Mizell Brothers

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The Mizell Brothers were a highly influential production team in the 1970s, consisting of Larry and Alphonzo Mizel.^[1]

In the early seventies Larry and Fonce Mizell moved to California to start their own company Sky High Productions. They went on to produce albums for Blue Note with Donald Byrd (Black Byrd, 1972), Bobbi Humphrey (Blacks & Blues, 1973) and Johnny "Hammond" Smith (Gears, 1975) that set the tone for fusion and the era.

The Mizell Brothers often used the same musicians on their albums, including Harvey Mason on drums, Melvin 'Wah Wah' Ragin on guitar, Chuck Rainey on bass and Jerry Peters on piano. Freddy Perren and Chuck Davis were often involved as co-writers or co-producers. Later hits of Sky High Productions include LTD's 'Love Ballad' and A Taste Of Honey's roller-rink anthem 'Boogie, Oogie, Oogie'. Younger brother Rodney Mizell also co-wrote some of their songs.

During the seventies the Mizell Brothers wrote and produced albums by Donald Byrd, Bobbi Humphrey, Johnny Hammond Smith, Gary Bartz, LTD ("Love Ballad"), Rance Allen and Roger Glenn. Most albums featured the same musicians, including Harvey Mason, Sr. on drums, Chuck Rainey or James Jamerson on bass, Melvin "Wah Wah Watson" Ragin on guitar, Jerry Peters on piano and Stephanie Spruill on percussion. At the end of the seventies, the Mizell Brothers discovered A Taste of Honey and produced their first two albums, including the hit single "Boogie Oogie Oogie".

In the 1980s, the Mizell brothers retired from the record industry.

1 Larry
2 Alphonzo
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Larry

As an electrical engineer, Larry Mizell performed testing and reliability work on the Lunar Module for the NASA Apollo Program. He also was one of the first to do research on liquid crystals, which today are used for example in displays (LCD).

[edit] Alphonzo

Alphonzo Mizell was member of The Corporation, the hitmaking production team that wrote and produced all The Jackson 5's essential early hits, including "I Want You Back", "ABC", "The Love You Save", "Mama's Pearl", and "Maybe Tomorrow" was a project of the two brothers. When Motown moved to Los Angeles, Mizell and his brother Larry joined with trumpet player Donald Byrd and released the album Black Byrd on the Blue Note label. Black Byrd was the first of a string of albums that would define fusion jazz and lay the foundation for acid jazz and neo soul.