AS SCOTTISH piping moves into the 21st century, Fred Morrison has carved himself an international reputation with a powerfully exuberant, highly improvisational style which combines the Gaelic piping tradition of the Uists with contemporary and eclectic influences. One of the few pipers to achieved success in both the competitive piping and folk music scenes, Fred is a master of the Highland pipes and the bellows-blown Lowland or Border pipes, as well as playing Irish uillean pipes and low whistle.

His playing has been described by Jim Gilchrist of The Scotsman as "the nearest thing to jazz you'll hear in Scottish piping", while Michael Grey, in Piper and Drummer Magazine , commented simply: "Fred Morrison's music astounds", and "Go and be gobsmacked," was the reaction from Rob Adams of The Herald.

Fred Morrison was born in 1963 near Bishopton, Renfrewshire, where he grew up, regularly visiting his paternal family home in Gerinish, South Uist. Taught piping by his late father - also Fred, also a notable piper - from the age of nine, Fred Jnr became immersed in the rounded-out, driving piping style of the Outer Hebrides.

His father taught him through the traditional method of canntaireachd, the sung vocables used to convey pipe music before notation came on the scene, and Fred attributes much of his approach to that. "I hear that singing in my head every time I play," he told one interviewer.

Following a spell busking in the Netherlands, Fred trained as a primary school teacher then spent some time as a piping teacher in Glasgow schools a before a musical career beckoned. His prowess on the great Highland pipe had already gained him honours in the exacting Scottish competition piping circuit, including the coveted gold medals at Oban and Inverness, while he has taken the prestigious Macallan trophy at Brittany's Lorient Celtic Festival no less than seven times.

At a time when Scottish piping was broadening out into the burgeoning traditional music scene, Fred was experimenting, taking on board eclectic influences from elsewhere and developing a formidable technique that can put a unique spin on some of the most well-worn items in the repertoire.

He was soon in demand as a solo performing artist, initially supporting the likes of Runrig and Capercaillie, before joining the short-lived "supergroup" Clan Alba (with Dick Gaughan, among others) then joining Capercaillie for three years, during which time he played in and helped arrange the Highland group's music for the film Rob Roy.

As his reputation spread, he took to the bellows-blown Scottish Lowland or Border bagpipes, which have been experiencing a revival in recent years and are more easily compatible with fiddles and other instruments than the Highland pipe, while their reeding is conducive to the kind of cross-fingering and vibrato which Fred employs in his playing. An enthusiastic fan of the great Paddy Keenan, piper with Ireland's legendary Bothy Band, he also added the Irish Uillean pipes and low whistle to his armoury.

While he still regards the Highland pipe as his first instrument, these days his concert performances tend to focus round the Border pipes, with interludes on uillean pipes and a mellifluous whistle. A recent fruitful partnership has been with bouzouki player Jamie McMenemy, a founder-member of the Battlefield Band and the Breton group Kornog, which can be heard on the most recent of Fred's three albums, Up South.

As well as cropping up on albums by numerous leading scottish musicians and singers, Fred's recent activities have included the Gaelic group Ceolas, of which he is a founder member, while his stature as a musician was recognised by Glasgow's mammoth Celtic Connections festival in January 2005, when he was commissioned to write the customary grand opening composition,. He called it Paracas, an ambitious musical journey through Gaelic culture and history which involved not only several pipers but other folk musicians and singers, as well as an orchestra and chorus.

Another honour which Fred particularly cherished was being voted Instrumentalist of the Year in the Scots Trad Music Awards for 2004, which he welcomed as a recognition of piping as a popular art form, rather than as a personal accolade.

A recent extra-curricular activity has been his involvement with McCallum Bagpipes in lending his name and playing experience in developing a bellows blown pipe called the Fred Morrison reelpipes - "reel pipes" being the old Highland equivalent of the Border bagpipe - which have attracted much interest among pipers (for details see Fred Morrison Pipes ).

Fred lives with his musician wife Deirdre and their young family in Bishopton, Renfrewshire.