Mitchel Forman
Encyclopedia
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
keyboard player currently residing in Southern California.
Biography & Music Career
Manhattan School of Music
The Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...
for three years of study and began working with bands in New York. Shortly after graduating from MSM Mitchel began touring and recording with Gerry Mulligan
Gerry Mulligan
Gerald Joseph "Gerry" Mulligan was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and arranger. Though Mulligan is primarily known as one of the leading baritone saxophonists in jazz history – playing the instrument with a light and airy tone in the era of cool jazz – he was also...
, playing in both his big band and quartet, and work with Stan Getz
Stan Getz
Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...
followed. In 1980 his solo career began with a piano performance at the Newport Jazz Festival
Newport Jazz Festival
The Newport Jazz Festival is a music festival held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island, USA. It was established in 1954 by socialite Elaine Lorillard, who, together with husband Louis Lorillard, financed the festival for many years. The couple hired jazz impresario George Wein to organize the...
. This recording became Mitchel's first album, Live at Newport. In subsequent years Forman worked on the road with Phil Woods
Phil Woods
Philip Wells Woods is an American jazz bebop alto saxophonist, clarinetist, bandleader and composer.-Biography:...
, Carla Bley
Carla Bley
Carla Bley, née Borg, is an American jazz composer, pianist, organist and band leader. An important figure in the Free Jazz movement of the 1960s, she is perhaps best known for her jazz opera Escalator Over The Hill , as well as a book of compositions that have been performed by many other...
, Mel Tormé
Mel Tormé
Melvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...
, and Astrud Gilberto
Astrud Gilberto
Astrud Gilberto is a Brazilian samba and bossa nova singer. She is well known for the Grammy Award-winning song "The Girl from Ipanema".-Biography:...
. He also recorded two solo piano albums for Soul Note and toured in Europe regularly. Forman then joined guitarist John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin (musician)
John McLaughlin , also known as Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, is an English guitarist, bandleader and composer...
for a year and a half on the road, recording and contributing to two of the band's recordings - the seminal Mahavishnu
Mahavishnu (album)
Mahavishnu is an album by the Mahavishnu Orchestra, released in 1984 by Warner Bros. Records. In 1980's, McLaughlin reformed the Mahavishnu Orchestra for release of the two albums Mahavishnu and Adventures in Radioland...
and Adventures in Radioland
Adventures in Radioland
Adventures in Radioland is a 1987 album by the John McLaughlin-headed group Mahavishnu, released by the Relativity label which represents McLauglin's interest in electronic technology...
. Mitchel then joined ex-Weather Report
Weather Report
Weather Report was an American jazz-rock band of the 1970s and early 1980s. The band was co-led by the Austrian-born keyboard player Joe Zawinul and the American saxophonist Wayne Shorter...
saxophonist Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter is an American jazz saxophonist and composer.He is generally acknowledged to be jazz's greatest living composer, and many of his compositions have become standards...
, touring, recording and contributing to Shorter's Phantom Navigator
Phantom Navigator
Phantom Navigator is an album by jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter, that was released on Columbia in 1986.-Reception:The Allmusic review by Richard S. Ginell awarded the album 1.5 stars stating "On a sheer technical level, Wayne's soprano and tenor work is alright, yet on "Yamanja" he does a...
.
In 1985, Forman began leading his own band and recorded his group debut for Magenta Records (a division of Windham Hill), Train of Thought. At the same time he continued to work with other well-known jazz and music figures including guitarist John Scofield
John Scofield
John Scofield , often referred to as "Sco," is an American jazz guitarist and composer, who has played and collaborated with Miles Davis, Dave Liebman, Joe Henderson, Charles Mingus, Joey Defrancesco, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell, Pat Martino, Mavis Staples, Phil Lesh, Billy Cobham,...
("Blue Matter"), Mike Stern
Mike Stern
Mike Stern is an American jazz guitarist. After playing for a few years with Blood, Sweat & Tears, he landed a gig with Billy Cobham and then broke through with Miles Davis' comeback band from 1981 to 1983, and again in 1985. Since then, he launched a solo career, releasing more than a dozen albums...
("Upside Downside"), Janis Siegel of The Manhattan Transfer
The Manhattan Transfer
The Manhattan Transfer is an American vocal music group. There have been two manifestations of the group, with Tim Hauser being the only person to be part of both...
, Dave Samuels
Dave Samuels
Dave Samuels is an American vibraphone player who has worked with various jazz and fusion artists, such as Spyro Gyra. Currently, he plays in an ensemble called The Caribbean Jazz Project, a Grammy-winning jazz-Latin music group...
, Diane Schuur
Diane Schuur
Diane Schuur is an American jazz singer and pianist. Nicknamed "Deedles", she has won two Grammy Awards, headlined many of the world's most prestigious music venues, including Carnegie Hall and The White House and has toured the world performing with such greats as Quincy Jones, Stan Getz, B. B...
, Gary Burton
Gary Burton
Gary Burton is an American jazz vibraphonist.A true original on the vibraphone, Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the usual two-mallets. This approach caused Burton to be heralded as an innovator and his sound and technique are widely imitated...
("Reunion"), Pat Metheny
Pat Metheny
Patrick Bruce "Pat" Metheny is an American jazz guitarist and composer.One of the most successful and critically acclaimed jazz musicians to come to prominence in the 1970s and '80s, he is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works and other side projects...
