Keith Moore "Red" Mitchell was born September 20, 1927, in New York City, and raised in New Jersey. His first instruments were piano, alto saxophone, and clarinet; he switched to double bass while serving in an Army band in Germany. He returned to play with Jackie Paris (1947-1948), Mundell Lowe, Chubby Jackson's big band, and Charlie Ventura (1949), toured with Woody Herman's Orchestra (1949-1951), and became a member of the popular Red Norvo Trio (1952-1954).

After a stint with the Gerry Mulligan Quartet in 1954, Mitchell settled in Los Angeles, where between 1954 and 1968 he played with nearly every major West Coast jazz figure, particularly pianist Hampton Hawes, while also recording with Ornette Coleman in 1959 and working as a member of the MGM studio orchestra. During this period he formed a notable duo partnership with guitarist Jim Hall, whose own career is covered in full in his JazzProfiles.com profile, recording together between 1957 and 1960 and reuniting for the acclaimed 1978 live duo album Jim Hall & Red Mitchell, recorded at Sweet Basil in New York.

In 1968, Mitchell moved to Stockholm, Sweden, where he led his own groups, worked with European jazz musicians, and accompanied visiting Americans including Dizzy Gillespie and Phil Woods, remaining there until 1992. He died of a stroke November 8, 1992, in Salem, Oregon, just ten months after returning to the United States with his wife, Diane.

Mitchell's fluid, melodically inventive bass playing, developed across stints with the Red Norvo Trio, Gerry Mulligan, and two decades of West Coast studio and club work, made him one of the defining bassists of the West Coast jazz scene, and his long duo partnership with Jim Hall produced some of the most intimate small-group recordings of the era.