The sad news comes that Mitch Mitchell is dead at the relatively young age of 61. When you factor in the years Mitch played drums with the Jimi Hendrix Experience, I suppose some kind of dog-years math comes into play. So in rock years, Mitch was 207.

What’s interesting about Mitchell’s drumming is how clearly jazz-influenced it was. Of course, rock was still fairly young in the mid-to-late ’60s, so that was not unusual. But Mitchell added a frenetic energy to traditional technique, which perfectly complimented Hendrix’s guitar. A good example is the 3/4-time “Manic Depression,” almost a straight jazz waltz that Mitchell psychedelicizes, if that’s a word. Here’s some guy demonstrating how the song is played. He does a good job, though the video fails to capture the magic of the original.

Mitchell’s passing closely follows that of Earl Palmer, who arguably invented rock drumming, with Fats Domino, Little Richard, and other Nawlins greats. Palmer became one of the most sought-after L.A. session men, giving “most-recorded drummer” Hal Blaine a run for the title. Here’s Palmer explaining and performing the classic Professor Longhair tune “Tipitina.”

Palmer also wrote a fascinating autobiogaphy, Backbeat: Earl Palmer’s Story. As this Amazon link suggests, I highly recommend it. I mean, check the photo—the man’s the king of cool!

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 13th, 2008 at 6:06 am and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.