Dallas Native Up For Grammy Nomination

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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - The Grammy fever burned all the way to Dallas. A local musician is tied to a band up for nomination.

His roots are tied to Dallas' Booker T Washington school for the performing and visual arts.

Mike Mitchell is a master musician from Dallas and drummer with a Grammy nomination with jazz legend Stanley Clarke.

"It's like breathing, like walking, if I sit down with drums, I can express what i want to express," explains Mitchell.

His hands flutter like wings of a butterfly. His rhythmic touch pulsates at the pace of a turbo-charged jackhammer.

Mike Mitchell isn't old enough to sip a glass of bubbly on Grammy night.

"At 17, I was playing with Herbie Hancock." He just turned 20. Drumsticks were Mike's Lincoln logs.

"I wasn't a normal kid. I never wanted to ride a bike or play basketball. i just wanted to stay in the house and play drums all day," says Mitchell.

Stanley Clarke discovered Mitchell while he was attending Dallas ISD's arts magnet high school.

"Booker T is the reason I play jazz today."

The head of the jazz program saw Mitchell play in middle school.

"Instead of going over to him, I went to his mom and asked where he was going to high school. Yeah, it was immediate," says Jazz Studies Director Bart Marantz.

The Grammy recognition, Mike Mitchell will tell you, it's all part of the plan he set for himself at the age of 12.

"To be honest, it was expected. I was expecting it. At an early age I said, I want a Grammy, a record, I want to be in a band, its just the fact that I'm doing it, whoa, I can't believe I'm doing it, but in actuality, I expected it to happen."

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