Forwarded from composer/Kropotkins/Soldier String Quartet/Thai Elephant Orchestra ringmaster Dave Soldier:
Hey Brian, here's my message for NY Times obituary, but it may be more appropriate for a Bo site in FMU:
Bo was perhaps the most naturally talented musician I ever heard. He could improvise a solo for as long as he would like with no one getting bored,something nearly impossible to find in any style of music. He could speak with his guitar - I played backup guitar for him in Gainesville and interrupted him in a solo on purpose, he stopped the band and lectured me by playing microtones on the guitar that sounded like a schoolmarm lecturing. He and the late Leroy Jenkins grew up in Chicago together and played violin duos to earn money on the street. Years after I played with Bo and Leroy (separately), I got the two of them and Maureen Tucker to agree to play a trio (Maureen fell in love with music from listening to Bo, and you can hear that too) , and now really regret I couldn't figure out how to arrange it - the kings and queen of a certain kind of an apparently simple but most subtle art. Whatever his complaints against the business, he was true and kind man, full of advice for others, and developed a new language that affected musicians from Africa to Europe and Asia, and he will always one of the greatest in many styles of our country's music. your pal, Dave Soldier, New York City

While we now reel at the implications of a Bo Diddley/Leroy Jenkins/Mo Tucker trio, let's remember the greatest primitive axeman in history.