, Simon Phillips
Simon Phillips
Simon Phillips is an English jazz, pop and rock drummer.-Career:Phillips began to play professionally at the age of twelve in his father's Dixieland band for four years. He was then offered the chance to play in the musical Jesus Christ Superstar...
, Jimmy Earl
Jimmy Earl
Jimmy Earl is an American jazz musician and composer. He has released two studio albums and recorded extensively. He has toured the world with major artists. He is ranked #22 on the DigitalDreamDoor list of greatest fusion bassists...
, Freddie Hubbard
Freddie Hubbard
Frederick Dewayne "Freddie" Hubbard was an American jazz trumpeter. He was known primarily for playing in the bebop, hard bop and post bop styles from the early 1960s and on...
, saxophonist Bill Evans and Rickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee Jones is an American vocalist, musician, songwriter, and producer. Over the course of a three-decade career, Jones has recorded in various musical styles including rock, R&B, blues, pop, soul, and jazz standards.-Childhood:...
. Forman's 1992 tribute to the late pianist Bill Evans
Bill Evans
William John Evans, known as Bill Evans was an American jazz pianist. His use of impressionist harmony, inventive interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines influenced a generation of pianists including: Chick Corea, Herbie...
, "Now & Then", was particularly well regarded []. Most of Forman's recordings are of the fusion or jazz genre, however, 1998's Harvest Song features 15 solo piano tracks [].
Forman continues to record and play under his own name and has recently started his own record label, Marsis Jazz. His most recent releases have been Mr. Clean and Patience, both on Marsis. He also co-leads the band Metro with guitarist Chuck Loeb
Chuck Loeb
Chuck Loeb is a guitarist who performs numerous styles of music, most notably jazz. Loeb's own solo projects have generally been commercially successful crossover jazz, which has "contemporary" or "smooth" jazz....
. Metro's five albums, the debut Metro, the follow-up Tree People (Lipstick), Metrocafé, Grapevine and Metrolive have all met with critical acclaim. The quartet with Wolfgang Haffner
Wolfgang Haffner
He is currently associated with the band Wolf Gang Haffner.Wolfgang Haffner is a German jazz drummer with an extensive discography.-Discography:* 2009 – Round Silence* 2008 – Acoustic Shapes...
on drums and Mel Brown
Mel Brown
Mel Brown was an American-born blues guitarist.Brown was nominated for a Juno Award in both 2001 and 2002.Brown, a long-time smoker, died aged 69, on March 20, 2009, in Kitchener, Ontario, of complications from emphysema....
on bass tours annually in Europe. Mitchel has been a member of the Rick Braun
Rick Braun
Rick Braun is a smooth jazz trumpet player.Before embarking on a solo career, Braun got his start by playing in several bands, including guitarist Jeff Golub's Avenue Blue...
band for the last three years, a member of the new BWB band
BWB (band)
Brown-Whalum-Braun, better known as BWB, is a jazz band that is named after its three members: guitarist Norman Brown, saxophonist Kirk Whalum, and trumpeter Rick Braun.- Session :...
, has been featured on the last three Jeff Golub
Jeff Golub
Jeff Golub is an American jazz guitarist.- Biography :Jeff Golub is a contemporary jazz guitarist with 11 solo albums and 3 CD's as the leader of the instrumental band "Avenue Blue"...
CDs, and as of 2006 was performing around Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
with drummer Virgil Donati
Virgil Donati
Virgil Donati is an Australian drummer, frequent drum clinician and a producer. He is currently playing with the band Planet X and Seven the Hardway among other projects. Virgil is perhaps most well known for his fast, highly technical drumming skills...
, as well as with his own groups.
Musical Influences
Forman has pointed to a number of legendary jazz pianists as his "first heroes", including Oscar PetersonOscar Peterson
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career...
, Bill Evans
Bill Evans
William John Evans, known as Bill Evans was an American jazz pianist. His use of impressionist harmony, inventive interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines influenced a generation of pianists including: Chick Corea, Herbie...
, McCoy Tyner
McCoy Tyner
McCoy Tyner is a jazz pianist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet and a long solo career.-Early life:...
, Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
, Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
, Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett is an American pianist and composer who performs both jazz and classical music.Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey, moving on to play with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s he has enjoyed a great deal of success in jazz, jazz fusion, and classical music; as...
and Chick Corea
Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/iviews/mforman.htm.
Discography
Solo Artist- Childhood Dreams (1982)
- Only a Memory (1982)
- Train of Thought (1985)
- Now & Then: A Tribute to Bill Evans (1992) (4.5 of 5 stars, Allmusic)
- Hand Made (1993)
- Harvest Song (1998)
- Patience (2000)
- Mr. Clean (live) (2001)
- Perspectives (2006)
- Lost and Found (2010)
With Metro
- Metro (1994) (4 of 5 stars, Allmusic)
- Tree People (1995)
- Metrocafé (2000)
- Grapevine (2002)
- Metro Live at the A-Trane (2004)
- Express (2007)
With John McLaughlin
- Mahavishnu (1984)
- Adventures in Radioland (1986)
External links
- Official site (see Discussion).
- MySpace site
- [ Allmusic]
- Artist Direct
- All About Jazz interview, February 2001
- Home video of Forman improvising, 1991