Nicole Mitchell 1967(?)–

Jazz musician, educator

Flutist Nicole Mitchell plays one of the rarer instruments in modern jazz, and she has gone her own way in other respects as well. Her vast compositions, mostly for large groups, leave big spaces for improvisation by the individual players yet unfold according to a clear overall logic. Mitchell's music shares Afrocentric themes with the 1960s free jazz that was one of her main inspirations, yet she has been open to influences from various sources, including her training in classical music. A woman in a still largely male field, Mitchell has exercised her musical leadership skills with several distinct ensembles. As one of the most active musicians in jazz of the twenty-first century, she has been hailed as a key emerging musician, both among flutists in particular and in the jazz scene in general.

A native of Syracuse, New York, Mitchell was born around 1967. Her father, an engineer, moved the family to Anaheim, California, when she was eight years old, and she spent most of her youth in Southern California—and found that racist attitudes gave her more problems there than in Syracuse. For example, her neighbors told her not to stand in front of their house because her presence would drive down property values. With a natural aptitude for music, math, and physics, she started playing the piano and the viola in fourth grade. She switched to the flute at age fifteen, she told J. F. Tapiz of TomaJazz.com, because “the sound drew me in and I identified with it spiritually.” She tried out for her high school jazz band but was turned down because the director did not want to make the special effort necessary to allow a flute to be heard over trumpets and trombones.

Honed Craft on San Diego Streets

Enrolling at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD), Mitchell studied math while she thought about trying to become a classical flutist and listened to musicians such as Irish classical superstar James Galway. Her first extended exposure to playing jazz came as a sophomore at UCSD, when she took an improvisation class from jazz trombonist Jimmy Cheatham. Cheatham introduced her to the flute recordings of 1960s multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy, and she was instantly hooked. With little outlet for her jazz energies at UCSD once she was finished with Cheatham's course, she began performing on the streets of San Diego for spare change. Far from being immersed in her own world, she would tailor her improvisations according to her impressions of individual passers-by.

In 1987 Mitchell transferred to Oberlin College in Ohio, which had conservatory programs in both classical music and jazz. But she did not like the school's strongly competitive atmosphere, so she eventually left the program for a job as a welder in Los Angeles. In 1990 she moved to Chicago, having secured a foundation grant to do research on house music, but that project too ran aground after her grandfather, with whom she was living, threw her out because he disapproved of her staying out in clubs until the late-night hours when house music got cooking. Short on cash, she worked for the black-owned Third World Press and once again started playing music on the streets.

For a talented jazz player, street busking in downtown Chicago (her usual spot was the corner of Jackson and Wabash streets) was a better bet than San Diego: Chicago was home to a large community of progressive jazz players, many of whom were associated with a collective called the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). The collective dated back to the mid-1960s but was (and remains) a potent force in Chicago jazz, nurturing large, freeform ensembles that would influence Mitchell's own music profoundly. Other musicians she met on the street steered her toward the AACM, and soon she was playing in an all-female AACM group called Samana that experimented with vocals, hand percussion, and other instruments such as a sitar.

Encouraged to Start Band

Samana got attention in the Chicago jazz world, but then Mitchell's personal life took her on another detour: she became involved with a boyfriend, moved to New Orleans, and became pregnant. Her daughter, Aaya, was born in 1994, but the relationship with her boyfriend foundered. Between raising a toddler and taking classes at Chicago State University, where she received a bachelor's degree in 1998, she had little time for performing. Fellow musicians such as drummer Hamid Drake encouraged her, however. While the two were performing in the group that they started called Soundscapes, Mitchell recalled to Peter Margasak of the Chicago Reader, Drake “would say things like, ‘I wonder what Nicole Mitchell's band would sound like?’”

This question would be answered in 1997 when Mitchell met saxophonist David Boykin. The two became romantically and musically involved, and Boykin encouraged Mitchell to start a group of her own. The result was the Black Earth Ensemble, at first a sextet but eventually expanded to a rotating roster of some thirty players who could be called on to realize different kinds of compositional ideas. “It took about a year for me to feel comfortable with the group, but it was empowering to finally play and share this huge stack of compositions that I had,” Mitchell told Margasak. Boykin was part of the group at first, but when his individualistic style stopped meshing with the subtle group dynamics of Mitchell's pieces, he was dropped.

The Black Earth Ensemble toured widely, around the Midwest and later beyond. The group made three albums between 2001 and 2004: Vision Quest, Afrika Rising, and Hope, Future and Destiny. The group's music started from Mitchell's original compositions, long pieces that encompassed many styles and worlds from jazz of all periods to African rhythms, Caribbean sounds, and contemporary classical experiments. “I haven't ever played any music like the stuff she writes,” guitarist and frequent Mitchell collaborator Jeff Parker told Margasak. “You can feel the influence of her classical training because her music is really intricate and it's not as obviously coming from jazz.”

