Robert Mitchell, front left, and True Think

Jazz Hastings presents Robert Mitchell and True Think

For their February session Jazz Hastings will be hosting one of the leading pianist/composers working in the field today: Robert Mitchell and his group True Think. Julian Norridge explains where they are coming from.

Robert Mitchell is an award-winning pianist, composer, arranger, bandleader and published poet who has built a formidable reputation for working across creative genres. Over his 30 plus years entrenched in the art of music, Robert has released 12 albums of his own projects, participated in over 100 projects as a sideman, performed/toured in 40 countries and is achieving a growing reputation as an inspirational educator. He was recently appointed Professor of Jazz Piano at the Guildhall School of Music.

During his career, he has worked with an extraordinarily wide range of jazz artists, including opening for Wayne Shorter at the Brighton Dome and Branford Marsalis at the Barbican. In 2019 he was musical director of a BBC4 tribute to the great ‘60s TV programme Jazz 625 Live: For One Night Only, which won Best Music Programme at the 2020 Broadcast Awards.

Over the years Robert has won or been nominated for many other awards. He won the Jazz on 3 Innovation Award at the 2004 BBC Jazz Awards. And he was among the group of nominees for the 2020 Hamlyn Award for Composition who all became recipients of the award due to the pandemic.

He always has a range of projects on the go. For this session he’ll be appearing with his new electronic/song ensemble True Think (Truth inc / Truth Ink), which features Swedish vocalist and songwriter Liselotte Östblom on vocals, award-winning Zayn Mohammed on guitar, multi-genre bassist and keyboard player Tom Mason and renowned drummer and percussionist Saleel Raman.

They’ll be performing music from their new double album Hold The Light / The New Resistance, featuring powerful songs of protest, love and peace. They blend electronic, jazz, RnB, spoken word, film and folk influences together to create a unique sound.

One observer described a recent performance as “Absolutely incredible – searing musicianship and precisely declaimed poetry combined with a rich instrumental palette and impeccable ensemble playing, all punctuated by epic, euphoric improvisation. Life-changing stuff.”

Robert Mitchell and True Think Jazz Hastings, Tuesday 6 February, East Hastings Sea Angling Association (on the Stade behind the lifeboat station). Doors open 7.45pm for 8.30 start, tickets £15 on the door.

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