Zor Pipes and Drums
Have Kilts,Will Travel
A demonstration of what a band of Bretheren can accomplish, When they mix Music, Philanthropy, and Heritage
....Ellis Waller....
Ellis is one of the most active members of the Zor Shrine pipers. He gives a great new meaning to "Band participation". Here he is weearing his favorite jacket, a Prince Charles, one of the pride signatures of the British Isles Great Highland Bagpipers.
Joining Zor Pipes & Drums
Ellis joined Zor in 1995. He joined when Jim Curley asked him to come play with the band when Ellis met him at a gig at the Madison Curling Club.
Beginnings with bagpipes
Ellis wanted to play the pipes because during WW2 his parents decorated his room with the Dewars Highlanders prints from the back of the New Yorker magazine. He still has them.
Ellis's first start with a bagpipes band was in 1961, with the Chicago Stockyards band. Ellis also spent some time with the Shannon Rovers bagpipes
Ellis became the pipe major of the Great Lakes Gas, Oil and Pipe Band. In Rockford from 1971 to 1978, he played with the Rockford Pipe Band.
Ellis Waller's memories
Heritage
His mother is Irish. Queen "Elizabeth I" pardoned his ancestors twice for cattle rustling.
He is Swedish on Father's side. King Gustavus Adolphus gave his ancestors a land grant in 1613 to teach the Swedes (they were Walloons from Liege Belgium) how to mine and make Iron. His ancestors probably made the castings for the Vasa.
The parades that stand out for Ellis are the Vietnam Veterans remembrance event in Oconomowoc, and the dedication of the Veterans Cemetery near Sheboygan .
Best Bagpipe memories
He has piped at bottom the Royal Gorge, the highest suspension bridge in the world, Canon City, Colorado.
On the tender of the 1848 steam train in Deadwood, SD.
On skis down the Minturn Mile in Vail, Colorado.
On the top of Pikes Peak, Alaska
On a sailboat crossing the finishing line of the Chicago Mackinac race.
For President Ford.
Ellis appeared in the centerfold of the Newsweek Magazine issue feature Jackie Kennedy on the cover
May the Great Architect of the Universe have his blessings upon you.