The Bagpipe Society

In the Bag - Pete Stacey

Born and brought up in Swansea, Pete started playing music in jazz-rock bands. He went on to study music at Liverpool University and it was while he was working on his PhD that he received an invitation to travel to Galicia to play with the Welsh folk band Cromlech. It was during these visits that he encountered the gaita. Pete was looking for an instrument that would breathe new energy into traditional Welsh music and replace an instrument that had been lost to the tradition.

Together with Stevie Wishart (fiddle and hurdy-gurdy) and Deltyh Evans (harp) he formed the innovative trio, Aberjaber, playing music from Wales and other Celtic nations.

As musical director of the Cardiff-based multi-cultural theatre company, Theatr Taliesin Wales, Pete had the opportunity of working with musicians and actors from many parts of the world including India, Pakistan, Bali, and North Africa. He went on to work as a musician and composer with musicians and dancers from south India. In 2003 he was commissioned to write a concerto for the legendary Indian flautist, Hariprasad Chaurasia and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Other commissions followed and he also worked with one of India’s leading sitarists, Nishat Khan, on a concerto, commissioned by BBC Radio 3, which was performed at the Proms 2013. More recently Pete has been performing with Mumbai-born singer, Rajesh David, and guitarist Dylan Fowler in the trio, Tyhai.

As well as being a qualified music therapist, Pete is also an active music educator who has worked at a number of universities and colleges in Wales.

What bagpipes do you play?

I play Gaita Redonda in C and Gaita Grileira in D. I also play a Welsh bagpipe that was made for me by Julian Goodacre.

Do you play any other instruments?

As well as pipes I also play soprano and tenor saxophones and a range of flutes including the standard concert flute, eight-keyed wooden flute, and alto flute.

What led you to take up piping?

Some forty years ago I started playing with Welsh folk band, Cromlech.

At that time we played at some inter-Celtic festivals and I was always blown-away by the pipers from Ireland, Scotland, and Britany. I wanted to bring some of that energy to our music.

I discovered that there was evidence that pipes of various sorts had been played in Wales over the years and I was looking for an instrument that we could use to revive this practice. I had decided against adopting an instrument from one of the traditions in the British Isles or Ireland.

While the Scottish pipes are admirable, they have a fixed scale and highly developed style and personality and they would clearly have been out of place in the context of Welsh music. The Northumbrian pipes and the uillean pipes are also very beautiful and have fine repertoires, but they too come with strongly developed identities.

For me, the gaita seemed a good choice for Welsh music as it plays in major and minor scales. It is a form of bagpipe (a conical chanter with single drone) that was quite widely distributed in Europe. And this was an instrument with a powerful voice that would make an impact. So, I asked my good friend, Juan Silvar, if he could help me find an instrument. He duly ordered an instrument for me from Antonio Corral and a year or so later the pipes arrived with a little message saying ’the donkey goes very slowly, but it always arrives.’ I am still playing this instrument.

Which pipers do you most admire?

Firstly I would like to mention Juan Silvar who helped me find my way into bagpiping. He is a founder member Raparigos a traditional gaita and percussion group from the Ferrol area. I understand that raparigos means the

‘young boys’: when they started in the late 1960s they represented the new generation of players who went on to become champions of the Gallego musical tradition.

Closer to home I am inspired by the work of Ceri Rhys Matthews in reviving the Welsh tradition of piping. Ceri is very generous in sharing his knowledge and interest in the playing techniques and repertoire of Welsh music.

And finally, I would like to mention Jon Swayne’s work. His work in recreating historical and traditional instruments is quite remarkable. He is an accomplished musician, piper, composer and arranger. For me his inspiring work with Zyphyrus picks up on the duo playing of Eric Montbel and Jean Blanchard in their creative use and combination of pipes.

But there are so many wonderful pipers from the rich traditions around the world. Of course, we have one of the strongest of all these traditions here in Scotland. I had the privilege of working with one of the finest exponents of this tradition, Rab Wallace: this was in a Theatr Taliesin Wales project in Glasgow.

Rab subsequently appeared as a guest on our second Aberjaber album. While Rab is a renowned solo piper, I am more familiar with his playing of the bellows-blown lowland pipes in the Whistlebinkies.

