Naptown trumpet player Joe Mitchell

November 03, 2024

Explore the music of the Indianapolis trumpet player Joe Mitchell. He performed with many legendary bandleaders including Ray Charles, Count Basie, Jimmy Coe, and Earl Bostic.

Mitchell was born in Youngstown, Ohio in 1929. By the 1940s, he was living in Indianapolis. Mitchell attended Crispus Attucks High School and by the age of 19 he was playing with the greatest jazz musicians in Indianapolis, including Pookie Johnson, Willis Kirk, Reginald Duvalle, Monk Montgomery,  Carl Perkins and others.