Willie Mitchell Honored in Memphis - Page 2

"It wasn't a vision thing," Mitchell says of his productions. "I'm looking to get the best music out of musicians to come through the radio that people can feel. Feeling is my biggest aspect." Rhythm, too, is important, "so when you sing, you got to be rhythmic, you got to sing with a real rhythm feel."

Syl Johnson, who, like Green, recorded "Take Me to the River," certainly sang with a rhythmic feel: check out "Back for a Taste of Your Love" or "I Want To Take You Home (To See Mama)." So did Peebles, using melisma to trace a painfully persuasive emotional portrait on her biggest hit, "I Can't Stand the Rain.” And, of course, there was Green, a sanctified soulman who delivered such classics as "Call Me (Come Back Home)," "I'm Still in Love With You," and the ineffable "Love and Happiness." "It was wonderful working with Al Green," Mitchell says. "I got him as a young kid. We worked together, wrote songs together, made things happen."

During the '60s, Hi Records shared musicians with Stax/Volt, the other Memphis powerhouse. "I did a lot of stuff with Stax," says Mitchell. "We were, like, partners in music. There was no competition. Stax basically had my rhythm section - Al Jackson Jr. and all those people. We did what we had to do."

Mitchell says he learned a lot about producing from Onzie Horn, a Memphis legend who played keyboards and xylophone and studied with Billy Strayhorn and Quincy Jones. It was Horn who helped Isaac Hayes "put together" Shaft, Mitchell says.

"I wasn't influenced," Mitchell says. "I just heard music in my head, went into the studio and tried to put it down." He grew up in Memphis to the music of Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Dinah Washington. "I just had an idea of my own and I tried to put it into shape," he says.

"I use different chords from what a lot of people use," Mitchell says. "What I hear, I get musicians to accomplish. It's challenging, but I try to use the best musicians, and they understand what I'm trying to accomplish. We go for sounds. If I hear something I want to hear, we'll work on it.

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