Dizzy Gillespie & The Mitchell-Ruff Duo, V. 1

Track Listings

1. Con-Alma 8:52 (D. Gillespie)

2. Dartmouth Duet 3:13 (W. Ruff, D. Gillespie)

3. Woody 'n You 4:44 (D. Gillespie)

4. Blues People 11:16

5. Bella Bella 7:19 ( W. Ruff)

6. Chuva 3:49 (Ferreira, Freire)

7. Nao Deixa 5:23 (Candinho, Freire)

8. Street of Dreams 3:26 (S. Lewis, V. Young)

Editorial Reviews
About the Artist
The Mitchell-Ruff Duo was officially formed in 1955 when the pianist Dwike Mitchell and the bassist and French horn player Willie Ruff left Lionel Hampton's band to strike out on their own. But its real origins go back even earlier - to 1947, when they were servicemen stationed at Lockbourne Air Force Base, near Columbus, Ohio. Mitchell, a 17-year-old pianist with the unit band, needed a bass player for an Air Force radio show, and he saw a likely candidate in the newly arrived Ruff, who at that time only played the French Horn. "He was just a kid, 16 years old," Mitchell recalls, "with a lot of hair, fire-engine red, practically down to his eyebrows. But he had all this energy, and he was eager to learn. So I taught him. Every time he made a mistake I said, 'You got to stand in the corner,' and he hated that, and he'd scream and holler - he had the loudest scream you ever heard. But he never made the same mistake again."

Ruff has been a fast learner ever since, with no visible loss of energy, and the friendship that was formed in 1947 between two small-town Southern boys - Mitchell is from Florida, Ruff from Alabama - has deepened over the years into the warmest collaboration, one that has taken them to the top of their profession and to many corners of the world. It was the Mitchell Ruff Duo that introduced jazz to the Soviet Union, in 1959, playing and teaching at conservatories in Leningrad, Moscow, Kiev, Yalta, Sochi and Riga; and it was the Mitchell-Ruff Duo that brought jazz to China, in 1981, playing and teaching at conservatories in Shanghai and Peking. Before the first trip Ruff taught himself Russian, his seventh language, and before the second trip he learned Chinese, thereby enabling himself to explain to his listeners, in their own language, the roots and lineage of American jazz, with Mitchell demonstrating on the piano. Teaching and learning have been strong currents in the lives of both men.

Only once, after the military service, did they go their separate ways and lose touch. Mitchell studied at the conservatory in Philadelphia for two years and then joined the band of Lionel Hampton, who had heard him playing in an air force band and told him he wanted him to be his pianist. Thus Hampton became the first in a long line of legendary jazzmen - a line that was to include Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie and Miles Davis - who became devout admirers of Mitchell's awesome technique, his stunning harmonies and his boundless range. He is a pianist who can do it all. Relatively unknown to the public, he is a giant to his peers.

Ruff, meanwhile, went to the Yale School of Music, choosing it because he wanted to study with one of its faculty stars, the composer Paul Hindemith. Upon receiving his master's degree in 1954 he tried to get a position with an American symphony orchestra, but found that black musicians were not yet welcome in those ranks. Instead he accepted a job as first French Horn with the Tel Aviv Symphony. Not long before he was to leave he happened to watch "The Ed Sullivan Show" and saw on his TV screen not only Lionel Hampton's band but - to his surprise - Mitchell at the piano. Ruff, invited to join Hampton's band, jumped at the chance to be reunited with Mitchell and never did get to Israel. He has made up for his lack of travel in recent years as a part-time film maker. Film is an important teaching tool to him - he is a professor of music and Afro-American Studies at Yale - and he has visited the pygmies of the Central African Republic, the master drummers of Bali, the tribesmen of Senegal and various other remote societies to make films about their drum music and language.

When the Mitchell-Ruff Duo was formed in 1955 it had the advantage, Ruff recalls, of being the least expensive group in jazz, and it was therefore booked as the second act with the best and most expensive bands of the day - Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie - in Birdland, the Embers, the Vil

Product Description
In 1971 at Dartmouth College, Dizzy Gillespie and the Mitchell-Ruff Duo played together for the first time ever, although Dizzy’s various bands had shared the stage with the Duo many times at New York’s Birdland, and at other venues. Indirectly, Duke Ellington was responsible for the Dartmouth event, for some months earlier he had established a scholarship at Juilliard to honor Billy Strayhorn, who had died in 1967. For that, Ellington enlisted Lena Horne, Tony Bennett and a brilliant constellation of jazz luminaries to join him and his orchestra on stage at Lincoln Center. But Ellington also called me, "Say," he said, "since Strayhorn’s last composition was the Suite for your Duo, you fellows should play it at this concert. What better tribute to the man we all loved?

I noted that missing from the lineup was Dizzy, to which Duke replied, "He was already booked for an out of town engagement when I called him the other day." But when the big night rolled around and Mitchell and I had finished the Strayhorn Suite, none other than Dizzy bursts through the backstage door. Grabbing Mitchell and me in a bear hug of crushing strength, he said, "Boy, I gave a taxi driver a BIG tip to get me here from the airport. I heard that glorious Suite. What a tribute to you guys! Why haven’t the three of us ever worked together? I’m ready, right now!"

My chance to make that happen came when Dartmouth College invited Mitchell and me to be artists in residence. When we invited Dizzy to join us in a public concert, I could not have known that it would be the beginning of a relationship that would last to the end of his busy days.

I know how thrilled Dizzy would be to know that this CD, recorded live at Dartmouth, is the first of a scheduled set of releases that includes instructional films, oral histories and seminal ethnomusicological documentaries. A film with Dizzy and Bessie Jones, the noted St. Simons Island, Georgia, singer/storyteller, examines musical children’s games that have survived since slavery.

Also slated for release is "The Beginnings of Bebop," a program in which Dizzy hosts a walking tour of musical New York filmed partially in Miles Davis’ upper Manhattan home, and at various other jazz landmarks in Harlem and Midtown.

— Willie Ruff

Dizzy Gillespie & The Mitchell-Ruff Duo, V. 1,Dizzy Gillespie & The Mitchell-Ruff Duo,Kepler Label,Jazz

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