KEITH EMERSON BAND FEATURING MARC BONILLA

Since the first lead vocals on Miles Away pt.1 & 2 you can see that KE had found in Marc Bonilla almost another Lake. To say nothing of A Place To Hide! Probably Lake's tones & peaks of voice are easy-to-imitate - i.e. that you can see in Atomic Rooster's 1970 second album Death Walks Behind You (...) - but his melodic textures moulded since King Crimson's "school-times" were always very personal, immediatly recognizable: so, we applaud (for) Marc Bonilla, who was able to peak Greg Lake's essential valid-ly re-making it in his own way! Obiouvsly, Lake's "phantom" appears very close also in The Art Of Falling Down, which reminds the EL&P rough moods of the early '70... But - in my opinion - in this beautiful 2008 EDEL issued album Marc's forte is the wary, subtle treatment of lead guitar lines: specialists & aficionados noticed that presence of guitar enriches & upgrades sounds of the EL&P derivative groups, whether in KE Band here & in 1995 (1989) Changing States played by Tim Pierce, or in Carl Palmer's 2014 EL&P Legacy played by Paul Bielatovic. On both situations, lead guitar effectively provides to sustain KE's melodic plots, high-lighting their characteristic shape!

All over Band Feat. Marc Bonilla Keith displays the whole range of his instruments, from Grand Piano to Pipe Organ, through the magniloquence of Hammond Organ & the update effects of his Custom Moog Modular Synth, always proving himself proud & rough & keen. Keith was from rare musicians able to get involved, to explore their limits, to cross/break them! Perhaps less spectacular & virtuoso than in EL&P fantastic live rides, surely more peremptory & authoritative, he always makes the point, then apparently disappears from the front line, at last re-emerges - as you can see for example on Marche Train - with his Moog or Hammond peculiar sharp shades!

In a few words: maturity, experience & enormous talent. KE this was! Therefore we all regret his sudden disappearance in 2016. The artistic heritage he leaves is immense, and - in my opinion - even today unexplorated, sometimes underrated by short-sighted persons, shelf-styled connoisseurs!