Blue Mitchell was born and raised in Miami, but took to the road as an ensemble player after high school. In the late 1950s he recorded with Cannonball Adderley, before joining the Horace Silver Quintet. His series of albums as a bandleader on Riverside and Blue Note cemented his reputation as a world-class trumpet player, where his rich, soulful tone and funky melodic phrasing came to the fore.
