Perth jazz pianist Harry Mitchell was still in his teens the time he played with Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts. ``I guess I got lucky,’’ he says of that night back in 2014 when the Rolling Stones drummer dropped into Perth’s Ellington Jazz Club.
It just happened that nineteen-year-old Mitchell, then a student and regular performer at the club, was a last moment replacement for the club’s owner and pianist Graham Wood who was too ill to play. The guest artist was US saxophonist and Rolling Stones sideman Tim Ries who suggested Watts drop by after the Stones concert that night was canceled.
``Charlie was cool, he had a nice feel, and was friendly with all of us’’ Mitchell recalls of the forty-five minutes the Stones man spent playing with the band. However he discloses that he preferred it when Ben (Perth’s Ben Vanderwal and the band’s drummer that night) was playing. ``Will I get shot for saying that?’’ he asks.
Since then, the prolific Mitchell has released six albums under his own name, all with original compositions of his. He was named Young Australian Jazz Musician of the Year at the 2017 Australian Bell Jazz Awards. The following year he won the West Australian Music (WAM) award for Best Pianist. As well, he carried off the WAM Best Jazz Song award in 2017, 2018 and 2020.
Harry has played in the Perth International Jazz Festival, Sydney Con Jazz Festival, Melbourne Jazz Festival, the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues and the Ubud Village Jazz Festival in Bali. Harry was selected as a finalist in the Wangaratta Jazz Festival’s 2021 National Jazz Awards’ piano competition. He has backed a range of artists from Australia’s Kate Ceberano to American saxophonist George Garzone, and renowned vocalist Veronica Swift.
One of a plethora of exciting, young jazz musicians coming out of Perth in recent years, Harry was exposed to music at an early age. His father, a school principal, was a struggling teacher back then and supplemented his income as a DJ at clubs and parties on weekends. By eight Harry was learning piano and guitar.
His jazz awakening came four years later when he heard his classroom music teacher’s big band. It was a turning point. ``I basically begged the teacher to teach me jazz. He was a classroom teacher and he wasn’t really teaching one to one but he made an exception for me which was pretty lucky for me,’’ he says.
Another major influence was a trio with pianist Aaron Choulai, bassist Sam Anning and drummer Daniel Susnjar that performed at his school. ``They were amazing,’’ he recalls. But the clincher was when his father took him to hear a Western Australian group that featured trumpeter Mat Jodrell, guitarist Tim Jago, bassist Dane Alderson and drummer Andy Fisenden.
As soon as he finished school, Harry launched into a regular gig at Fremantle’s Mad Monk brewery. ``Things started happening from there,’’ he said.
At the same time, Harry was studying at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts with a Masters in Composition. This recognition of the importance of composing to having an original voice, was reflected in Harry’s first album, released when he was twenty-one.
``At the moment composing is a better form of self- expression to me than improvising because I can really take the time to make decisions. I guess you can expound on musical ideas for longer than in an improvised solo which I still love.’’ Also, he points out, ``composing is the same as improvising in that your personality comes out.’’
Harry has devised his own approach to composing, deciding first on various musical decisions, such as the harmonic movements, form, and motivic development, before writing a note. It is a method of writing that he continues to refine.
He cites American jazz musician and music educator Kenny Werner as the greatest influence of his music development. In his book Effortless Mastery, Werner talks about overcoming the fear of ghosts, the greats who have come before us, and the unrealistic expectations this can place on musicians.
Harry leads a number of bands including the Harry Mitchell Quintet, his standards band TrioTrio, with Vanderwal and bassist Karl Florisson which has released four albums, with a live album release featuring saxophonist James Sandon in the pipeline. There is also his country music infused trio, Quiet Country with Vanderwal and guitarist Harry Winton that plays originals and covers; and there was his acclaimed Paul Simon project with singer Allira Wilson.
Unlike America where jazz guitarist Bill Frisell, another influence has been hailed for his excursions into country music, Harry laments that country music has a certain stigma in Australia. But he is not interested in chasing what is popular. His guiding principle is ``striving for the artistic merit of the thing you are doing.’’