Mitch Mitchell: Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer, decoded
Mitch Mitchell drummed in The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1966-1969) and Band of Gypsys (briefly), anchoring Hendrix's catalog through his 1970 death. The psychedelic-rock drumming canon's most jazz-influenced pioneer + the bridge between Elvin Jones's free jazz and rock drumming.
Jimi Hendrix Experience · reviewed by the Change Your Strings editorial team ·
Mitch Mitchell (born July 9, 1946, Ealing; died November 12, 2008, Portland, Oregon) drummed in The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1966-1969) across all three studio albums (Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold as Love, Electric Ladyland) and stayed with Hendrix through his 1970 death. The psychedelic-rock drumming canon's most jazz-influenced pioneer, drawing on Elvin Jones's Coltrane Quartet vocabulary. Kit history: Premier, then mostly Ludwig through the Hendrix years, later Gretsch, Hayman, and DW; predominantly Zildjian cymbals. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1992).
Who Mitch Mitchell is
John Ronald 'Mitch' Mitchell, born July 9, 1946, in Ealing, London, drummed in The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1966-1969) across the band's three studio records (Are You Experienced, 1967; Axis: Bold as Love, 1967; Electric Ladyland, 1968) and continued with Hendrix through his September 1970 death.
The psychedelic-rock drumming canon's most jazz-influenced pioneer; Wikipedia names Elvin Jones (the John Coltrane Quartet drummer, 1960-1966) among Mitchell's chief influences, and the Hendrix catalog's polyrhythmic + free-time passages directly draw on that jazz vocabulary.
Mitchell died in Portland, Oregon, on November 12, 2008, of natural causes at age 62.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1992).
Style signatures
Three things across the Hendrix catalog you can identify as Mitchell's:
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Polyrhythmic tom + cymbal patterns from the Elvin Jones lineage. 'Manic Depression' (waltz time inside rock context) + 'If 6 Was 9' (free-rhythm passages) are canonical.
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Sustained ride-cymbal density. Jazz drumming vocabulary applied inside rock arrangements; few rock pioneers brought as much ride density as Mitchell.
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Open-form arrangement support. Hendrix's long-form jams ('Voodoo Child (Slight Return),' the Woodstock 'Star-Spangled Banner') depend on Mitchell's ability to navigate without conventional time-keeping.
Documented gear
Mitchell's kit brand changed more than most drummers of his stature across the Hendrix years. Wikipedia's own sourced account (citing a 2022 Drum History Podcast interview with Mitch Mitchell historian Kevin John Simon, who has built museum-quality replicas of Mitchell's 1967, 1968, and 1969 kits) and Bob Henrit's independent professional account on Mike Dolbear trace the same rough sequence.
- Premier (early 1967). Mitchell debuted with the Experience on a Premier kit in England and Europe, and was still playing it that June at the Monterey Pop Festival.
- Ludwig (mid-1967 through 1969). His primary touring and studio kit for most of the Hendrix years, including a Silver Sparkle set acquired in the US at Monterey that the Musicians Hall of Fame, its current permanent owner, calls "Mitchell's favorite set of drums." Axis: Bold as Love and Electric Ladyland were both recorded during this period. His snare stayed constant throughout his time with the JHE, per Wikipedia: a Ludwig Supraphonic 400 (5x14 metal shell), reviewed on its own page below, the one exception being a Rodgers Powertone at Woodstock (August 1969).
- Gretsch (multiple points, including a 1970 double-bass kit). Mitchell told DRUM! Magazine in 2012 he showed up to a Miles Davis-orbit session in New York "with a brand new Gretsch kit from Tony Williams," and still owned it as of that interview. Julien's Auctions/JustCollecting separately documents a different Gretsch kit used in the studio and during rehearsals for the Rolling Stones' Rock and Roll Circus TV special (December 1968), plus his final Hendrix-era setup, a double-bass Gretsch kit in 1970, per Wikipedia.
- Hayman, then DW. Wikipedia documents a Hayman-drums show in Raleigh, NC (April 11, 1969), though flags that detail as needing its own citation; Henrit's independent account corroborates the move without giving an exact date, and separately confirms Mitchell was playing DW by his later years, until his 2008 death.
- Cymbals: mostly Zildjian, some Paiste. Henrit's account is explicit that Mitchell mixed Zildjian and Paiste but leaned Zildjian. A pair of cymbals Mitchell owned (a 14-inch Zildjian hi-hat top and an 18-inch Zildjian crash) has sold at a UK auction house alongside a pair of his Zildjian "Super Funk" drumsticks, a model not in Zildjian's current stick catalog. Mitchell died in November 2008 shortly before he was due to receive a Zildjian Lifetime Achievement Award.
Full review of his documented Hendrix-era snare: Ludwig Supraphonic LM400.
Supraphonic LM400
Why this one: Wikipedia's sourced kit history documents this exact 5x14 Ludwig Supraphonic 400 as Mitchell's constant snare throughout his Jimi Hendrix Experience years, regardless of which brand the rest of his kit was that year.
Related
The catalog. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Are You Experienced (1967) through Electric Ladyland (1968). Plus posthumous First Rays of the New Rising Sun (1997).
Documented gear. Ludwig Supraphonic LM400 snare drum.
Drummer hub. Drummers index. Jazz-into-rock canon parallel: Elvin Jones (John Coltrane Quartet), Tony Williams (Miles Davis Quintet).