I was floored when I read that he died. I knew he had been through a hard fight but I guess I wanted to believe he would pull through it.
Whether you like his innovations or not, what really stands out in even his most experimental pieces is his love for Scottish music.
Cheers,
Aaron
Sad news indeed.
Alan
That sucks! I really liked to hear him play. Great loss.
From:
http://www.marcmarnie.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/music/cgall03/martyn.htm
From:
http://www.moorsmagazine.com/muziek/transatlantic3.html
I’m gutted… Seriously.
Rarely these days in traditional music has there been a more fiercely individual talent. If you’ve heard of him at all, you’d probably know him as “that bagpipe fusion guy,” but he was so much more than that. In addition to being a first-class piper, he was a classical violin virtuoso (once touted in The Scotsman during his teens as “the next Nigel Kennedy”), a gifted pianist, an absolute wizard at sampling and programming, and a Gaelic singer–his mother Margaret was head of Edinburgh University’s School of Scottish Studies (her singing appears on Martyn’s album “Glen Lyon”). Thanks to his mothers’ vast connections, he grew up quite literally at the feet of 20th Century Scotland’s greatest tradition bearers of words and music.
What I loved about Bennett’s music was that like David Byrne and his “I hate World Music” approach, he categorically hated Celtic music. Able to see beyond tired old, recycled ideas of folksy marketing or Braveheart/Riverdance-inspired schlock, he simply made the music he wanted to make. Sometimes it was quite harsh. Other times, such as with his recording of “Griogal Cridhe” with his mother or “Liberation”, a track that sampled Psalm 118 sung in Gaelic (and composed while suffering from the Hodgkins’ lymphoma that would ultimately claim his life), the results were rare, delicate, and thoroughly spine-tingling in their beauty.
Truely a genius taken far too soon.
Why God??? Why? If You were going to take somebody who played bagpipes, couldn’t You have taken Phil Collins instead?!
Tragic, the only truly decent trad/techno crossover stuff I’ve heard was by Martyn, made the Afro-Celts really sound second rate, especially in the programming side.
Sad, sad news 
I always hoped to see and hear him live one day. I missed that chance.
Cancer is a vicious disease, I wish we could find a cure.
Slainte mhath!
/MarcusR