Results for "Rufus Harley"

Rufus Harley

Born: May 20, 1936

Rufus Harley, “the world’s first jazz bagpiper”, was born on May 20, 1936 near Raleigh, N.C. but grew up in a working class neighborhood in Philadelphia where his family moved when he was two years of age. He started playing the C melody saxophone and trumpet at age 12. In his later teens he worked as a paper boy to raise enough money to buy a tenor saxophone so that he can play in the high school band but at age 16 he dropped out of school and worked odd jobs to help support his family. He continued, however, to take music lessons on the saxophone, oboe, clarinet and flute from Dennis Sandole, a Philadelphia area guitarist and music teacher

Jean-Luc Ponty: Imaginary Voyages, Part 1

by Peter Rubie
May 31, 2022

Part 1 | Part 2 Jazz is an art form that has been a singular hothouse of musical talent over the decades. There are, and have been, lots of not just great but brilliant players. But perhaps not unsurprisingly, there have been far fewer jazz originals. I mean by that, musicians whose playing has ...

Fit As A Fiddle: How The Violin Helped Shape Jazz, Part 1

by Peter Rubie
December 23, 2021

Part 1 | Part 2 That was then... Considering jazz is an art form that mostly makes it up as it goes along, it's ironically appropriate that printed records--i.e., data--from the days of its birth are decidedly sparse. We know, at least, that during the 18th and 19th Centuries in New Orleans white plantation ...

2019: The Year in Jazz

by Ken Franckling
January 2, 2020

The year 2019 was robust in many ways. International Jazz Day brought its biggest stage to Australia. An important but long-shuttered jazz mecca was revived in a coast-to-coast move. ECM Records celebrated a golden year. The music and its makers figured prominently on the big screen. The National Endowment for the Arts welcomed four new NEA ...

Jazz Bridge Opens "Kwame Hall Fund" For Saxophonist With Brain Tumor

April 16, 2015

Starting today, Jazz Bridge opens the tax-deductible “Kwame Hall Fund" for Kwame Hall, an alto saxophonist and composer born and raised in jny: Philadelphia who was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor. Tomorrow is a big day for Hall. He'll undergo a 12-hour surgical intervention at the Hospital of University of Pennsylvania for a condition only ...

Rare and Unusual Instruments in Jazz

by Hrayr Attarian
March 29, 2015

Historically the cornet was the quintessential jazz instrument but over a century of its evolution other instruments have also become part of the regular jazz armamentarium. These include common ones such as the piano, saxophone, bass and drums to the more occasionally appearing violin, clarinet and other percussion instruments. There are few, however, that exhibit unique ...

Joe Locke: Versatile Vibes Master

by R.J. DeLuke
February 15, 2010

Jazz has a history of inclusiveness, accepting the influences of music from around the globe. It also knows no boundaries when it comes to instrumentation, accommodating all kinds of axes if they are played in the spirit of jazz. Rufus Harley even brought the unlikely bagpipes into the lexicon, playing the sound of surprise on the ...

The Rufus Harley Story

Featuring the music of Rufus Harley
Duration: 7:41
May 20, 2009

Rufus Harley: Pipes of Peace

by Victor L. Schermer
March 11, 2008

Rufus Harley Pipes of Peace Produced and directed by George Manney A Brotherly Love All-Star Tour Production 2007 Rufus Harley (1936-2006) was a supreme individualist. He started out as a very competent reed player--on soprano, alto, and tenor sax, as well as the flute. He studied ...

Rufus Harley: Pipes of Peace

by Samuel Chell
November 8, 2007

Rufus Harley Pipes Of Peace B.L.A.S.T. 2007 Not too many subjects would seem more assured of cinematic success than a profile of the world's first and only recognized jazz bagpiper--whose life story ended, moreover, with his appropriation of the title “International Ambassador of Freedom." On the other hand, when a ...