At a Glance …

Born in 1967(?) in Syracuse, NY; family moved to Anaheim, CA; one daughter, Aaya. Education: Attended University of California at San Diego and Oberlin College in Ohio, mid-1980s; Chicago State University, bachelor's degree, 1998; Northern Illinois University, master's degree, 2000.

Career: Moved to Chicago, 1990; worked for Third World Press publisher; joined group Samana, c. 1991; formed Black Earth Ensemble, 1997—; educator at various universities, 2000—; formed Dreamtime label, and released debut album, Vision Quest, 2001; formed Black Earth Strings; formed Tindanga Mama, 2006; Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians Creative Youth Orchestra, founder and director, 2006—; performed and recorded with Indigo Trio, 2007.

Memberships: Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.

Awards: Illinois Arts Council, fellow for music composition, 2002, 2005; Chicago Tribune, Chicagoan of the Year, 2006.

Addresses: Web—http://www.nicolemitchell.com.

Formed New Ensembles

Mitchell's musical leadership extended beyond the Black Earth Ensemble, which grew to a high of fifteen members. She formed the Black Earth Strings—bass, violin, cello, and flute—because, she told Tapiz, “I still had the desire for that chamber sound, that quiet intimate sound, that acoustic sound.” Mitchell also formed a third group, Tindanga Mama (Swahili for “she pushes through” or “she makes her way”), composed entirely of women, and she was also a member of the Indigo Trio, with Drake and bassist Harrison Bankhead, as well as several collectives including Frequency. In 2000 she earned a master's degree from Northern Illinois University, and since then she has been active as an educator. She has taught at Northern Illinois, Chicago State, Northeastern Illinois University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Wheaton College. In 2006 she founded and began to direct the AACM Creative Youth Orchestra, and she served as copresident of the AACM.

Mitchell issued the Black Earth Ensemble albums on her own Dreamtime label, which she formed with Boykin. The label, she told Tapiz, “was created out of the need for us to put out this music and make it available to share with people.” As Mitchell's renown grew, other labels became interested in issuing her work: The Indigo Trio album Live in Montreal appeared on the Greenleaf label in 2007, and a new Black Earth Ensemble album, Black Unstoppable, appeared on the durable Chicago jazz and blues label Delmark, also in 2007. New England's Firehouse 12 label planned a recording of Mitchell's composition Xenogenesis Suite, based on the writings of African-American science-fiction author Octavia Butler. Also, Dreamtime remained active by planning the release of a Mitchell solo CD, Duo With Deer Isle. The Xenogenesis Suite was commissioned by Chamber Music America, an organization that primarily promotes classical music, and was premiered at the 2007 Vision Festival in New York. Another new work, Many Paths Meet the Sea, was a tribute to jazz keyboardist Alice Coltrane; Mitchell led the premiere performance in the summer of 2007 at Chicago's new Millennium Park.

By 2007 Mitchell had begun to gain wider recognition. Her tours had taken her as far as Pisa, Italy, and in Paris she had conducted a residency with forty local musicians. She also fostered the creation of a new group, the Unity Orchestra. She was named the top rising star among flutists by Down Beat magazine for three years in a row. In 2006 the Chicago Tribune named her Chicagoan of the Year, and she was the recipient of several foundation and arts-organization grants. She had become a linchpin of Chicago's jazz scene, involved in numerous projects and nurturing many younger musicians. The free spirit of the AACM, it seemed, had been reborn and had begun to grow in the sounds of Nicole Mitchell's flute.

Selected discography

(With Black Earth Ensemble) Vision Quest, Dreamtime, 2001.

(With Black Earth Ensemble) Afrika Rising, Dreamtime, 2002.

(With Black Earth Ensemble) Hope, Future and Destiny, Dreamtime, 2004.

(With Frequency) Frequency, Thrill Jockey, 2006.

(With Indigo Trio) Live in Montreal, Greenleaf, 2007.

(With the Exploding Star Orchestra) We Are All From Somewhere Else, Thrill Jockey, 2007.

(With Black Earth Ensemble) Black Unstoppable, Delmark, 2007.

Sources

Online

Margasak, Peter, “An Improvised Life,” Chicago Reader,http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/nicolemitchell/ (accessed January 4, 2008).

Nicole Mitchell,http://www.nicolemitchell.com (accessed January 4, 2008).

Olson, Paul, “Nicole Mitchell: Flute, Healing and Wanting the Best,” All About Jazz,http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id_25563 (accessed January 4, 2008).

Tapiz, J. F., “Interview With Nicole Mitchell,” Toma Jazz.com,http://www.tomajazz.com/perfiles/mitchell_nicole_eng.htm (accessed January 4, 2008).

—James M. Manheim