Leonard Cohen’s bass man has died
RIPThe death has been announced of Willie Ruff, horn and double bass player who taught music at Yale from 1971 to 2017. Willie, from Sheffield, Alabama, was 92.
In 1966 Ruff was chosen by producer John Hammond to play bass in recording sessions of Songs of Leonard Cohen, covering almost all the songs on the album. More here.
Rather strange to see him identified as “Leonard Cohen’s bass man.” He was a brilliant musician. Along with pianist Dwike Mitchell (see here), the Mitchell-Ruff Duo played all over the world and were among the very first artists to work for Young Audiences, the pioneering arts education organization (started in 1952) which brought professional musicians into the schools.
I highly recommend Ruff’s autobiography, “A Call to Assembly.”
Absolutely!
He was also the man for whom Billy Strayhorn wrote the fantastic ‘Suite for The Duo’ shortly before his own death, and Ruff’s ‘realisation’ of Kepler’s Harmony of the World is on one of The Voyage gold discs. A fab storyteller and generally brilliant at everything he turned to, if you check out the various interviews available. I feel very lucky to have been able to speak with him. RIP.
to refer to one of the greatest musicians of all time as Leonard Cohens bass man says much about our sick society,
I am not that it helps to define a musician only in terms of their relationship to another.
In the B&W picture above here he looks like the happy winner of the Lenin’s look-alike contest.