TRUMPET PLAYERS AND THEIR STORIES

OLLIE MITCHELL

AN INTERVIEW WITH OLLIE MITCHELL

    Ollie Mitchell was one of Hollywood’s top studio trumpet players in the 60’s, 70’s and early 80’s. He became part of the sound of pop music on thousands of records, TV shows, jingles, cartoons, and movies during those years. He has recorded with Barbara Streisand, BB King, Bing Crosby, Bobby Dari, Carole King, Donna Summer, Duke Ellington, Ella Firzgerald, Elvis Presley, Eric Clapton, Harry James, James Brown, Nat ‘King’ Cole, Sammy Davis, Jr., Santana, Ray Charles, The Jakson 5, Tom Jones and The Rolling Stones.

    Ollie was started on the trumpet at age 5 by his father, Harold (Pappy) Mitchell who played first trumpet in the Jazz Singer, (the first sound movie). Pappy was one of the top studio trumpet players, playing on all the MGM musicals until he retired in 1948. Pappy put Ollie through very strict training which gave him the skills he needed for his career.

    Ollie also did a lot of teaching and formed a school with trombonist Bob Edmondson devoted to developing young big band musicians. The school came to an end in 1964 when Bob and Ollie became part of the original Tijuana Brass.

     I met Ollie in January of 2009 where at the age of 82 he was playing and leading his big band in Hawaii. This DVD, filmed at that time, is an interview of Ollie discussing his areer, his philosophy of trumpet playing, and his comments on the history of the music industry as he experienced it.

-Scott Weiss

Approx. 68 min.