Willie Ruff, Jazz French Horn and Music Scholar, Dies at 92

Willie Ruff, a Jazz musician and scholar who taught at the Yale School of Music died on December 24, 2023, at 92.

Born September 1, 1931, in Sheffield Alabama, Ruff joined the Army at the age of 14 and served as a Tuskegee Airman under Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. After an honorable discharge, Ruff attended Yale University, studying under Keith Wilson and Paul Hindemith. He received his Bachelor of Music degree in 1953 and a Master of Music degree in 1954.

While his musical contributions include numerous recording credits with Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Sonny Stitt, Lionel Hampton, and Oscar Peterson, Ruff’s notoriety came from the over 50-year collaboration with Dwyke Mitchell of the Mitchell-Ruff Duo. This Duo performed all over the world including trips to the Soviet Union in 1959 and to China in 1981. Writing on this ensemble as well as Ruff’s memoirs have been published in two separate books, Mitchell & Ruff: An American Profile in Jazz and A Call To Assembly: The Autobiography of a Musical Storyteller.

As an educator and scholar, Ruff joined the Yale music faculty in 1971 and remained an influential member of the School of Music until his retirement in 2017. In 1972, he founded the Duke Ellington Fellowship Program, a special initiative that brought legendary jazz artists to the eyes and ears of Yale students and New Haven public school students. Ruff’s drive to highlight a “Conservatory Without Walls” brought artists such as Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Marian Anderson, and Dizzy Gillespie to the New Haven community.

Always mindful of his roots, Ruff was one of the founders of the W.C. Handy Music Festival in Alabama, which celebrates the music of the “Father of the Blues.”

Read this tribute piece from the Yale School of Music

Click here to view Yale’s online exhibit “A Riff on Ruff: Yale’s Jazz Ambassador to the World”

Featured Image Credit: Harold Shapiro/Irving S. Gilmore Music Library, Yale University Library