Bio
Born in the Caribbean island of Grenada, Mitchell’s early musical influences during her youth were gospel, calypso and reggae. In 1970, she moved to London where she was exposed to the sound of Motown and R&B. She spent most of her teens collaborating with R&B and reggae bands of that time and she also studied dance.
In 1978 moved to Italy and signed with RCA subsidiary label Spaghetti, as part of a Pop group, Les Streghe. Upon breakup, she continued working as a noted session singer doing both solo and back vocals with top Italian artistes such as Ivan Cattaneo, Mina, Zucchero and Pino Daniele. She was also highly requested to do voice overs for many commercials which included Johnson’s Baby shampoo and her famous Gillette Contour jingle that played for four years on Italian National TV.
In 1983 she moved to New York and studied with pianist Barry Harris who awakened and inspired her vocal awareness, prompting a desire to gain a different vocal approach and develop her own distinctive style. She achieved this with the vocal mentoring of Bunny Shirley Foy (worked with Archie Shepp),Marcello Tonolo, (worked with Lee Konitz), Pietro Tonolo (worked with Chet Baker and Gil Evans).
Slowly she became a regular performer in the small venues in Northern Italy. But in 1986 after performing in two major Italian jazz festivals alongside guitarist Franco Cerri and pianist Enrico Intra, Mitchell caught the serious attention of the Italian Jazz community.
Dawn’s collaboration with pianist-composer Luigi Bonafede proved and continues to have significant impact on her professional and artistic maturation, being part of his ocet/quintet and featuring on his album, “With you Along TheWay”released on BEAT RECORDS in 1989.
1991 marked her return to London where she performed live on the Jazz Nelson Radio show 102.2 FM, the Clef Club and Chelsea’s 606 Club
On moving to the Caribbean in 1992 She performed in the Antiguan Jazz Festival and in St Lucia alongside the Vibraphonist Jay Hoggard and horn player Luther Francois and pianist Onaje Allan Gumbs.
After a long absence from the industry, apart from periodic performances with Bonafede, she returned in 2019 again collaborating and performing with Bonafede at the Dolomite Ski Jazz Festival.This resulted with the recording and release of the album LOKAS which was released in 2021 on the Caligora label.