Drummer Snared by His Heritage : He Had Tried Other Music, but One Sound Called Him

The steady drone of the bagpipes and their reedy Celtic melodies, accompanied by the sharp, military snap of double-snared drums, can arouse strong emotions.

It is a music that calls to Malcolm Bruce Willis, who carries on his family’s musical heritage as co-director of Nicholson Pipes and Drums, a group founded by his bagpipe-playing mother 17 years ago. He is quick to acknowledge that strong emotions inspired by the music run both ways.

“My mother was playing in New York many years ago and some man came up to her with tears in his face and couldn’t thank her enough for playing ‘Amazing Grace.’ Years later, when she was teaching bagpipes in Santa Monica, her Czechoslovakian neighbor got so mad about the noise that he put a bullet hole in her car,” said Willis, a 44-year-old Westminster resident who joined his first pipe band at age 9 while growing up in Canada.

“There’s nobody quite in the middle on the bagpipes. You either love ‘em or you hate ‘em. Oscar Wilde said, ‘Bagpipes--thank God they don’t have an odor.’ ”

Willis traces his family line back to the Isle of Skye off the northwest coast of Scotland. But it was his Canadian-born grandfather, Malcolm Nicholson, who was the first noted bagpipe player of the clan. As a police officer, Nicholson was pipe major of the Vancouver Police Department Pipe Band, which began in 1915. It is currently the oldest civilian pipe band in British Columbia and the oldest police band in Canada. Nicholson also began four other pipe bands for youths and taught lessons.

“In part, it was his effort to get kids off the streets. He was a very good teacher and a lot of his students became some of the top pipers in the country,” Willis said. “His influence has continued into my generation of players.”

Willis grew up playing drums, developing a technical skill that would take him beyond pipe bands into contemporary music in Canada and the United States. From his high school years on, Willis played with a variety of bands, including the UCLA Jazz Ensemble. But he never learned to play the bagpipes.

He did not return to the music of the pipe and drum until 1981, when his mother, Kathleen Nicholson Graham, reluctantly began Nicholson Pipes and Drums at the urging of her students who wanted to perform. Willis also was reluctant.

“I knew the playing wouldn’t be at the highest level, but I figured it would at least be fun--kind of the pipe band version of a bowling league--a social outlet. We’d go out and do local parades throughout the Southland and make a little money, and that was a fun thing.”

In 1986, his mother moved to Canada to care for her father after the death of her mother, leaving the pipe band in the hands of Willis and Pipe Major Robert Hackney, who had been her star pupil. That same year, the band traveled to Vancouver to play a Fourth of July concert in the American Pavilion of Expo ’86.

The group has since won top awards at various highland festivals in the western United States, Canada and Scotland and performed for numerous civic and social events throughout Orange County and beyond.

They performed at inauguration celebrations in Orange County for President Reagan, played at the wedding of media baron Rupert Murdoch’s daughter, appeared on television and were featured in comedian Mike Myers’ movie “So I Married an Ax Murderer.” They rehearse every Monday from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Westminster Senior Center.

Willis and the other 16 members of Nicholson Pipes and Drums are looking forward to the Scottish Festival planned for May 23 and 24 at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. Some of the world’s top pipe bands are expected to compete, he said.

Though Willis is an accomplished drummer, he confesses to nagging feelings of guilt about his inability to play the bagpipes. As he grew up, he was just more interested in the drums, he said.

It is no small endeavor to learn the pipes, Willis said.

“It’s not just executing the fingering and playing the tune. If somebody who had never played before took the instrument off the shelf and tried to blow it up, they’d probably hyperventilate, get dizzy and fall down. There’s basically five reeds you’re trying to blow air through, and you have to keep constant pressure on the bag to get the right sound out of the pipes.

“My mom is threatening to teach me. She’s moving back to the United States and she has a set of my grandfather’s pipes here. I’m sure after she’s gone she couldn’t bear the thought of having them hung up on a wall somewhere. So if I can manage to play two or three tunes, maybe I’ll be worthy of them.”

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Profile: Malcolm Bruce Willis

Age: 44

Hometown: Vancouver, Canada

Residence: Westminster

Family: Wife, Irene; one school-age daughter

Education: Graduated from Santa Monica High School; studies in music and business at Santa Monica College; private studies in percussion

Music making: At age 9, became a founding member of the Highland Laddies Pipe Band in Canada, 1962-66; member, Kiwanis Boys Pipe Band in Canada, 1967-70; member, Santa Monica College Marching Band, 1973-74; played contemporary music in Canada with various groups, 1974-77; drummer with UCLA Jazz Ensemble, 1978; performances and recording sessions in Southern California, 1978-82; staff drummer with Guitar Institute (Hollywood), 1979-80; founding member of Nicholson Pipes and Drums, since 1981, now co-director and drum sergeant, has performed with group throughout U.S., Canada and Scotland

Background: Began Techni-Clean carpet-upholstery cleaning business in 1982; member, Westminster Cultural Arts Commission, 1994-95; member, Westminster Traffic Commission, since 1997; president emeritus, Westminster Foundation for the Arts

On bagpipes: “I’ve heard a lot of jokes about the bagpipes, that they sound like someone stepping on a cat. Someone once said the pipes were a joke that the Irish gave the Scots, but the Scots haven’t figured it out yet.”

Source: Malcolm Bruce Willis; Researched by RUSS LOAR / For The Times