Rubin Mitchell – Loosen Up
Rubin Mitchell
Listen/Download Rubin Mitchell – Loosen Up
Greetings all
The middle of the week is here, and so is our second groovy instro.
This is another one of those 45s that I happened upon when perusing a friend’s sale list.
Never heard if it before, but as soon as I played the clip, knew I wanted a copy.
The tune – ‘Loosen Up’ – is a titular, if not sonic response to Archie Bell and the Drells and the sounds within are every interesting indeed.
A close look at the label and a little digging provide some perspective as to why.
The first thing I noticed – after listening, of course – was the name ‘Curtis Ousley’ on the label. This was of course, the mighty King Curtis, whose publishing company Kilynn is given production credit. King Curtis co-wrote ‘Loosen Up’ and gets full credit for the flipside ‘Summer Dreams’.
The artist, Rubin Mitchell was an Albany, NY-area based lounge pianist who was described in a local paper at the time as having a repertoire that included “funky jazz, showcase numbers like ‘Sabre Dance’ and straight classical’. Once you give ‘Loosen Up’ a listen you begin to realize how telling that description is.
Mitchell – who recorded at least one private issue LP and two more for Capitol (I think this is a non-LP 45) sounds like a guy in the vein of Liberace, who made putting on a show of skill a crucial part of his act, with lots of speed and flourish.
That’s what you get here, sprinkled in liberally atop a soulful sounding rhythm section (dig that drum break at the beginning!) that may or may not include some Kingpins.
It’s not the kind of thing I’d spin for dancers, but it certainly is interesting to slip into your ears.
The flipside is a much mellower, bluesier number that sounds (unsurprisingly) like a cousin of ‘Soul Serenade’.
From what I’ve been able to discover about the rest of his catalog, my suspicion is that this single is a stylistic outlier.
I’m not sure what happened to Rubin Mitchell after his tenure with Capitol, but my suspicion is that it included a hotel lounge or two.
I hope you dig the cut, and I’ll see you all on Friday.
Keep the faith
Larry
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Drums, Funky16Corners, Instrumental, Jazz, Piano, Soul 45, Soul Jazz
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Funky16Corners, Soul, Soul Jazz
Themocracy
How fluid is that playing – stunning. And Mr Bassman on the bounce… worra find top stuff Larry.
I aim to please Dave! Glad you like it.
The Troy Record for 12/23/1972 states that Rubin Mitchell died in Miami on December 21st of that year- from what I’ve pieced together from digitized newspapers, he came from Tampa, was on the upstate New York club circuit by 1963 or so, returned to that circuit by early 1969, and relocated to Miami (he was playing in a Miami Beach nightclub at the time of his death) sometime after that.
Hey friends. I am trying to create a WikiPage for this musician! He had a 18 month residency at The Flamingo Hotel sometime around 1960-1962. Was in a bunch of Newspaper articles in New York around 1963-1965. And was heavily promoted by Capital records from 1967-1968. And had three different TV appearances! If you can find *any* magazine articles or