Otha Turner and The Rising Star Fife and Drum Band United States
Biography
Othar Turner (a.k.a. Otha Turner) (b. east of Canton, Mississippi, June 2, 1907; d. February 26, 2003), was one of the last well-known fife players in the vanishing American fife and drum musical tradition. He lived his entire life in northern Mississippi as a farmer, where in 1923 at the age of 16 he first learned to play the fife and make them from rivercane. Turner and The Rising Star Fife and Drum Band (which consisted of friends and relatives) primarily played at farm parties.
