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Topic ClosedRising keyboard virtuosos in prog
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JeanFrame View Drop Down
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Points: 195 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 30 2012 at 11:25
Originally posted by TechnicallySpeaking TechnicallySpeaking wrote:

Originally posted by JeanFrame JeanFrame wrote:

I don't think there's anyone modern who has the quality of the keyboard greats, Emerson, Ritchie, Wakeman. The young/modern players often have technical excellence, but the art of dynamics and dealing with acoustics seems to be lost. Too many young musicians in general seem to think that playing notes is in itself enough - absolutely wrong.
 
I guess you have not listened to Ocean Architecture yet?


Actually I have, nothing against that band, they seem young and raw, and who knows where it is headed? - but no relevance to this topic that I can hear, certainly not in keyboard terms.
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Points: 1238 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 01 2012 at 03:51
Originally posted by sleeper sleeper wrote:

Reading through this thread, everybody has picked people starting out in the 90's or earlier so I'll be the first to actually get it right with Richerd Henshel from To-Mera and Haken. His work with To-Mera in particular is brilliant (though so far he's only recorded on the Earthbound EP and yet to be released third album).

Indeed Approve
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Points: 7849 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 01 2012 at 18:58
Ouch

i know nothing outside of age and experience.
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Points: 17524 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 03 2012 at 12:13
Originally posted by progbethyname progbethyname wrote:

Ouch

i know nothing outside of age and experience.
 
Overrated!
 
It is youth and inexperience, that helped create "progressive" like it has so many other art scenes and eras over the history of all the arts.
 
All in all, for the most part, age is about being lazy, fat, and sacked out on the couch and even not having the ability to listen to something new because the old is always is better! I like a lot of older stuff, but then, I also like a lot of classical music going back 500 years, and that tells you that I appreciate music, not just metal, or rap, or pop!
 
I'm just not sure that everyone listens to music with a similar perspective, although I can easily tell you that most admins and leads at PA, also have very good listening music skills and in general are all very well versed in all music, not just one thing.
 
Keyboards these days, are almost a joke, and when you hear things like Transatlantic, and some other bands, I can't help thinking that all the keyboards are doing is variations upon a theme called melody! And that was not exactly all that the big name keyboard players were doing in the early days of "progressive" that made them the keyboard monsters that they were!
 
The way popular music is going, I am not sure that we will be seeing many of these "virtuosi" any time soon ... too much of the  music is sounding the same, with the same format and the same beats (listen to the beginner drumming!) and the same background sounds ... and many of them not able to sustain an instrument past the 60 second "solo" moment!
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Points: 466 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 04 2012 at 23:37
A good post, so true, but I don't know why it should be this way. Ritchie, Emerson, Wakeman, seem like another race of beings, men against boys, what has gone wrong? Where have we lost our way? Surely with this expanse of time it should be the other way round?
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Points: 147 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 05 2012 at 03:13
I'd say Michele Epifani from the italian prog band "Areknamés". He's not your typical keyboard virtuoso I guess since he's a composer and singer as well and doesn't include THAT many shredding solos all the time to show off. But he is very talented, not only as a songwriter but as a keyboard performer as well. Listen to the synth solo in "Deceit" and hopefully you'll get what I mean. He has an amazing sense for how to make everything melt into one coherent sound, which is what his solos aim to do as well. Therefore, they are a support function to the song rather than the major attraction like in some prog bands (Keith Emerson, I'm looking at you...) but he is well worthy of lots and lots of appreciation nevertheless!
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Points: 7951 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 05 2012 at 03:20
Good called, Josef, with the Areknames player! Very subtle and low-key in many parts, I find some of his shimmering keys on `Don't Move' from the `In Case Of Loss' album very moving.

Then, of course, he can f**k-snap and perform the heavy and over-the-top stuff like the more Van Der Graaf influenced sections of their music!!
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Points: 147 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 05 2012 at 04:08
Originally posted by Aussie-Byrd-Brother Aussie-Byrd-Brother wrote:

Good called, Josef, with the Areknames player! Very subtle and low-key in many parts, I find some of his shimmering keys on `Don't Move' from the `In Case Of Loss' album very moving.

Then, of course, he can f**k-snap and perform the heavy and over-the-top stuff like the more Van Der Graaf influenced sections of their music!!
Yeah I agree on "Don't Move", that is an incredible way to use the Fender Rhodes... I like "In Case of Loss" more as an album than "Love Hate Round Trip". My only problem with it is that my vinyl copy has the harpsichord part in the end of "The Very Last Number" cut out...
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Points: 7951 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 05 2012 at 04:13
Originally posted by Josef_K Josef_K wrote:

Yeah I agree on "Don't Move", that is an incredible way to use the Fender Rhodes... I like "In Case of Loss" more as an album than "Love Hate Round Trip". My only problem with it is that my vinyl copy has the harpsichord part in the end of "The Very Last Number" cut out...


Crap! I've got the vinyl copy too, and hadn't compared it closely enough to the CD tracklisting to know it had edits!! Very annoying, thanks for the tip-off!
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Points: 147 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 05 2012 at 04:38
Originally posted by Aussie-Byrd-Brother Aussie-Byrd-Brother wrote:


Crap! I've got the vinyl copy too, and hadn't compared it closely enough to the CD tracklisting to know it had edits!! Very annoying, thanks for the tip-off!
 
It took me a while to realize it, often when I'm listening to vinyl I don't do anything else and I get so "into" the music I don't think of what part is where and if anything is missing. Listening on Spotify however, I've noticed the harpsichord part and assumed that it was on the vinyl as well. Then I listened through the vinyl to check, and it wasn't there... I wonder why they did that... I haven't checked how long the second side is, Beached + The Very Last Number, but maybe they simply had to short the vinyl version down to make it fit on 2 sides?
 
