John "Mitch" Mitchell, born July 9, 1947, in Ealing, Middlesex, England is a drummer
most well known for being a member of the Jimi Hendrix Experience. He actually started his performing career as a child actor appearing as the title character in the BBC series Jennings At Home. But by his teens, he concentrated on music.
Mitch played in various bands and as a session drummer before being invited to join the band of Georgie Fame, who had a couple of British hits in 1965. This job did not last all that long, but shortly after Mitchell and the rest of Fame's band were laid off, Chas Chandler (formerly of The Animals) gave Mitchell a call; he was now managing this American guitarist, Jimi Hendrix, who needed a band to play with. Supposedly Mitchell won out over Aynsley Dunbar for the drummer spot by a coin toss. He and Noel Redding joined the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1966.
The Experience became hugely famous and Mitchell was widely considered one of the best rock drummers. (In addition to performing with the Experience, he played with one-off "supergroup" Dirty Mac in the Rolling Stones' 1968 movie "Rock and Roll Circus" with John Lennon, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton and Yoko Ono.) The Experience only lasted until 1969, after which Hendrix formed the Band of Gypsys with Billy Cox on bass and Buddy Miles on drums. However, after a while, Mitchell came back to drum with Hendrix on tour; this was the situation when Hendrix died in September 1970.
Mitch did not record a whole lot since Hendrix's death. He did two albums in 1972 and 1973 as a member of Ramatam, which allmusic.com calls "a poor man's Blind Faith" with Mike Pinera of The Blues Image and a woman called April Lawton. Some rehearsals took place for a "Jack Bruce/Larry Coryell/Mitch Mitchell/Michael Mandell jazz/rock fusion band" which fell apart when Jack Bruce left for another project. He also co-wrote with John Platt a memoir of his Hendrix years, Jimi Hendrix: Inside the Experience. Early in 2004, Mitch Mitchell, along with Billy Cox, Paul Rodgers, Buddy Guy, Joe Satriani, Kid Rock's Kenny Olson, Alice in Chains' Jerry Cantrell, Double Trouble, Indigenous, Kenny Wayne Sheppard and blues legend Hubert Sumlin and performed 3 sold out shows in Seattle, Portland and San Francisco as "Experience Hendrix." This was followed by an "Experience Hendrix Tribute Tour" with various musicians. On the final leg of this tour Mitchell was found dead in a Portland, Oregon, hotel room on November 12, 2008, apparently of natural causes.
Sources:
http://www.drummerworld.com/drummers/Mitch_Mitchell.html
http://www.rock.co.za/files/jimi_hendrix_bio.html
http://music.iupui.edu/albright/mitchellmitch.html
http://www.ethanrussell.com/Gallery/g2-supergroup.html
http://www.1069thefox.com/artistoftheweek_jimihendrix.asp
http://www.drumsoloartist.com/Site/Drummers/MitchMitchell.html
http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/bio/0,,468989,00.html
http://www.blues101.org/biographies/biohendrix.htm
http://www.movie-pages.com/movie/the-rolling-stones-rock-and-roll-circus/B000621484/
http://www.paulrodgers.com/bio.htm
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/11/jimi_hendrixs_drummer_mitch_mi.html