Brian executes a lower octave A roll in a manner I find unusual…and tricky to dissect. It sounds like three triplets are part of the roll: a G closure, followed closely by an off-the-leg two-finger (middle and ring finger) tap that puts the bottom D into the mix. It’s interesting, percussive/rhythmic and hard to explain. Insights welcome.
Can you give a tune/recording example?
dave boling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwbka2CFeI8
Most evident in the A part of Basket of Oysters, around 2:26–>
It doesn’t look off the knee to me… Not on that video anyway.
It’s hard to tell from the video, but he may be doing tap cut tap.
To me it looks (and sounds) like he’s playing a roll A-B-A-F#-A, with just the F# off the knee.
Just by listening and looking at the video I’d say he is playing the A open with the F# and E (middle and ring) fingers, doing a cut, then a quick succession of two taps, first with the A finger, then with the F# and E fingers. That way you might get a bubbly effect from the first A tap, it would sound an F#. When he does it off the knee he lifts after the first cut and puts it down after the last tap. If you want to play it all on the knee maybe just use the F# finger. Could be wrong though!
Hey, thanks for posting this Tom! Much appreciated.
I asked about this in a lesson earlier this week. Lately I’ve been trying to poach a bit of Brian’s style for my own ends - trying to get more of a feel for how he approaches ornamentation. It really adds a lot of interesting rhythmic qualities to his versions of tunes. My ears enjoy it.
Just by listening and looking at the video I’d say he is playing the A open with the F# and E (middle and ring) fingers, doing a cut, then a quick succession of two taps, first with the A finger, then with the F# and E fingers. That way you might get a bubbly effect from the first A tap, it would sound an F#. When he does it off the knee he lifts after the first cut and puts it down after the last tap. If you want to play it all on the knee maybe just use the F# finger. Could be wrong though!
I’ve tried the other suggestions - and they sound pretty close. This to me (without having played it) sounds like a possible solution. I’m looking forward to giving this a shot tomorrow when my wife’s not asleep. 
Years ago I attended a workshop by Mick O Brien and I was fascinated by the way he played rolls.
He brought no attention to it and no-one asked him about it. I assumed that nobody had noticed. The only reason I spotted what he was doing was that from where I was sitting he had an open door behind him, with strong light coming in, and I began noticing a tiny split-second bit of light between his popping apron and the bottom of his chanter.
It all became clear when I figured out the timing of his lifting the chanter and became aware of the difference in sound it was making.
What he was doing was playing all his pats closed, but lifting the chanter for a split-second so that the pats were sounding Bottom D. His pats were so very quick and precise and clean that these Bottom Ds weren’t heavy at all, they were near-instantaneous blips.
For example his pat on B:
x xoo xxxx | x
x xxx xxxx | o
x xoo xxxx | x
He was doing these on F# and G in the second octave too. I didn’t see what he was doing for E, A, and B in the second octave.
I think I figured identified what Brian is doing! So I was perusing through pipe videos, when I revisited this video from Brian Bigley giving one of his clients no doubt a tour of a full set. At one point in the video he rolls on A in such a way as to sound like Brian’s ornament - especially if it were to be sped up in the context of a tune. Here’s the link to the time:
https://youtu.be/35Xav2kBK_M?t=273
It occurs near the end of the noodling. It looks like it’s a regular A roll, just with the bottom pat down to F# rather than a closed chanter or a D. It doesn’t sound perfect on my chanter but it’s pretty clear to me from this video that’s how it’s done.
On the youtube screen go to the setting cog and select “0.5” you will see a little clearer what he is doing… https://youtu.be/Lwbka2CFeI8?t=2m19s
Mad craic altogether!
Patrick