The Musical Box

mitch mitchell in 2007. photo by kieran doherty/reuters.

When the touring tribute ensemble Experience Hendrix dug into The Wind Cries Mary two weeks ago at the Kentucky Center for the Arts in Louisville, all eyes were on the star performers.

Singing lead was young guitar buck Jonny Lang. Shredding another set of strings was Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford. Behind the third of three drum kits was Chris Layton, the beat-keeper for Steve Ray Vaughan’s Double Trouble band.

Sitting behind the second kit, almost innocuously, was Mitch Mitchell. On the surface, he didn’t seem to be adding much. Mitchell tended to roam about the stage that night, sitting in when a particular song suited him with a rhythm that was, to say the least, casual.

But Mitchell possessed something essential to an A-list concert tribute to the great Jimi Hendrix. He was living history. Specifically, he was the last surviving member of the guitarist’s seminal late ‘60s trio, The Jimi Hendrix Experience. That he didn’t even attempt to recreate in Louisville the fire he, Hendrix and bassist Noel Redding summoned on three groundbreaking studio albums - 1967’s Are You Experienced? and Axis: Bold as Love and 1968’s Electric Ladyland  - was almost beside the point. He was the living link to the man himself. Until yesterday.

With Experience Hendrix’s 18 city tour complete, Mitchell was found dead yesterday in a Portland, Oregon hotel room. The only official reason being given so far is “natural causes.” He was 62.

the jimi hendrix experience in 1967: mitch mitchell, jimi hendrix, noel redding.

While no one upstaged Hendrix in his heyday, Mitchell often shadowed him beautifully. He was there when the Experience’s music - a stormy, psychedelic and blues drenched circus - invaded American shores after having conquered England in 1967. Check out the extraordinary concert collection Live at Monterey (which was re-issued last year), the two-disc BBC Sessions (compiled and issued in 1998) or even the familiar studio debut Are You Experienced? for optimal insight into the very rockish road Mitchell navigated with Hendrix.

On Electric Ladyland, the last album by the original Experience, the changes were advancing rapidly upon the guitarist’s music. Mitchell never missed a beat once they arrived. The pop rumble of Crosstown Traffic, the blues strain of Voodoo Chile (the first of Ladyland’s two versions), the Traffic-like psychedelic abandon of Burning of the Midnight Lamp, the loose-fitting swing of Rainy Day, Dream Away and the darkly majestic re-make of Bob Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower - this was, collectively, Hendrix’s best work. Throughout it all, Mitchell was the anchor as Hendrix’s guitarwork scaled the heavens.

Finally, there was the second Experience band with Billy Cox (who also performed with Experience Hendrix) replacing Redding. The music became more elemental. The groove became earthier. There were also touches of jazz, especially in the music captured on the flawed but still vital Blue Wild Angel, a 2002 set that chronicled Hendrix’s set at the Isle of Wight Festival shortly before his death in 1970.

Had Hendrix lived to further explore the R&B and jazz elements forecasted on Blue Wild Angel, Mitchell would have likely been an eager and industrious co-pilot.

My favorite Hendrix/Mitchell moment: a 1969 blues jam version of Villanova Junction from a limited edition 2004 CD of the same name. It is a glorious 27 minute instrumental jam with the guitarist and drummer conversing, constructing and merrily locking horns.

At the end of the Experience Hendrix concert in Louisville, Mitchell took the microphone as the ensemble gathered for a final bow and bid the crowd good night in a broken British dialect that recalled Keith Richards. An electric smile beamed across his face.

And why not? His greatest music was being celebrated right alongside the career triumphs of Hendrix. In short, another generation had experienced the Experience.