Rare Air - Biography
By J Poet
Rare Air was a Toronto based Canadian band that played an odd world music fusion based on the folk music of Ireland, Brittany, Canada and the Appalachian Mountains, and jazz. The band was the creation of bagpipe players Patrick O’Gorman and Grier Coppins, who used the bagpipe drone to create a unique sound that’s never been duplicated. The band started playing together in the late 1970s as Na Cabarfeidh. They released two albums as Na Cabarfeidh, Stick It in Your Ear (1981 Sometimes We Do This, Canada) and Rare Air (1982 Flying Fish). The combination of bagpipes, bombarde (a folk oboe with a high pitched tone) and guitar produced an extraordinary sound. Ferrier’s tabla and African-influenced hand drumming pushed the music into uncharted territory.
The band changed their name to Rare Air in 1983; even their die-hard fans had trouble pronouncing Na Cabarfeidh. They made four albums as Rare Air - Mad Plaid (1984 Flying Fish), Hard to Beat (1987 Green Linnet), Primeval (1989 Green Linnet) where their jazzy side comes to full force with an extended version of Roland Kirk’s “Volunteer Slavery,” and Space Piper (1991 Green Linnet) on which the band dropped folk music in favor of their own compositions. During their brief existence they toured the world and found a faithful following in the southern US, especially North Carolina.
Grier Coppins still plays music in a Toronto band called Taxi Chain, Greenspoon is a record producer and working musician, and Frappier is an in demand session player for many French Canadian musicians.
