![]() ![]() Still, I gravitate towards his previous Atlantic releases and would first reach for his 1970 album King/Queens (presented in its remastered entirety on Courage) and includes the aforementioned soaring "Eight Miles High" and "Windy." On this final album for Atlantic, Harley taps into upper echelon Pacific Coast pop while offering promise land possibilities. It took some repeated listens to sense and begin to appreciate the looseness and density that some listeners will instantly embrace. The stacked strands of bagpipes, B-3 organ, bass, drums and desperate baby cries act as overlapping obstacles in that they cancel out much of the surging momentum or sense of melodic wholeness found on his previous works. While embraced by the crate diggers for incorporating funk, hard bop and ground level storefront production, initial listens left me ambivalent and unmoved. This brings us to 1972's Re-Creation of the Gods, which many hail as his crowning achievement with its nods to the triangular power of community, church and cosmic consciousness as expressed by his quartet. It was also around the time of The Beatles’ Eight Days A Week, so that was another hook. But Gene said eight miles sounds better than six, and it did sound more poetic. ![]() To think all this would begin with Big Country's guitar emulations of the bagpipe! Forty-two thousand feet or about eight miles high is the altitude reserved for military aircraft. As an aside, these '60s recordings have taken me on a round trip from my first cassette The Crossing by Big Country in 1983 to now. This adventurous, idiosyncratic and frequently incandescent music also features strong elements of Latin jazz percussion (think Willie Bobo) which add additional dynamics and propel these songs forward. During his most active period of 1965-1970, he was reviled by old guard critics, embraced by listeners and respected and championed by fellow musicians like Coltrane, Herbie Mann and Sonny Rollins. Harley is able to express the melody via the chanter while delivering true distinction through the three drones. This set is packed with that pervasive snaking, stinging and buzzing sound created by the inherent sustain of the bagpipes. Intrigued by further releases like his spiraling cover of "Windy," (which was reported to have brought audiences to their feet) I recently plunged into the 2006 Rhino collection Courage which offers his complete works (comprised of four albums) for Atlantic Records. Harley remained active on the Jazz circuit until his death in 2006 working as a sideman with Sonny Rollins and Herbie Mann, and recording with Laurie Anderson (on the album “Big Science”) and The Roots.His jazzy spaced-out bagpipes rendition of the groundbreaking "Eight Miles High" by the Byrds was my first encounter with the music of Rufus Harley. ![]() Hearing him fly on material as varied as Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme,” “Chim Chim Cheree” from the film “Mary Poppins,” “Eight Miles High” by The Byrds and Henry Mancini’s classic “Moon River” are indeed sonic marvels to behold. Rufus, OR, Weather Forecast: Temperature High + Low & Wind Metric Units. The four albums were collected together a few years ago onto a limited edition 2-CD set released by Rhino Handmade called “Courage: The Atlantic Recordings.” Harley had the knack for taking the limited range of the bagpipes and applying them to a new medium, making them sound like a soprano sax. Harley recorded four Joel Dorn-produced albums for Atlantic Records in the late 1960s and this tune was actually released as a single. To me, bagpipes are the most irritating instrument to listen to, especially when they are dragged out for police funerals…oh lordy, they make me wanna cringe! Yet it is the very nature of a droning bagpipe when applied to Jazz by Rufus Harley that makes the instrument take on a new life. ![]() Patrick’s Day and the think I hate most about the holiday is the droning of bagpipes. ![]()
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