Mitch Towne

Ever since Jimmy Smith emerged on the national scene in 1956, performing exciting versions of blues, ballads and standards, the Hammond B-3 organ has been a major instrument in jazz. Scores of organists have emerged since then who play variations of the Jimmy Smith style.

Mitch Towne, while acknowledging his historic predecessors, sees the organ as much more than just being a soulful instrument used to play grease-filled blues. “I feel that the organ is somewhat marginalized in jazz and that there is so much more to the organ than being thought of as a bluesy r&b soul/jazz type of instrument. That is one of the reasons why I wanted to perform mostly originals on my new recording, Refuge. This record is in the jazz tradition rather than just the jazz organ tradition because, in addition to the great organ players, I’m also inspired by Kenny Garrett, Wayne Shorter, and Herbie Hancock.” On Refuge, his recording debut as a leader, Mitch Towne teams up with his regularly working trio (guitarist Tetsuya Nishiyama and drummer Jeffery Johnson) to perform six of his wide-ranging originals plus a Kenny Kirkland piece. Refuge introduces Towne’s creative talents to a wide audience and displays the great potential of the organ.

Mitch Towne was born and raised in Missouri Valley, Iowa which had a population of 3,500 and is located near Omaha. Mitch loved music from an early age and fondly remembers having a ‘45’ of Freddy Martin’s “Bumble Boogie” (featuring boogie-woogie playing from pianist Jack Fina). He began playing the piano when he was six and vividly recalls getting a ride home from a slightly older student when he was a freshman in high school. “He popped in a cassette of Tower of Power and it was the coolest and funkiest thing I’d ever heard in my life, particularly the playing of organist Chester Thompson. To this day, that is the gold standard for soul r&b organ to me.” Mitch first became interested in jazz during his last year of high school and particularly while attending the University of Iowa. “The earliest jazz record that I bought was the first Chick Corea Elektric Band album which I played incessantly. My college had a fantastic jazz program and that is when I discovered straight ahead jazz including Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett and Herbie Hancock. I soon realized that I did not know enough about music and that I needed to dive in and do my homework.” While in college, Mitch went to New York regularly to study with the masterful pianist Richie Beirach. While the lessons were extremely valuable, the New York lifestyle did not appeal to him and he chose a different path to finding his way in the jazz world.

Instead of settling in New York, Mitch Towne moved to Omaha and built up his own jazz scene. First he toured with an r&b horn band and then he played all types of jazz gigs around the Midwest. In his mid-twenties, while not completely giving up playing piano and keyboards, he switched his focus to the organ. The playing of Joey DeFrancesco was a major inspiration as were that of Jimmy Smith, Jimmy McGriff, Larry Young, and Chester Thompson, but early on Mitch developed his own sound and approach to playing the organ.   

Along the way the versatile organist and keyboardist has worked with a wide variety of top artists including Buddy Miles, Aloe Blacc, Terrace Martin (playing organ on the track “Push” from the Grammy-nominated album Velvet Portraits), Eric Gales, Ryan Kisor, Matt Wilson, Dave Stryker, Jerry Bergonzi, Joel Frahm, and Adam Larson plus, from the late Joey DeFrancesco’s trio, guitarist Dan Wilson and saxophonist Troy Roberts. He also leads a trio in Chicago with saxophonist Chip McNeil and drummer Ray Brinker.

A few years ago, Mitch started a trio with John “J.R.” Robinson (one of the most recorded session drummers of all time) and guitarist Andrew Synowiec (a first-call player in Los Angeles who is on a countless number of movie soundtracks) called SRT. He met Robinson when he put together a tribute show for the drummer who, among his huge number of credits, worked extensively with Quincy Jones in addition to Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, and Lionel Richie. SRT recorded The Vanguards Of Groove in 2022 and toured the following year, performing in Japan and (with Tom Scott joining the group) throughout the East Coast.

While he is well featured on Vanguards Of Groove and Jorge Nila’s Tenor Time: Tribute To The Tenor Masters, Mitch Towne knew that he was long overdue to lead his own album. “Last year I decided to finally make it happen. Tetsuya Nishiyama and Jeffery Johnson are in my working trio in Omaha and we have a strong rapport. Tetsuya is a fabulous guitar player in the Pat Martino mold. The first time we played together, we felt like we had been playing together all of our lives. The same was true with Jeffery who is a great drummer. I have a blast playing with those guys, we had fun during the sessions, and I hope that that spirit comes through on the record.”

On Refuge, Mitch and his trio perform his original music which has fresh chord changes and modern ideas while grooving.  It begins with the burning “Wolverine” which is a perfect introduction to the trio. “Refuge” is a tribute to Wayne Shorter, “Better Now Than Never At All” is lightly funky and creative, and “Ode To Kenny” is influenced by altoist Kenny Garrett. Kenny Kirkland’s thoughtful and rarely covered “Steepian Faith” is given a passionate interpretation while the atmospheric and dreamy “Some Work Of Noble Note May Yet Be Done” finds Mitch playing the organ on a piece that defies the instrument’s bluesy stereotype. Refuge concludes with “Act As If” which is a tribute to Larry Young and his song “If.”

Mitch Towne, whose trio played a week at New York’s Birdland in 2023, loves the easy lifestyle of Omaha (where the music scene is steadily growing) and the fact that it is reasonably close to Kansas City (2 ½ hours away) and just a 6 ½-7 hour drive to Minneapolis, Chicago, and Denver.  Now with the release of Refuge, his name will certainly be mentioned as one of the top jazz organists around today. “This record is the beginning of the next part of my career and my view of what the organ can do. I want to help extend the legacy of the jazz organ, letting people know that the organ is a vital instrument, and can be used for much more than just playing the blues.

Gear

Mitch Towne is an endorsing artist for Viscount Organs and Motion Sound amplifiers.