Recording Star Soloist with Sun Records Rhythm Section Rockabilly Legends

Ruby has just returned from a successful concert tour of all 5(!) New York boroughs, including a sold out concert at BB Kings on Times Square, also featuring Blue Fringe, The Moshav Band, and Soulfarm.

A virtuoso of Jewish music...

Ruby Harris

"The King of the Blues and Klezmer Violin"
His latest CD "Almost Home" has 3 Grammy winners.

Ruby Harris is “one of the Fathers of Jewish Rock”
Original Star of the band that invented Jewish Rock and one of the first of the Klezmer Revival bands, The Diaspora Yeshiva Band.
Voted "Entertainer of the Year" by Wild Chicago

Star performer at the Greater Chicago Jewish Folk Arts Festival, the Telluride Blues and Brews Festival, and the Catskills Jewish Music Festival, he's an annual fixture at the Chicago Blues Festival, and he played for a million people at Chicago's Navy Pier on the Fourth of July

Ruby Harris has performed at sold-out concerts at The Metropolitan Opera House, the HASC concerts at Lincoln Center in New York, and at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and BB Kings on Times Square. He has performed before President Clinton, at The Democratic Convention, for MTV and CBS Records, before Prime Ministers, Mayors, & people like you.

Ruby has toured, recorded with, and davened with a very close friend of his, the father of modern Jewish music, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, plus he has performed with most of today's biggest names in Jewish music: Mordechai Ben David, Avraham Fried, Yisroel Lamm, Ben Zion Shenker, Baruch Chait, Piamenta, Wald, Wiliger, Dachs, Ding, Dedi, Dudu, Dov Levine, Shlomo Simcha, Uncle Moishy, Shlock Rock, Blue Fringe, The Moshav Band, and Eli Gerstner. He is also the only Jewish music performer that is flown in to New York and around the world by Shelly Lang, Negina, Neshoma and other top N.Y. bands.

Klezmer! He has performed with members of Yitzchak Perlman's Klezmer band, the Klezmer Conservatory Band, Andy Statman, The Klezmatics, Jazmer, The Maxwell Street Klezmer Band, and Soulfarm.

Blues! He has recently opened up shows for Ray Charles, Maria Muldaur, James Cotton, Robert Jr. Lockwood, Honeyboy Edwards, Little Feat, The Marshall Tucker Band, Mr. Blotto, The Big Wu, Hot Tuna, and Leftover Salmon.

Legend! Ruby has performed in concert with Buddy Miles, Dave Mason, Peter Yarrow, David Bromberg, Irene Stoneman, Junior Wells, Pinetop Perkins, Lester Maddog Davenport, Little Mack Simmons, Elmore James Jr., Shirley King, Billy Boy Arnold, Billy Branch, Sammy Fender, Fruteland Jackson, Cornmeal, and members of Lynard Skynard, Anthrax, the Chieftans, the Bothy Band, and The Yonder Mountain String Band.

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He played at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center.
He recorded with CBS Records.
He performed before President Clinton.

Ruby Harris is Professional Jewish Music

Photograph: Peter Amft

Every musician talks about high musical standards. But Ruby Harris raises the standards of Jewish music. Whether it's Chassidic, Klezmer, or contemporary Jewish music, Ruby Harris brings to every song the inspiration and soul of a craftsmanship of a true musician.

Of all the performers of Jewish music in the Midwest, only Ruby Harris learned his craft from such music greats as Ray Nance of the Duke Ellington Orchestra, the late Contemporary composer John Cage, and Blues masters Sonny Terry and Willie Dixon. Only Ruby Harris signed with major record labels throughout the world and toured or performed with the biggest names in Jewish music -- Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, Mordechai Ben David, Avraham Fried, the original Diaspora Yeshiva Band, Israeli Stars Moti Caspi and The Dudaim Peter Himmelman and Neginah Orchestras. And only Ruby Harris was featured on MTV.

So when you're hiring a band for your next simcha, banquet, or benefit concert -- hire a critically-acclaimed professional that will make your affair unforgettable. Choose Ruby Harris Orchestras.

Click links to find out more about the albums.

Ruby Harris

A Short History of Ruby's Jewish Music Roots

Ruby Harris spent his childhood in Brooklyn (Borough Park,Williamsburgh) and Forest Hills, N.Y., and his family eventually moved to Great Neck, Long Island. "I started the violin at age 6 in the school orchestra, then continued on with classical for a few years. Then at 15, 1 joined The Brad Brickman Big Band, one of the first of the swing revival bands. "Symphony Sid" interviewed us on WEVD radio in New York. Then at 17, 1 formed The Smokin' Bluegrass Boys, also pioneers in the Long Island Bluegrass scene in the late 60's and early 70's." He went to all the rock concerts, the Fillmore, festivals, Rolling Stones, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, etc., protest marches and peace rallies, a good time to absorb music. Within those years, he hitchhiked around the U.S.A. and Canada several times, and Mexico , "it was great to get to know this country in those days, before malls and computers had replaced farms and clean air." Then he went to the School of Visual Arts in N.Y. to study with among others, Buckminster Fuller and John Cage, two major influences. He also continued his violin studies at the Manhattan School of Music. "After that I went to Europe to study in the great galleries of art, the Uffizi, the National Gallery, the Louv, the Vatican, and the music of different cultures. It was amazing. I traveled for a whole year from the Isle of Sky in Scotland all the way to Crete at the bottom of Greece. Then 1 flew to Israel, and that was a major turning point (ie."Tshuva", get it?)

A month of touring the Holy Land and I was ready to settle down and learn a little Jewish culture". That lasted for 11 years, and never ended. Starting at places like Dvar Yerushalayim, Diaspora Yeshiva, & Or Someach, he studied Gemora b' iyun, Mussar, Chassidus, and started to really get down with Chassidic music. In those first years of the Diaspora Yeshiva Band he became a member and they recorded and toured extensively, won festivals and created Chassidic Rock.

-[Diaspora]- "The Breslov, Chabad, Bobov, and Modzitz (we got a brocha from the Rebbe) tunes were especially influential, because of their beauty and depth". Playing for the Israeli Army, The Knesset, Mossad, Chasinas, Simchas Bes HaShoevas, Lag B'Omer in Meron and all nighter's in Meah Shearim, and with Israeli stars brought about a large body of experience in his repertoire. Marriage and 3 (ken ein hara) children also helped. Then the move to Chicago [his wife is from Skokie) opened new doors. "The biggest thing in recent times was a reunion tour with the Diaspora Band, that included appearances at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, and several recordings."

Over the years, Ruby has played for Robin, Shamir, Sharon, Peres, Cheif Rabbis and Admors, Yeshivos and Kibbutzim, with Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, Mordechai Ben David, Avraham Fried, Junior Wells, and at the funeral of the great blues singer Willie Dixon. He has a design studio in West Rogers Park for graphics and Signage, called "Advance Advertising Signs and Wonders", specializing in Hebrew Signs and Art. He also has a successfull wedding band for all kinds of banquets and simchas, that focuses on real Chassidic music. He usually davens somewhere around the shul mall on Touhy ("good Gemora shiurs, chulent and Wild Turkey at Kiddush"), and is working on a new CD.

Ruby Harris

He played at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. He recorded with CBS Records. He performed before President Clinton.

Almost Home

T'Natzel Nafshi

Le'Shem Shamayim

Ruby Harris

A Short History of Ruby's Jewish Music Roots

He played at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center.
He recorded with CBS Records.
He performed before President Clinton.