B3 = Be Free
Rufus Harley, the worlds first and still probably only jazz bagpipe master and saxophonist, descended from black slaves and Cherokee Indians, holds great stock in freedom. The Liberty Bell, situated in his home town of Philadelphia, has come to increasingly symbolize the mission Rufus holds closest to heart, tolling the call of freedom now as once the Liberty Bell did for a new nation founded on revolutionary principles relevant today as ever. Like the town crier of old, summoning the people to the square, this time with music in his blood, Rufus sounds the call of brotherhood and inclusion, that's the urgent news today.
Attuned to the pipes after hearing the Black Watch at the Kennedy funeral procession, trying to recapture the stirring air on his saxophone, Rufus made the jump to unconvention, finding a set of pipes in a NY pawn shop for $120. Unconventionality never found so good a friend. He slyly refers to himself as eccentric midstream of expounding his philosophy, 'We are brothers and sisters in sound, language and music', and then all hell breaks loose. Words get dissected for symbolic content, patterns of letters find analogies in musical scales and are decoded in a manner unique to Rufus. He has reinterpreted the Constitution of the United States, now the Constitreetion and that is only the beginning. His energy level is amazing, some say frightening, as he unravels the mystic code, B3, Be Free. The pattern is unmistakable you see UC. Problematic at times, as regarding an earlier recording contract with Atlantic, he recounts, 'Once I started to express myself in ways other than music, that's when they threw me out of the record company.' Not one to be shy, Rufus has to call his own shots. At core lies the artist's need, compulsion to communicate, to juxtapose the dream of heaven against the everyday mess of things. One of Pharoah Sanders' theme songs is 'You Got to Have Freedom', Rufus does it Rufus' way.
Nat Hentoff, in his book Jazz Is, describes Charles Mingus saying, 'People are getting so fragmented, and part of that is that fewer and fewer people are making a real effort any more to find exactly who they are and to build on that knowledge. Most people are forced to do things they don't want to most of the time, and so they get to the point where they feel they no longer have any choice about anything important, including who they are. We create our own slavery. But I'm going to keep on getting through and finding out the kind of man I am through my music. That's one place I can be free.' Like Mingus, Rufus fires the pipes of freedom.
Having recorded numerous albums of his own and recorded with such prominent musicians as Herbie Mann, Sonny Stitt, Sonny Rollins and Laurie Anderson, Rufus has the musical credentials to bring his message home. His composition Sunshowers shows the kind of groove that the bag or pipes can bring. Greensleeves, starting from a traditional introduction, kicks into an uptempo overdrive that catapults the listener into the back seat of a shore bound convertible on a summer day, like rediscovering the inspiration for the blues standard Rocket 88. There is a take on the Byrds' 8 Miles High and his classic rendition of Amazing Grace never fails to please.
Peace and Love from Rufus Harley
Discography
