Richard Morrison

I know Richard from Eric Olson.  Tinyboatsession in the Bay Area was a parade of new instruments.  There was only a single guitar among the 8 musicians I filmed there.  To say things had a generally groovy vibe in the Bay Area was an understatement.  

I met Richard in Berkeley Marina where he’d been keeping a beautiful sailboat for the last twenty years. He spent a great deal of time out there sailing, making art, and socializing with all the characters that are drawn to the water.  He played the sitar.  I’d grown up hearing sitars on Beatles albums and the occasional Bollywood music video but really hadn't put together the scope of the instrument in terms of size, and the types of sounds that come out of it.  If sparkles on the water had a sound, I think this might be it.  Richard studied it for 12 years and has been playing it for several more.  

It was going to be windy later in the day so we met early to avoid the wind, and even found some sunshine as we floated around the Marina.  He played a Rain Raga and a Jog Raga.  Raga is a melodic framework for interpreting classical Indian music. Richard had encyclopedic knowledge about the instrument and it was I had stumbled into one of those beautiful icebergs of a practice with so much holding up the surface.

After he finished his songs on this complex and delicate instrument that he trusted me to row him around with he pulled out a five-foot bit of copper two-inch pipe he found on a boat trailer. He put this to his lips and played it like a didgeridoo.  

Did I say Berkeley was a groovy place?  I think I did. Facebook: Richard Morrison