To jazz musicians who are well aware that there exists an underground history of the music they love, the names or Dwike Mitchell and Willie Ruff have great significance.  No fanfare accompanies the all-too-infrequent release of their recordings, no “pick-hit” blurb shows up in People magazine or Downbeat, no major label promoters line up to court them for some honour.  Pianist Mitchell and bassist/French horn player Ruff exist in a kind of timeless limbo, suspended between between the wonderkinder of jazz and the brand-names that make up 99% of the JVC Jazz Festival.

David Arner: In a Category of One

A commanding technique and orchestral palette

But the players know, and that includes everyone from Miles David to Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington to Count Basie, and at least a handful of Woodstockers.  First among the local players is David Arner, whose commanding technique and orchestral palette place him in a category of one when it comes to pianism.  A long time student of Dwike Mitchell’s, I thought I’d let Arner speak about his mentor.

Praise for Dwike Mitchell

“Well, Dwike is the quiet genius in jazz,” says Arner.  “For five years or so, I soaked it up from him- the profound rhythms and absolutely kaleidoscopic harmonies!  The harmonies will astound you, but the rhythm is really unique.  That’s why Dizzy went out of his way to do concerts and a few recordings with Mitchell-Ruff.  The rhythms are rhythms of elation, of unbounded joy, and you can hear it so well without any drums in the mix.”

Yes, the harmony will astound you.  It will astound you this Saturday, July 10th [1993], when Music in the Mountains presents the Dwike Mitchell-Willie Ruff Duo in a double bill at SUNY New Paltz, a children’s concert in the afternoon and a regular gig in the evening.

And it astounded me over 20 years ago when I caught Dwike Mitchell solo at the Carlyle Hotel in New York…

Joe Giardullo, Woodstock Times (NY), July 8 1993