Canada 150: the 15 Greatest Canadian Pipers & Drummers (deceased)
#3: Jimmy McMillan
If there is such a thing as an unsung hero of Canadian piping and drumming, it is James “Jimmy” McMillan. Safe to say that without his dedicated teaching, the careers of Jack Lee, Terry Lee, Andrew Bonar, and Robert MacNeil, to name a few, would not be what they became. Born in Victoria, British Columbia, McMillan’s piping benefitted from the years of World War II, when he became Pipe-Major of the Canadian Scottish Regiment, receiving piping tuition at Edinburgh Castle and getting regular lessons from Archie MacNeill, “The Blind Piper,” who actually willed his pipes to McMillan, whose son plays them today. McMillan was a great purveyor not only of his own piping knowledge but of others’, bringing in the likes of Donald MacLeod, John MacLellan, Robert Reid and Bob Brown to the British Columbia scene with a truly open-minded attitude. McMillan’s influence on Canada’s piping success is incalculable, but is directly attributable to the success of the Lee brothers and the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band.
+ Pipe-Major James McMillan, 1911-2005
Nice work! John Wilson published 3 collections of pipe music, the third being the Canadian Centenial collection…all three of which I continue to use and teach my students today…
Mike Baker
It is interesting that none of the excellent 15 selected musicians appear to be players who played predominantly for dancing. Today, we seem to be band players, solo competitors or piobaireachd pipers. Would there be any interest in a list of 150 ceilidh/dance pipers.
Where’s Bill Livingstone?
Definitely Bill Livingstone!
No Bill Livingstone? Bizarre.
Sorry, missed the date of the original article. That explains why the great Bill Livingston is absent!
This article is from 2017, as stated in the very first added line.
The final paragraph: “What do you think? Are there any Canadian pipers or drummers who have sadly passed away since we published this feature in 2017 who you feel should be added to the list? Use our Comments feature to share your suggestions.”
Thanks for reading.
The Captain (Ken Eller)