Quick, name another Jazz flutist aside from Eric Dolphy. Did you even know that Eric Dolphy was a flutist? Are you having trouble?
Okay let us make it a little easier shall we? Name one flutist, no matter what type of music they play. James Galway and Jean-Pierre Rampal are names that might ring a bell with some people, both having strayed into popular music on occasion. Aside from them, there just aren't that many well known flutists, and even those aren't household names. For some reason the flute just hasn't seemed to be able to capture the public's imagination like other instruments.
It's sort of odd when you consider that aside from the drum the flute is one of the most common and oldest instruments in most cultures. Whether made from bamboo, cedar, or in some cases clay, they are played by blowing into or across a hollow core carved out of the material, with six holes or elaborate set ups like concert flutes to control the air flow. They all operate on the same basic principle of air exhaled equals music.
The problem with the flute is, unlike some wind instruments, it requires a great deal of finesse in order to play. For those of you who have ever experimented with a recorder you may have noticed that the harder you blow into the mouthpiece the less likely you are to produce sound. Playing flutes of any style requires an amazing amount of breath control. To play it with any success, you have to learn to synchronize your breathing with the rhythm of any song that you are playing and be able to quickly change from long sustained exhalations to short bursts and back again.
Unfortunately the lack of flutists seems to be self-perpetuating. So very few people play flute in North America that not many people consider it a solo instrument. Therefore there aren't the examples of flute players out there for people to follow like there are guitarists, saxophonists, and trumpeters.
When Nicole Mitchell first started playing flute she remembers she chose the instrument before she chose jazz. Nobody around her considered her instrument of choice to be a jazz instrument.
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