Page 20 - BiTS_10_OCTOBER_2023

THE BiTS INTERVIEW: Mitch Woods

Mitch Woods (born April 3, 1951, Brooklyn, New York is an American modern day

boogie-woogi e,jump blues and jazz pianist and singer. Since the early 1980s he has
been touring and recording with his band, the Rocket 88s. Woods calls his music,
"rock-a-boogie," and with his backing band has retrospectively provided a 1940s and
1950s jump blues style.

Mitch is well versed in the four principal styles of piano playing, Chicago blues, Kansas

City boogie-woogie, West Coast jump blues and the poly-rhythmic accents of New
Orleans.

Ian McKenzie spoke to him on the telephone at his home in San Francisco.

MW: Hello.

BiTS: Mitch. Hello. It's Ian McKenzie from England.

MW: Hi, Ian. How you doing?

BiTS: I'm very well indeed. Thank you first of all, for agreeing
to speak to me in what is actually pretty early morning
for you there.

MW: Yeah, it's a little bit early, not too bad, but
early evening for you.

BiTS: I obviously want to talk to you about
the new record and let's make a start if we
may. Can you tell me something about how
you got into boogie in the first place?

MW: Well, I mean, I started playing piano when
I was 11 years old. My mom was a single mom,

and she used to hire the superintendent of
my building to take me to school and he was
an African American man and we stopped
off at his cousins’ house or something, and
somebody was playing piano, boogie
piano. I said, wow, I'd like to do that. I mean, it took a while to get to that point. I started playing
classical first, you know, but eventually people said, oh, you sound like the old boogie woogie
guys, and I found all the old albums I could find and listened to all the greats, and that got me
going.

BiTS: Did you find that being educated on classical piano affected you in any way when you
started playing boogie?

MW: No, really, I mean, I got bored with classical is what happened, but it was a good foundation
and I think all musicians should learn how to read and the correct fingering and all that stuff.