I’m a fingerstyle ragtime/blues guitarist. On a whim, I just picked up this month’s copy of ‘Living Blues’ magazine, which had a feature story about this guy, ‘Honey Blo’.
I’m open-minded, and certainly eclectic in my tastes, but I’m not there yet with this guy. My question is: has anyone else done it better?
Not that i know of, crookedtune. I think he’s got ..potential…but thats all i see so far.
Mind you- I encourage him to get it goin, but Im not feelin it either, from what hes doin.
On his last tracks, ‘Sustain’… Rufus was lookin into some hiphop kind of thing, that seemed to be working pretty well for him. I like to keep informed of this sort of thing though, & if you do find a piper who fills the ticket, pls share.
Yes, Rufus it is, then. All that with nine notes!
Of course, if anyone had such a player on board, it would be Sun Ra!
Unfortunaltely, Rufus Harley passed away July 31st, 2006.
He didn’t learn or use traditional Piping-Techniques but rather transferred his own Style, playing other Wind-Instruments in Jazz, Blues and Soul-Music, to the Pipes. That makes it sometimes hard to follow, when used to listening to Pipes. Especially his earlyer Recordings, still using instruments of inferior Quality and obviously not having very much Practice.
ImhO, this changed within his later Recordings, more used to playing them and equipped with better Instruments. These I tend to really enjoy from Time to Time…
ok. I knew Rufus Harley, gigged with him twice, phoned him every once in a while, & piped at his funeral. He used recorder fingering. He played a right handed set of pipes left handed. He used RG Hardie & sons pipes & chanters, all cane, cowhide & flapper exclusively, afaik. I do not know what his very first pipe was, the one he drove up to a NYC pawnshop to buy. I do not believe he owned more than one set of pipes at a time, but I may be wrong about that.
He was entirely self taught at the beginning, primarily because- no one who knew how to play the pipes, back then, would give him any advice. He was eventually given reliable advice concerning equipment & set-up by a local supplier, also now dec’d. ‘Standard’ GHB techniques just didnt jibe with his idea of jazz pipes, so he didnt incorporate it much. He was happiest doing his own thing, & if he ever got tired of all the shyte other pipers dealt him(& there was plenty of that), he never showed it.
My time spent onstage in free improv with Rufus Harly was like landing on saturn. Vistas far beyond MSR,HJ, Piob & competition medley opened up at light speed for me. At that point, I simply didnt give a tinkers damn if his tenor drones were out or if he never played a doubling.
He opened a pandoras box, for the bagpipe-at-large, that we still feel the efects of today.
There are DAMN few truly original bagpipers around today; and NONE prior to Rufus Harley.
Purely coincidental, (weirdly so), but I guess I have this to look forward to now! 