George Mitchell was so significant for his playing on many of Jelly Roll Morton's best recordings in the 1920s that it is surprising that he spent his last 40 years outside of music, living in obscurity. Mitchell, who began playing cornet when he was 12, started out playing professionally in Louisville. In addition to playing in brass bands and in theaters, he toured the South with the Rabbit's Foot Minstrel Show. Mitchell first visited Chicago in late 1919 when he freelanced and worked with Tony Jackson. He toured Canada from 1921-22 with Clarence Miller, worked for a short time in Milwaukee with Doc Holly and then settled permanently in Chicago. The cornetist played with Carroll Dickerson (1923-24), Doc Cook (1924-25 and 1927-29), Jimmie Noone, Lil Armstrong (1925-26), Dave Peyton and the first Earl Hines big band (1929-31) before dropping out of music to become a bank messenger (working until the early 1960s). Although Mitchell played occasionally with concert orchestras in the 1930s, his significance to jazz ended in 1931. Mitchell's recordings with Morton (1926-27) found him displaying a beautiful tone, a solid improvising style and the ability to perfectly convey Morton's ideas. In addition, Mitchell (who never led his own record date) also recorded quite brilliantly with the New Orleans Wanderers and the New Orleans Bootblacks in 1926 (both were really the Louis Armstrong Hot Five with Mitchell in Armstrong's place), Johnny Dodds and Hines. Unfortunately, he was never part of the later classic jazz revival movements. ~ Scott Yanow, Rovi