NICOLE MITCHELL is without doubt the foremost jazz flutist. An astonishingly audacious musician, she was born in Syracuse, New York State in 1967 and grew up in San Diego, California.

“As a teenager I would search through the radio, but couldn’t find what would be my favourite music,” she told me. “I remember turning the dial over and over looking for something of interest, and finding hardly anything — only KLJH, the Los Angeles Soul station, where I found George Benson, Prince and Michael Jackson. There was no jazz to be found.

“When I heard the sound of the flute, it hit me to the core. I identified with it and wanted to be wrapped up in it. So what was offered was classical music. I loved it. Once I started on flute I already had a clear vision in my ears of the sound I wanted.

“At high school I played in the wind ensemble, concert band and orchestra, and at the University of California, San Diego I immediately got into the Youth Symphony Orchestra.

“Then suddenly I heard recordings of saxophonists Charlie Parker, Eric Dolphy, Coltrane, Yusuf Lateef and Ornette and jazz flutists Hubert Laws and James Newton. Hearing this music was overwhelming. I felt I’d been given the keys of my inheritance as a young adult, but had been lied to all my life. I felt immediately that jazz was my music, yet I didn't know how to navigate it at all.

“It was fascinating, invigorating and infuriating all at the same time and I took my anger out on classical music. How had no one told me there was a wide world where I could make the music I wanted through my own instrument, my own language?

 “That’s when I started playing in the street, as a rebellion from classical music. I was out there alone for hours at a time, developing my improvisational language — playing, making melodies, rhythmically improvising.
 
“There were no limits, no-one to impress, yet I wanted to connect with everyone who walked by. My rhythmic sensibilities took heed over the idea that I was supposed to play in a certain way. I loved Charlie Parker but wanted to be Nicole.

“Then I met a Nigerian musician, Najite Agindotan, who had been inspired by Fela Kuti. He had started an Afrobeat band and he became my first jazz mentor, with his musicians from Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Cameroon, and they were very kind and looked after me as the only girl in the band.

“The music was alive and I was a vessel for a part of it! For the first time, I was truly myself. I loved classical music, being in an orchestra in the middle of delicious sounds and playing solos in the flute section, or on piccolo, when I could soar over the whole terrain. But it was jazz and improvisation that took my heart to new heights.”

Mitchell moved to Chicago in 1990 and immediately started playing in the street, although she’d already been invited to join the Sun Ra Arkestra. She studied with the avant-garde Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians who encouraged her to form her own band, the Black Earth Ensemble. As she performed and recorded she became known and celebrated internationally.

A recent album is Map of Liberation, which she made as part of the Tiger Trio, with French bassist Joelle Leandre and the pianist from Evanston, Illinois, Myra Melford — a trio of sizzling musicianship.

The album’s track titles represent a list of virtues, from Patience and Courage to Respect, Humility and Honesty. “The titles are a kind of poetry,” she asserted, “which express the idea that creative music is a vehicle for people to find themselves and find freedom. When we play together we have no plan but we bring who we are.”

I asked her about the musical characteristics of her sisters’ brilliance. “Do we listen? Do we assert ourselves? Do we have fun and enjoy each other? Sensitive! Powerful! Intelligent! Silly! Gentle! Kind! Hopeful!”

What about playing in London, particularly at Dalston’s Cafe Oto? “I love playing there! The neighbourhood has a great vibe. I always see diversity — all kinds of people. The audiences really listen to the music and they make good recordings there.”

I’ve heard her twice there, both in duos with British musicians, pianist Alexander Hawkins and drummer Mark Sanders. “With both Mark and Alex there’s immediate connection and intuition. They are both super-unique in their musical experience and masters of their instruments.

“Every time I play there I’ve had a feeling like a musical breakthrough. It’s magical. I also had a phenomenal time at Newcastle last year — such a strong feeling of community. It made the music a joy to be a part of.”

I told her that I’d heard nothing in music that reminds me so much of birdsong as the sound of her flute. She laughed: “As a child I spent a lot of time out in nature, listening to the bugs and the birds. I think that was my first attraction to the flute. Sometimes I play birdsong and sometimes it’s just in there.”

Hear her fly all over the Map of Liberation, and hear her song — humanity and birds unified.

Tiger Trio’s Map Of Liberation is released by Rogueart Records.