Willie Ruff
| Willie Ruff | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 1, 1931 |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instruments | French horn, double bass |
Willie Ruff (born September 1, 1931) is an American jazz musician, specializing in the French horn and double bass.
He was born in Sheffield, Alabama.
Ruff attended the Yale School of Music as an undergraduate (Bachelor of Music, 1953) and graduate student (Master of Music, 1954).
Ruff played in the Mitchell-Ruff Duo with pianist Dwike Mitchell for over 50 years. Mitchell and Ruff first met in 1947, when they were teenaged servicemen stationed at the former Lockbourne Air Force Base in Ohio; Mitchell recruited Ruff to play bass with his unit band for an Air Force radio program. Mitchell and Ruff later played in Lionel Hampton's band but left in 1955 to form their own group. Together as the Mitchell-Ruff Duo, they played as "second act" to artists such as Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Dizzy Gillespie. From 1955 to 2011, the duo regularly performed and lectured in the United States, Asia, Africa, and Europe. The Mitchell-Ruff Duo was the first jazz band to play in the Soviet Union (1959) and in China (1981). Mitchell died in 2013.
In 1967, Ruff was chosen by John Hammond to be the bass player for the recording sessions of Songs of Leonard Cohen. During those sessions, he and Cohen laid down the bed tracks for most of the songs on the album.
He is one of the founders of the W. C. Handy Music Festival in Florence, Alabama. The first festival was held in 1982.
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