My first pick here is going to be the Indian classical flautist, Hariprasad Chaurasia. Indian classical music is a highly sophisticated musical culture. It comprises three key elements: melody, drone and rhythm. In this way it has key elements in common with other musics that are based on static harmony, such as the music of bagpipes and hurdy-gurdies.

Equally wonderful is Norwegian saxophonist, Jan Garbarek. In his hands the soprano saxophone evokes many sound worlds, crossing musical and cultural borders.

My third choice is the Estonian composer, Arvo Part who writes deeply moving minimalist music of beguiling simplicity.

What three albums are top of your playlist right now?

Just looking at the jumble of CDs and LPs around my music system I find three at the top of the pile:

Miri by Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba

Joy by the AKA Trio (Sekou Keita, Antonio Forcione, Adriano Adewale)

Y Gwythienne by Ceri Rhys Matthews

If you had your life again, what instrument would you play?

Whenever I hear music being played well, I am drawn to it and think I would love to play that instrument … Maybe I will need a number of lifetimes!

Name your favourite music festival.

One of my favourite festivals of all time has to be the Rencontres Internationales de Luthiers et Maitres Sonneurs when it was at St Chartier. This was a wonderful place to hear pipers and hurdy-gurdy players from many parts of the world. I understand that the festival continues to flourish at another site, though I have not managed to get there since they moved.

What are the most memorable gigs you’ve been to (involving pipes or not)?

So many memories swirling in the mists of time … here’s one that pops out of the penumbra. In the mid-1980s, when I was playing with Aberjaber, we appeared at the Preseli Folk Festival. The headline band was Moving Hearts with Davy Spillane on Uilleann pipes. This was a fine band indeed - a heady mix of Irish traditional music with latin and jazz elements.

Bellows or mouth-blown?

I play mouth-blown pipes. There are many great bellows-blown instruments, but I have never got into playing them, partly because I often find myself switching from playing flute or sax to pipes and I reckon this is easier with mouth-blown instruments.

Cats or dogs?

Cats. (Apparently dog skins were used for bagpipes in medieval times. Any makers attempting this level of authenticity might find themselves offending 21st sensibilities.)

Are there any bagpipes you dislike?

All bagpipes are great. The only ones that drive you mad are the ones that don’t work well!

Do you prefer playing, dancing or both?

Both are great. I find myself playing mostly, but I would probably benefit more from dancing.

Cane or plastic reeds?

I have cane reeds on the chanters and composite reeds in the drones of my gaitas. My Welsh pipes have cane reeds for both chanter and drone.

What’s your greatest musical achievement?

Writing a concerto for the legendary Indian flautist, Hariprasa Chaurasia and the BBC National Orchestral of Wales must surely rank among my greatest musical achievements. Like so many people around the world, I had been a huge fan of Hariprasad’s playing and it was a great honour to be invited to create a piece for him to play with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. The piece was performed to a full house at St David’s Hall in Cardiff and broadcast on Radio 3.

The show also included my orchestral arrangements of traditional Bharata Natyam (Indian Classical dance) pieces that I created for dancers from the India Dance Wales company to dance to. Celebrated santoor players, Shivkurma Sharma and his son Rahul, also took part in the concert.

What’s your most embarrassing bagpiping moment?

When I was living in Oxford I played in a little dance band called Sinfoyne with Stevie Wishart playing hurdy-gurdy and various other musicians from the area. We used to play a mixture of early music and music from European countries. On one occasion we got a last-minute booking because the band that had been booked could do it for some reason. When we got there, we found the venue all set up for a full-on American-style barn dance. The organizer had not heard about the last-minute switch of bands and gave out a horrified cry of ‘BAGPIPES … !?’ when she found out what I was going to play. It was not a comfortable experience playing bagpipes and hurdy-gurdy to people in ten-gallon hats.

What advice would you give a novice?

Get a decent instrument: it’s much more rewarding to spend your time playing and practicing than tinkering and repairing.

Get some lessons, if you can: it’s great to work with someone who has a good grasp of technique and tradition. But remember, you don’t have to be hostage to tradition: the bagpipes can also be a wonderful vehicle for creativity.

I love bagpipes because…

… bagpipes showed me how to be a bigger person.

As told to Andy Letcher**