Hello everyone. I am new to the forum. My name is Rich Osborn, and I
live in Northern California. I knew Robbie back in the late 1960's
through the mid-1970's; studied with him for awhile, and even opened
for him in a couple of his concerts, one at the Oak Theater in
Berkeley, the other at Dinklespiel Auditorium at Stanford
University. I then lost touch with him, so that I wasn't aware of
his passing until about 1989 when I ran into one of his fellow
Sufi's.

For me, there was a period of over 15 years during which I could not
play the guitar (I injured my left hand), and so became a painter.
But I have returned to the guitar now for the past 12 years. I
spend most of my practice time each day furthering the classical
guitar techniques that I had first studied in the mid-1970's. But I
have also begun to work once again in a free-form improvised raga-
style on the acoustic steel string.

A few years ago, I was in touch with Glenn Jones for awhile,
discussing Robbie and especially the problems of getting the part of
the Sufi order that Robbie belonged to to open up their vaults of
tapes. And for awhile shortly afterward, I communicated also with
Stefan Basho-Junghans.

I say all this because my interest in Robbie Basho is not of the
saint-making variety, but rather on what his unique contributions
were to our music and how to keep those active. And as a musician
myself, I am interested in discernment of what is of value and what
is not. I do not mind that others choose to idolize Robbie; God
knows, I did it myself when I was younger. As evidence of that, I
became a devotee of Meher Baba at that time, and traveled to India
and met the "mandali". In the long run, this also brought me into
contact with Tuck Andress, so I'm glad it all happened. But I'm
fairly cranky in my own opinions for practical reasons now.

If I ever get the time away from my own on-going creative endeavors,
it is a dream of mine some day to notate and publish five or six of
Robbie's greatest pieces into tablature and standard notation, to
make them more accessible to future generations of guitarists. I
don't like the idea of his singular contributions to music being
lost and not fully participating in the development of guitar music
in general. By the same token, in working once again in the genre
myself, I hope to keep alive and further the insights and techniques
he developed and which, in my opinion, have never had an adequate
exploration by any musician besides Basho himself.

If people can stand having a sometimes contrarian voice here, I'd
love to participate in the forum. I can be fairly critical of some
facets of Robbie and his music, but remain a devoted fan. I'm trying
to lay this out in the open so y'all will know somewhat of where I'm
coming from.

And with that, I'll bid adieu for now