Edred Keith Mitchell

Born in Fort Ord, California,the son of a career military man and former member of the Tuskegee Airmen cadre and a mother from the city of Tuskegee,Alabama herself a graduate of the university in the same place where both met,I received my baptism in a sea of optimism. My interest in the arts began as a listener to the strains of gospel piano played by my mother,Louise Caroline. After brief attempts at mimicing the sounds of the instrument I began study on trumpet and trombone which lasted through grammar school and into high school. In high schoool my interest in the Motown bass lines of James Jamerson and those of that genre and time led me to the pursuit of the electric bass at the age of 14. At the age of 18 I entered Berklee College of Music in Boston having had 2 years of independent study and preparation while living on the Jersey Shore in Tinton Falls,New Jersey where I had grown up from the age of 7. My interest in jazz developed from exposure to the early fusion influences and technical mastery heard through bassist like Stanley Clarke and Anthony Jackson and expanded back through history as a privledge of my education to include greats like Ron Carter,Buster Williams,Paul Chambers, John Pattitucci and the like as I explored classic jazz.The usefulness of arranging and compositional talents were instrumental in helping me to bring my own original compositions to life as well as those of others.I am now residing in Auburn,Alabama with my wife and 2 children ,having been secondarily trained in Electrical Engineering Technology. I am employed as a Biomedical Engineering Technician in Tuskegee,Alabama. I regularly work as a sideman with various jazz,blues and gospel groups in the Alabama and Georgia area and work as a recording studio bassist in the same region.