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Keyboard Gods?
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 3:19 pm
by Cail
Since we're at it....
Rick Wakeman, Keith Emmerson, David Rosenthal (Rainbow), John Lord.
Anyone else?
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 3:40 pm
by Worm of Despite
Stevie Wonder. Whoever does the majority of the keyboarding in XTC. Mike Garson (especially on Bowie's Aladdin Sane).
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 3:44 pm
by Cail
Shoot yeah, Stevie and Herbie Hancock too.
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 4:38 pm
by Usivius
<nodding> yah, wakeman, and emmerson ... And Herbie is also fantastic!
also slide Patrik MOraz in there... Two amazing albums he did with Bruford .. just the two of them ... one acoustic, the other electric... fabulous.
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 5:44 pm
by lucimay
oh yeah!!! Patrick Moraz!!! Yes!
and i'll add some of my favorites...
Steve Winwood
Gregg Allman
Garth Hudson of The Band
Billy Payne of Little Feat
Felix Cavaliere of the Rascals
Roy Bittan of the E Street Band
Leon Russell
Alan Price of the Animals
just to name a few...
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 5:54 pm
by Worm of Despite
Not as technically skilled as keyboardists mentioned above, but I gotta give it up for Rick Wright of Pink Floyd. Reminds me that a distinct, memorable style is just as important/perhaps even more important than being able to play mind-numbingly fast.
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 8:12 pm
by Cail
Agreed LF. There's a lot to be said for being able to play with emotion.
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 8:16 pm
by Lorelei
Tori Amos.....combines classical training with Led Zepplin feeling....'nuff said
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 11:21 pm
by Cheval
Wright, Emmerson, and Wakeman are all excellent.
And I would add Billy Preston on that list too.
Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2006 12:27 am
by Lord Mhoram
Rick Wright
Bryan Ferry
Ray Manzarek - best all time, IMO
Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2006 4:09 am
by Spring
I don't know about 'God', but Natasha Schneider is pretty good.
Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2006 4:22 am
by lucimay
Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2006 5:52 am
by sgt.null
Rick Wright is amazing, listen to Us & Them or his lost solo album, Broken China. quite a jazz feel.
Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2006 8:16 am
by lucimay
Keith Jarrett
Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2006 8:45 am
by sgt.null
Shawn Smith : Brad, Satchel, Pigeonhead.
www.shawnsmith.co.uk/
a soulful singer, saw him live with Brad. very emotive piano player.
Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2006 10:21 am
by matrixman
Whoa...Lucimay is including jazz pianists here? Is that entirely fair?
For keyboardists in rock bands, my pick is Michael MacNeil of Simple Minds. Those of you who hate '80s synthesizer stuff can turn away, but for my money, no one else has approached the ethereal magnificence of MacNeil's work on the band's 1982 album
New Gold Dream [81-82-83-84]. It's an early 80s masterpiece and one of my five or so all-time favorite albums by anybody.
For jazz pianists...uh...Diana Krall...and, uh...Keith Jarrett. Another favorite is Junko Onishi, but I only know her by her one album,
Piano Quintet - but what an album! Yes, she's Japanese, and she composed her own pieces for that CD. Unfortunately, she seems to have fallen off the edge of the earth, because I haven't found anything else by her for years now.
And since we're at it: Classical pianists!
Keith Jarrett...Yep, he does both, and he does them superbly.
Handel: Suites for Keyboard is a selection of Jarrett's own favorite keyboard compositions by Georg Handel. It's beguiling piano music, perfect for a lazy summer afternoon. But the classical recording that put me in serious awe of Jarrett was his performance of Dmitri Shostakovich's
24 Preludes and Fugues. It's an epic work for solo piano considered one of the most challenging in the classical repertoire, right along side Bach's
Well-Tempered Clavier. Jarrett's recording is not a light listen, as it spans 2 CDs. But very rewarding if you're in the mood to sit through 2 hours of alternately meditative and explosive piano music.
Then there's Glenn Gould...god of Bach interpretation on the piano. Lightning-fast, mercurial virtuosity married with pointillistic clarity to produce a pianistic technique and sound that is all his own.
Christina Petrowska...goddess of contemporary classical interpretation. I've seen her in concert. Not afraid to tackle the bizarre and the bellicose in modern 20th century music (and beyond, heh). But neither is she afraid to play rapturous and beautiful stuff - like Ann Southam's dazzling
Rivers "anthology" for solo piano. (Not all modern "serious" music is unlistenable dreck.)
My classical rave ends.
Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2006 10:46 am
by lucimay
Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2006 1:19 pm
by Cail
I can't believe no one's mentioned The Killer.
Jerry Lee Lewis.
Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2006 3:17 pm
by Lord Mhoram
Good call, Cail. I just didn't remember him.
Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2006 7:07 pm
by lucimay
Cail wrote:I can't believe no one's mentioned The Killer.
Jerry Lee Lewis.
well...i'm not operating at full capacity today, Cail. mistaking Crimson lyrics for BS lyrics...sheesh...
lets have a photo of Killer, shall we?