Anyway it kinda sucks cos that ending is pure gold ^^


Edited by Josef_K - October 05 2012 at 04:40
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Points: 7951 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 05 2012 at 04:59
Thanks for the heads up, Josef.

It's really annoying, because I always try to get the vinyl copies of progressive albums, but if there's going to be edits of the actual music, then as far as I'm concerned the LP won't even get a look in.

I like vinyl for the presentation, for the value for money, etc. But if it's at the expense of losing parts of the actual music, then perhaps they shouldn't release it on that format in the first place!

OK, rant over, back to rising keyboard virtosos!
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Points: 887 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 05 2012 at 18:22
It seems to be a question of education.  It seems that as we'e moved away from classical education, what one speaks through their music becomes more and more simple.  Each generation seems to get less of this kind of classical education.   If I'm hearing "prog keyboardists" that are just playing fast modes and really aren't creating any kind of new melody, it shows they aren't processing the big questions.  All music is fueled by ideas, and the ideas create
the complexity of the music one is playing.  Simple minded keyboardists are going to create simple minded music,
and that to true proggers is always going to sound bad.
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Points: 7849 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 09 2012 at 09:36
Originally posted by moshkito moshkito wrote:


Originally posted by progbethyname progbethyname wrote:

Ouchi know nothing outside of age and experience.


 
Overrated!
 
It is youth and inexperience, that helped create "progressive" like it has so many other art scenes and eras over the history of all the arts.
 
All in all, for the most part, age is about being lazy, fat, and sacked out on the couch and even not having the ability to listen to something new because the old is always is better! I like a lot of older stuff, but then, I also like a lot of classical music going back 500 years, and that tells you that I appreciate music, not just metal, or rap, or pop!
 
I'm just not sure that everyone listens to music with a similar perspective, although I can easily tell you that most admins and leads at PA, also have very good listening music skills and in general are all very well versed in all music, not just one thing.
 
Keyboards these days, are almost a joke, and when you hear things like Transatlantic, and some other bands, I can't help thinking that all the keyboards are doing is variations upon a theme called melody! And that was not exactly all that the big name keyboard players were doing in the early days of "progressive" that made them the keyboard monsters that they were!
 
The way popular music is going, I am not sure that we will be seeing many of these "virtuosi" any time soon ... too much of the  music is sounding the same, with the same format and the same beats (listen to the beginner drumming!) and the same background sounds ... and many of them not able to sustain an instrument past the 60 second "solo" moment!


Hey man. Very cool. Really respect what you have to say and a lot of it I do agree with. Perhaps you can help me find or just name a few keyboardist that are under 30 years old and exhibit the same kind of virtuosity as say a Neil Morse, Clive Noman, Jourdan Rudess or even a Kevin Moore. I'm having trouble. I admit. It just seems that in my world of prog 40+ grace my ears the best with diversity and creatively with in the use of keyboards and synth.
Gimmie my headphones now!!! 🎧🤣
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Points: 254 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 13 2012 at 12:57
Originally posted by giselle giselle wrote:

A good post, so true, but I don't know why it should be this way. Ritchie, Emerson, Wakeman, seem like another race of beings, men against boys, what has gone wrong? Where have we lost our way? Surely with this expanse of time it should be the other way round?

I think this general apathy about performance is not just limited to keyboards, generalising only of course, but most younger bands seem almost unaware of live dynamics, acting as if mere notes is enough. This also applies to extremely successful bands as well as unknown. Something lost from the sixties and seventies, it seems.
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Points: 1 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 05 2013 at 16:19
I saw it earlier, but if you get a chance, please check out Alex Argento. Truly the best keyboardist I've heard in the last decade or so. His music is a blend of heavy prog with jazz fusion sensibilities. His album EGO is pure gold all the way through.

www.alexargento.com (There's a player at the top. Enjoy!)
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Points: 320 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 12 2013 at 00:30
The art of 'live' playing (as opposed to studio) seems lost.
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Points: 20 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 12 2013 at 04:02
Steve Gresswell from The Inner Road - check out the keyboard work and orchestration work he did on Ascension!
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Points: 5154 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 12 2013 at 04:11
Originally posted by DiamondDog DiamondDog wrote:

The art of 'live' playing (as opposed to studio) seems lost.

Keith Emerson in an interview in 1995:

"I'm fascinated by the resurgence of interest in vintage keyboards. My eldest son, Aaron, is in a band called Buzz Tonic, which has a CD soon to be released on Ace of Base's label, Mega Records. A while back he came to ask my help in tracking down a genuine Moog synthesiser. Maybe it's because they look good on stage. After all, showmanship is a very important part of music. Wrestling with an old synth, pulling patch leads in and out, has far more impact than simply pressing a button to select the next patch. Seeing someone leaping around is a show, and being theatrical makes playing much more enjoyable. Modern keyboards are not as impressive, and they don't involve the audience as much. Compare the wonderful Yamaha GX1 to a modern synth..."
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Points: 320 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 13 2013 at 11:51
I think this is called nepotism
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Points: 51 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 18 2013 at 09:04
She's more fusion, but has anyone mentioned Hiromi Uehara?
 
She is insanely talented, and an excellent songwriter....and she has Tosh.O on drums and Morpheus on guitar!   
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkL6hwj91UM&list=FLDXPUF0t6H1iTYedXG2cIgw&index=132&feature=plpp_video
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