[Dixielandjazz] Jazz Bagpiper Rufus Harley Passes

[Steve Barbone]

Rufus Harley, one of a very few jazz bagpipers passed away Monday, July 31.
I had the pleasure of playing with him a few times during the last decade at
several Art Festivals here in the Philadelphia area.

A sweet, gentle, man who played some great Dixieland with the bagpipes as
well as more modern jazz with that instrument and his saxophones.

Rest in Peace, my friend.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone 



Rufus Harley (b. Raleigh, North Carolina, May 20, 1936; d. Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, July 31, 2006) was an American jazz musician of mixed Cherokee
and African ancestry. Although he began as a saxophonist and flutist, Harley
was the first jazz musician to adopt the Scottish great highland bagpipe as
his primary instrument. He became inspired to learn the instrument after
seeing the Black Watch perform in John F. Kennedy's funeral procession in
November 1963. He found a set of bagpipes in a New York pawn ship for US$120
and quickly adapted the instrument to the idioms of jazz, blues, and funk.
His teacher was Dennis Sandole, who also taught several other Philadelphia
jazz musicians.

>From 1965 to 1970 Harley released several recordings as leader on the
Atlantic label, also recording as a sideman with Herbie Mann, Sonny Stitt,
and Sonny Rollins in the 1960s and 1970s. He later recorded with Laurie
Anderson (appearing on her 1982 album Big Science), and The Roots (on their
1995 album Do You Want More?!!!??!). In addition to bagpipes, on these
albums he also occasionally plays tenor saxophone or electric soprano
saxophone.

Harley lived for most of his life in the Germantown neighborhood of
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He died at Philadelphia's Albert Einstein
Medical Center on July 31, 2006 of prostate cancer.[3] He is survived by a
son, the trumpeter Messiah Harley.