Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Two of the most idiosyncratic African-American musicians to ever play have died in the last few days. On Wednesday, August 2 Rufus Harley, a Philadelphia legend who started out as a saxophonist but soon found a way to play the bagpipes in a jazz context, died from prostate cancer at the age of 70. He made a number of peculiar jazz recordings for Atlantic, he also worked briefly as a sideman for hard-boppers like Sonny Stitt and Sonny Rollins, and he appeared on a pair of late Albert Ayler recordings, New Grass and Music is the Healing Force of the Universe [editor’s note: see Comments for a correction]. Despite the freakish quality of his work, Harley managed to transcend its oddness much of the time. He’s perhaps best-known for some of his cameos—he played on “Sweaters” on Laurie Anderson’s classic Big Science, and on the title track of the Roots album Do You Want More?!!!??!
