Dwike Mitchell

Musician and educator Willie Ruff was born in Sheffield, Alabama in 1931. He was only 13 years old when his mother died. Relatives moved him north, where…

Willie Ruff, a soldier at the age of 14 and a graduate of Yale at the age of 22, has crossed the paths of many of the giants in the music world, including…

I first heard of Willie Ruff in the mid 1980s when a casual friend gave me a cassette tape of Mr. Ruff playing Gregorian Chant at the Basilica of St.…