Willie Ruff In Conversation: Part I

In Part I of my interview with the remarkable musician and educator (still teaching at Yale at the age of 83) Willie Ruff, we learn of the early beginnings of his life in music and of how he came to learn to play the French horn. Ruff was for much of his professional lifetime partner with pianist Dwike Mitchell in the Mitchell-Ruff Duo. They were long associated with Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. Ruff was also a student and disciple of composer Paul Hindemith. In Parts II and III, we will hear of these two important relationships, those with Strayhorn and Hindemith.