The Mitchell-Ruff Duo

Pianist Dwike Mitchell first crossed paths with bassist Willie Ruff, a skilled French horn player as well, during their late-1940s Army stint when both performed in a band at Ohio’s Lockbourne Air Force Base. By 1954 the two had joined Lionel Hampton’s Big Band, yet they left the following year to launch the Mitchell-Ruff Duo. That partnership continued on an intermittent basis for more than five decades, yielding occasional appearances well into the twenty-first century. Among the duo’s notable early milestones were a 1959 Soviet Union tour—the first by any U.S. jazz musicians in Russia since World War II, an event that helped open the door for Benny Goodman’s 1962 visit—along with a 1966 performance for Lyndon Johnson in Mexico, a 1981 journey to China, and a trio recording with Dizzy Gillespie. The Mitchell-Ruff Duo documented their work on Epic in 1955-1956 and again in 1966, on Roulette from 1957 to 1960, on Atlantic in 1961 and 1965, on Mainstream in 1969, and on Kepler in 1983.