Willie Mitchell R.I.P.

:(

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/jan/05/musician-music-producer-willie-mitchell-dies-age-8/?partner=RSS

Aw sadness. :(

R.I.P

Quite a career.

odd URL; I was like "wait, 8-year-old producer" for nanosecond

oh no :(

i just happened to be listening to 'memphis unlimited' by o.v. wright on the way into work this morning, my girl and i were talking about his sound. and i come into work to see this.

:-(

that 70s hi records stuff is just.... holy shit that stuff is beautifully arranged and produced.

There is a great moment in Francis Davis's Blues book where he contrasts having been bored to distraction at some big blues festival with driving in the rain and then hearing some deejay on the car radio do a little O.V. Wright tribute.

Oh, man, listening to the Royal Memphis Soul box right now. Rest in peace, Willie Mitchell.

I used to go down to South Memphis and just look at the outside of Royal, where Mitchell made those records. Back when you could go and see Stax as a parking lot, eat tamales and barbecue. I recently got into O.V. Wright pretty seriously, and while Wright's voice faded after the early '70s, making his last couple albums with Mitchell not as great as the Wright of "Nickel and a Nail" and so forth, they're still very good. Also picked up this Jimmy McCracklin album that Mitchell made with the Hi guys, quite good. Ann Peebles. What was interesting about Mitchell is the way he synthesized jazz and blues and rock 'n' roll, in the same way I guess those Bill Black Combo records did. So his importance is not merely due to his production aesthetic, altho that's something else entirely (no one recorded snare drums like Mitchell, and when you listen to Wright or McCracklin the sound is slightly deja vu, since you already internalized it on all those Al Green hits), but to his musical savvy and awareness of the bigger picture. The instrumentals on the Hi box that appeared about 15 years ago are all amazing, and actually sport real content, which isn't always the case with instrumentals. A great musician.

Let's Straighten It Out by O.V. Wright is so good. He might be Mitchell's best work as a producer.

2 hour tribute on WEVL 10 pm central tomorrow night

Gonna play I Can't Stand the Rain LP now.

Love that song, need that album.

I presume he did Otis Clay also? I like that stuff a whole bunch as well. Great drum sound. This guy must have had quite a few stories.

from WEVL dj doing tribute 2nite:
A full 2 hour tribute to POPPA WILLIE MITCHELL tonight at 10PM.
Doing this one right with the help of Al, Ann, Don, Otis, O.V., Syl, and more. If I don't own any physical evidence that he produced it, I ain't playing it. Tons of killer sides of Willie's own tunes as well.
... http://www.wevl.org/

from Oxford American & Mojo contributor Andria Lisle:
http://www.memphisflyer.com/SingAllKinds/archives/2010/01/05/rip-poppa-willie-mitchell

Terry Gross of NPR's Fresh Air show re-ran some of her nice Al Green and Willie Mitchell interviews from '95. Worth listening to--

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122280649

http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=122280649&m=122282088

There is a great moment in Francis Davis's Blues book where he contrasts having been bored to distraction at some big blues festival with driving in the rain and then hearing some deejay on the car radio do a little O.V. Wright tribute.

― nico anemic cinema icon (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, January 5, 2010

That was the late D.C. dj Jerry "the Bama" Washington. I first heard O.V. Wright on his Saturday radio show