, "touched nearly all corners of modern music."
The Art Ensemble of Chicago is an avant-garde jazz group that grew out of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in the late 1960s. The ensemble integrates many jazz styles and plays many instruments, including "little instruments": bells, bicycle horns, birthday party noisemakers, wind chimes, and various forms of percussion. The musicians would wear costumes and face paint while performing. These characteristics combined to make the ensemble's performances both aural and visual. While playing in Europe in 1969, five hundred instruments were used.
Roscoe Mitchell is an American composer, jazz instrumentalist, and educator, known for being "a technically superb – if idiosyncratic – saxophonist". The Penguin Guide to Jazz described him as "one of the key figures" in avant-garde jazz; All About Jazz stated in 2004 that he had been "at the forefront of modern music" for more than 35 years. Critic Jon Pareles in The New York Times has mentioned that Mitchell "qualifies as an iconoclast". In addition to his own work as a bandleader, Mitchell is known for cofounding the Art Ensemble of Chicago and the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).
Leroy Jenkins was an American composer and violinist/violist.
Joseph Jarman was an American jazz musician, composer, poet, and Shinshu Buddhist priest. He was one of the first members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and a member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
Tatsu Aoki is a multi-instrumentalist trained in traditional Japanese music, educator and experimental filmmaker. In his career as Chicago's Jazz and creative improvisor, he is mostly known as a long-standing bassist for Fred Anderson and he has also worked with George Freeman, and Von Freeman in the 90s. Aoki also has curious recording projects with Malachi Favors, Roscoe Mitchell, Don Moye, Wu Man, and other internationally renowned artists. Aoki also directs cultural events that promote the history of Japanese artistic traditions and contemporary Asian influences in jazz. As the founder and artistic director of Asian Improv Arts Midwest, he hosts events such as the annual Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival and the Japanese American Service Committee's Tsukasa Taiko Legacy arts residency program.
Steve McCall was an American jazz drummer.
Ernest Dawkins is an American jazz saxophonist, principally active in free jazz and post-bop.
Tomeka Reid is an American composer, improviser, cellist, curator, and teacher.
Black Unstoppable is an album by American jazz flautist Nicole Mitchell, which was recorded in 2007 and released on Delmark. It was the fourth album by her Black Earth Ensemble and the first for Delmark after three recordings on Dreamtime, the label she established with David Boykin. According to Mitchell, this project features a diverse collection of songs that touch all sides of Great Black Music: avant-garde jazz, blues, R&B and soul. The group ranges in size from a quartet to a nonet.
Hope, Future and Destiny is an album by American jazz flautist Nicole Mitchell, which was released in 2004 on Dreamtime, the label she established with David Boykin. It was the third recording by her Black Earth Ensemble. This work was the musical score for a multi-arts community play involving a cast of over 50 people in dance, video, acting and live original music.
Intergalactic Beings is an album by American jazz flautist Nicole Mitchell with her Black Earth Ensemble, which was recorded in 2010 and released on FPE. The work was commissioned by the Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art and the album is the result of the live performance. It was her second suite based on the Xenogenesis novels of American science fiction writer Octavia Butler.
Jo'burg Jump is an album by American jazz saxophonist Ernest Dawkins' New Horizons Ensemble, which was recorded in 2000 and released on Delmark. The album title was inspired by a visit to Johannesburg, South Africa.
Afrika Rising is an album by jazz flautist Nicole Mitchell with her group Black Earth Ensemble. It was released in 2002 by Dreamtime, Mitchell's own label.
Joshua Abrams is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist who plays the double bass and guimbri.
Harrison Napoleon Bankhead III was an American jazz double-bassist.
Iqua Colson, born Kristine Browne in Chicago, Illinois, USA, is an American vocalist, composer, lyricist, arts administrator, and educator.
Three Compositions is an album by American jazz saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell which was recorded live at the occasion of Sant'Anna Arresi Jazz Festival 2009 and released on the French RogueArt label. Mitchell's scores are played by flautist Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble.
Ann E. Ward was an improviser, composer and educator, and a long-serving member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). A native of Chicago who studied music from a young age, she attended Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University, studying piano, and graduated from Kentucky State College with a degree in music composition. After performing as a vocalist with the Ken Chaney Experience, she joined the AACM in 1981, eventually becoming an integral part of the organization. Ward was one of the most noted female composers in the AACM, and performed with many ensembles such as the Great Black Music Ensemble and Samana as a vocalist, pianist and African percussionist. She served as the director of the AACM School from 1983 to 2008, volunteering her time to take an active role in music education. Ward died in 2016 at age 67.
Empathetic Parts is a live album by Mike Reed's Loose Assembly. The group's third release, it was recorded on November 7, 2009, at the Umbrella Music Festival held at The Hideout in Chicago, and was issued on CD in 2010 by 482 Music. Led by drummer Reed, the group features saxophonist Greg Ward, cellist Tomeka Reid, vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz, and double bassist Joshua Abrams, plus guest saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell.
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