Pianist George Mitchell performed in singer Diana Ross' backup band through more than two decades, a period in which her set lists ranged from funky soul to classic jazz standards associated with Billie Holiday. Listeners who felt Ross was at a loss with the latter material can at least admit her keyboardist was boss. Mitchell eventually settled in Portland, OR, where he has been at the helm of several rafts cruising in the acid jazz shipping lane as well as creating varied discs under his own name, including the 2003 Play Zone. On the subject of Mitchell's own name, the perusing of discographies and record catalogs might give just the opposite impression, the name George Mitchell floating through the history of American music as if a generic trademark. None of these fellows have any family connection, although they could easily stand side by side in a savvy collection of swinging sides, ranging from New Orleans jazz -- where a trumpeter named George Mitchell helped the great composer and bandleader Jelly Roll Morton realize his dreams -- to acid jazz, wherein several performers with this name have dropped tuneful tabs on audience members wishing to do some dreaming on their own. The keyboardist George Mitchell is associated with tracks by the Exodus Quartet, but he is not the same George Mitchell from Washington, D.C., whose acid jazz groups include Fishbelly Black. Jazz legitimacy, minus the acid, can be found easily in the former Mitchell's resumé, in which it is indicated that his keyboard accompaniment past muster with at least three demanding bandleaders: alto saxophonist, daredevil, and torturer of sidemen Sonny Stitt; tenor saxophonist, composer, instrument inventor, and standup comedian Eddie Harris; and Philly Joe Jones, arguably the greatest jazz drummer of all time. A jazz bassist named George Mitchell, who has been based in both Montreal and New York City, might have been gotten blisters from such company. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide