Keith Emerson's opinion on Jurgen Fritz?

presdoug wrote: I heard something insightful about this question recently from new PA member "Inceptional".           He met Keith, and asked him what he thought of Jurgen Fritz, and Emerson had pretty well  nothing but nice things to say about him. He remarked that Fritz was "an exceptionally clean player", for example.

presdoug wrote: I heard something insightful about this question recently from new PA member "Inceptional".          He met Keith, and asked him what he thought of Jurgen Fritz, and Emerson had pretty well  nothing but nice things to say about him. He remarked that Fritz was "an exceptionally clean player", for example.

That's cool!

Who cares what Emerson thinks. He lost his right to an opinion after releasing Love Beach.

The Dark Elf wrote: Who cares what Emerson thinks. He lost his right to an opinion after releasing Love Beach.

Bumped into this forum/ thread whilst surfing around looking for info on Helmut Kollen's LP. The discussion interested me enough to read the entire thread and thought I would leave a post with a little input IMHO.

Having purchased the Triumrivat LPs in the decade of their release, at that time I was disposed to believe (along with the majority of my prog-rock peers)  that the group was an "ELP clone".

I know now that was an unfair snap judgement based on my knee-jerk reaction mostly to Fritz being deft enough to hone his B3 sound close to Keith's and cleverly adopting (likely out of admiration) some of his technique.

 Strangely enough even though we scorned them, I would keep purchasing the new LP releases, at least to Ala Carte anyway where I finally abandoned them for leaving their prog-roots. But those first 3 albums are certainly products of genius, especially "Double Dimple" -- which displays the influences of many bands on Fritz's compositions.

Does anyone besides me think they heard a little Beatles influence in IOADD?

Having first been turned onto Emo, I can't really explain why I never harbored my predictable disdain for others that followed a similar sonic path (like Jurgen Fritz). (I normally despise "copycats") But... there was something about the songwriting of Fritz and Triumverat that was quite different from ELP and truly melodically appealing. They were decidedly less complex than some of the bombastic ELP offerings. But some of the Triumverat songs were just flat out great. I somehow managed to get past the superficial instrumentation/sonic similarities. 

jhelm_waterw wrote: (I normally despise "copycats") But... there was something about the songwriting of Fritz and Triumverat that was quite different from ELP and truly melodically appealing. They were decidedly less complex than some of the bombastic ELP offerings. But some of the Triumverat songs were just flat out great.

I agree 100%. While there will always be comparisons made between these two groups T-Rat had unique song writing that was original and powerful. It was more a sonic similarity than a song writing one IMO.

As a side note, I remember first hearing Mediterranean Tales being played in a record store i used to frequent as a teen. I went up to the register and asked the guy who it was. He showed me the album and I said I'd like to buy it. It was considered an import and cost me around $18 if I recall. I gave him my money (lots of small bills and he put the album in a bag an off home I went. When I pulled the album out of the bag there was all my money sitting in the bag. I think he must have been a little buzzed and forgot to put the money in the register. Being a kid I thought I'd hit the jackpot. Great prog album at no cost. I bought all of there subsequent albums whenever one was found.

^What Richard said, and I like Spartacus and Old Loves Die Hard the best of T'rat's discography, and I concur that they sound unlike anything ELP would have recorded, especially the title track of Spartacus. Atmosphere wasn't a quality that ELP as a whole seemed to specialize in, though there's plenty of it in their solo output.

presdoug wrote: ^Yes, interesting post, Richard, and some important insights on your part. As pretty well every band has influences, T'rat, of course did, but as you've pointed out, they do things ELP don't do, and vica versa. To me, Triumvirat sound like Triumvirat. btw, Helmut Koellen is the vocalist on Spartacus, not Barry Palmer.

As an aside, I think Jürgen Fritz deserves the same bashing for anything from Pompeii upwards as Emerson gets for Love Beach, although personally I enjoy LB, whereas I cannot think of anything good to say about A La Carte and Russian Roulette. Very apt title, by the way if you imagine all six chambers to be loaded in this case.