Mitchell Coleman Jr.

熱門歌曲 歷年精選 簡介

Fans of slammin’ yet radio-ready Jazz-Funk Fusion will rejoice upon the discovery of bassist/composer Mitchell Coleman Jr., a disciple of the Stanley Clarke, Larry Graham, Louis Johnson and Marcus Miller schools of The Throwdown. With the release of his debut CD, Soul Searching - a musical journey of self-exploration - Mitchell has fulfilled a lifelong dream to express the music that’s been on his heart since he began thumpin’ basses at the tender age of 10.

Independently released on Mitchell’s own Soul Revelation Music label, the 13-song Soul Searching finds the man composing 11 of the pieces plus choosing 2 exquisitely inspired classics to cover: “When Your Life Was Low” (a song made famous in 1999 as performed by singer Lalah Hathaway, lyricized by prolific Will Jennings with music by the late, great Crusaders keyboardist/composer Joe Sample to whom Coleman’s performance is humbly dedicated) and Earth Wind & Fire’s 1975 gem “That’s The Way of The World” (simply because “the words always moved me”). Mitchell is also the co-arranger and co-producer of all the material including the singles “Passport” (his first) and “Flow” (his latest). His production collaborators are Motown veteran Michael B. Sutton (who handled “Flow,” “When Your Life Was Low” and “Ethiopia Love”) and Herman “Hollywood” Dawkins, Mitchell’s keyboard-playing ace who handled the rest.

Throughout Soul Searching, listeners are treated to generous slabs of Funk-Jazz at its fieriest be it “Déjà vu” or “Just One More Hit” (both influenced by Ohio funk band Slave’s bass master “Mr. Mark” Adams and its horn section, respectively), “Overload” (with it’s hook lifted from bassist Robert Wilson & The GAP Band’s “Oops Upside Your Head”), “Come Up” (reminiscent of Chicago tenor sax legend Eddie Harris’ million-seller “Listen Here”), and the CD-closer “Liberation.”

On the heavier side are the astounding “Ethiopia Love” (inspired by a sojourn to meet his wife’s family), “Secrets” (Mitchell’s impressions of “Prince of Darkness” Jazz icon Miles Davis whose Tutu poster adorns his home studio) and “Genesis” – the very first song Mitchell ever composed at age 14.

Addressing his single releases, Mitchell elaborates, “‘Flow’ is just a lil’ somethin’ to get folks up on their feet to let their body go (check the vocal hook). With ‘Passport,’ I’m letting you know I am the torch carrier of this music. Whenever The Land of Funk is your destination, ‘Passport’ is your ticket to enter.”

Mitchell Coleman Jr. was born the day after Christmas of `67 in Meridian, Mississippi. He spent his early years in Cuba, Alabama. When his father returned home from Vietnam, he moved the family first to Hartford then Bloomfield, Connecticut. There, Mitchell fell in love hard with electric bass. “In Bloomfield, nobody was into basketball or anything like that - everybody played bass. My friend Greg Carrington was THE baddest bass player in town – a beast to bow down to. I begged him to teach me. He and Kevin Weaverbey laid it all out for me. The first song I ever learned was “Just the Two of Us” by Grover Washington, Jr. & Bill Withers with Marcus Miller on bass - then came the calluses and blisters.”

Mitchell received full support from his family, especially his mother Mary Ruth Coleman who bought him his first bass (a short-neck Sears special for kids that Mitchell wound up detuning to get the sounds he wanted – ironically helping him develop the sounds he gets now) and his Aunt Orcie Delaine who used her credit card to buy his first real bass. When his parents divorced, Mitchell moved back to Alabama but all his cousins and friends had moved away. “Bass became my babysitter,” Mitchell states. And once again Marcus Miller proved inspirational when Mitchell discovered what became the Funk-Jazz blend of his wildest dreams in David Sanborn’s LP, Straight From The Heart. It was really on now.

During a stint in the United States Air Force (45th Group - telecommunications), the outfit forced Mitchell into a talent show where he won First Place performing his original song, “That’s Life.” He began to gig around the Rome and Syracuse, New York blues clubs surrounding Griffith Air Force Base with a group led by Rick Montalbano (future MD for Lou Rawls). He also took two semesters of music theory classes to further improve his craft. And closely watching the sidemen of artists ranging from Be-Bop king Dizzy Gillespie to Quiet Storm queen Anita Baker further illuminated the art of the bass’ supportive role within the music.

Straight out of the service, Mitchell moved to Hollywood intending to study at B.I.T. (Bass Institute of Technology) but had to pay the bills with electrical engineering jobs. However, the universe found another way to provide Mitchell a final profound education upon his introduction to the music of master fretless electric bassist Jaco Pastorius, thanks to a music store clerk that sent him home with the artist’s self-titled debut LP. “At first, discovering Jaco depressed me by revealing how much I didn’t know,” Mitchell admits. “Then he inspired me by showing me how much further I could go. His song ‘Portrait of Tracy’ really messed me up. Learning how to play it took me to another plateau.”

Soon after a chance meeting with Otis Williams, founding member of Motown’s The Temptations (to whom his military buddy Terry Weeks became a member), Mitchell found himself in the mix of music’s unsung behind the scenes side. He began studio work with a group called Ninth Chakra led by Cario Johnson. And it was at one of those sessions that Mitchell met keyboardist Herman “Hollywood” Dawkins – a soul mate in the mission of Jazz-Funk Fusion. “The first time we hit, we were like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups: ‘Man, you got jazz on my funk…and it’s soundin’ really good!’ Hollywood is the mastermind of making what’s in my head tangible. Our motto is: With Funk as our vehicle let Jazz be our journey.”

Together, Mitchell and Hollywood cooked up what became the initial tracks for his debut CD, Soul Searching, fortified by the presence of top shelf talents such as keyboardist Deron Johnson, guitarists Kayta Matsuno and Sean Fabian, saxophonists Tim Anderson and Sal Avila, veteran vocalists Jim Gilstrap, Pamela & Joyce Vincent, and newcomer singers Sean Thomas and Nodesha. After Mitchell pressed and sold copies of that first version of the CD on-line, a mutual friend steered veteran producer Michael B. Sutton his way who provided cherry on top polish to the proceedings. “Michael is a great guy – he spoke my language and I fell in love with him right away,” Mitchell says. “As a producer and consultant, he is a gatekeeper with great ideas which I needed and appreciate.”

Essentially, Michael amplified the heart of Mitchell within three songs, including the funky single “Flow.” Deeper still were two others. First is the cinematically percussive “Ethiopia Love,” inspired by Mitchell’s wife Tsegereda. “I met her in Cali but I did not want to marry her without her father’s approval. So I made the 20 hour flight to Africa. When I arrived, it was like Eddie Murphy ‘Coming to America’ only in reverse - beautiful people, physically and spiritually. I dedicate ‘Ethiopia Love’ to the people of Ethiopia.” The other standout is “When Your Life Was Low,” another radio favorite featuring the voice of Michael’s daughter, Dionyza Sutton (Dionya pronounced dee-ahn-jah) with its profoundly moving lyrics. “In life, I’ve always been a giver…but givers always have to watch out for the takers,” Mitchell muses. “That song touched me in that respect.”

Now Mitchell Coleman Jr. is givin’ up the Funk-Jazz, merging the earthiness of the former with the mystique of the latter on a bumpin’ Soul Searching journey that – thankfully for him and his swiftly expanding audience – has only just begun.