Your Favourite Keyboard Player - Progressive Rock Music Forum

So, who is your favourite keyboard player from this lot, or maybe it is somebody else?

Please vote and comment.

"We're going to need a bigger swear jar."

Chloë Grace Moretz as Mindy McCready aka 'Hit Girl' in Kick-Ass 2

Emerson

Dig me...But don't...Bury me
I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive
Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect.

A couple of years ago, after a FB post by Prog magazine listing the 10 favourite keyboard players as voted by their readers, I decided to jot down my favourite keyboard players as they occurred to me, figuring that whoever came to mind first must in theory be more favourite than those that came to mind later. I stopped when I thought I had around 10. It was actually 12, so I removed the last two on the list. The order they came to mind ended up being remarkably similar to what I decided would be the order I would put them. I changed the place of only two.

And this is where I found it interesting, because - although I expected the Prog list to be different from any I might compile - not one of the 10 keyboard players listed were ones that came to mind first to me. I can understand how every player ended up on that list, and can agree that they are all very good, and that I enjoy very much the playing of most of them. And, in fact, I’m surprised a couple of them didn’t come to mind to me.

I even went through my list again, to check whether I wanted to change what I had to include some of the keyboard players I particularly like from Prog’s list. But ultimately, as much as I might enjoy them, I am more affected by the keyboard playing of those in my list. Every one of them has performances where it doesn’t matter what I’m doing, I have to stop what I’m doing and just listen and love.

The top 10 favourite (and I’m glad Prog stressed the word favourite, rather than best!) keyboard players as voted by Prog readers were:

10. Jon Lord

9. Derek Sherinian

8. Geoff Downes

7. Patrick Moraz

6. Mark Kelly

5. Jordan Rudess

4. Richard Wright

3. Tony Banks

2. Rick Wakeman

1. Keith Emerson

My list on the other hand:

10. Mike Pinder

9. Pete Bardens

8. Matthew Fisher

7. Ray Manzarek

6. Dominique Vantomme

5. Gleb Kolyadin

4. Hugh Banton

3. Eddie Rayner

2. Dwiki Dharmawan

1. Mark de Clive-Lowe

[EDIT] I should stress that this would not be list today, as at the time I jotted this list down there were some keyboard players I’d not really listened to, or not listened to at all, which I have subsequently. Looking at the list now, I know I would definitely make some changes.

Edited by nick_h_nz - May 04 2021 at 00:38

Reviewer for The Progressive Aspect

As much as I love Rick Wakeman I'm giving it to Keith Emerson. I gained extra appreciation of him after reading Greg Lake's autobiography.

voted Jon Lord

I'm surprised Pete Bardens is missing here.

Cristi wrote:

I'm surprised Pete Bardens is missing here.

Me, too. He was number nine in my top ten (above), when I jotted it down a couple of years back. Which makes me wonder if he’d make my top ten if I did it again now. I’d like to think so, but I guess that’s why in the end it’s not really so surprising that he is missing. There are so many great keyboard players out there. Someone has to miss out. The more flamboyant ones tend to retain more attention over the years, so some of the less flamboyant players fall by the wayside in collective memory - no matter how impressive their playing.

[EDIT] I just noticed I hadn’t included Mike Garson in my list from a couple of years back, so that is a big oversight on my part, as I’ve always loved his keyboard playing. Not just with Bowie. Even though they play a far smaller part, they add so much to, for example, Nine Inch Nails.

Edited by nick_h_nz - May 04 2021 at 01:38

Reviewer for The Progressive Aspect

Frenetic Zetetic wrote:

Chick Corea and Joel Zawinul have been tied for years as my favorite key/synth player(s).

Chick is a notable omission from my list of a couple of years back, but at that stage I wasn’t familiar with his playing at all, beyond his work with Miles Davis.

Reviewer for The Progressive Aspect

Emerson by a country mile but in the other category honourable mentions for Dave Stewart (Egg/Hatfields etc.) and Mike Ratledge (Soft Machine)

Keith Emerson, but let's spend few words on Rick Wright: his inventive has characterized the sound of Pink Floyd up to Animals. PF wouldn't have been the same without him, and The Final Cut is the demonstration.

...just because this is NOT a Pink Floyd poll LOL

I stand with Roger Waters, I stand with Joan Baez, I stand with Victor Jara, I stand with Woody Guthrie. Music is revolution

BaldJean wrote:

this is of course no surprise. it's Barbara

Barbara Dennerlein definitely is very progressive in the playing of her instrument, but she's not a prog rock artist, and definitely not a rock artist; and that is what this poll is about. It is clear that you want to plug your Barbara Dennerlein every which way and every time you can, but here it is off topic.

And this was the polite way of saying: it's getting very tedious and starts to smell like trolling.

The razamataz is a pain in the bum

Poll Question: Who is your favourite keyboard player?
Poll Choice	Votes	Poll Statistics
Rod Argent (The Zombies / Argent)	1	[1.41%]
Tony Banks (Genesis)	12	[16.90%]
Vince Crane (Atomic Rooster)	1	[1.41%]
Keith Emerson (The Nice / ELP)	17	[23.94%]
John Evan (Jethro Tull)	1	[1.41%]
Jean-Michel Jarre (solo)	0	[0.00%]
Tony Kaye (Yes / Badger)	1	[1.41%]
Thijs van Leer (Focus)	1	[1.41%]
Jon Lord (Deep Purple)	5	[7.04%]
Francis Monkman (Curved Air / Sky)	1	[1.41%]
Patrick Moraz (Yes)	1	[1.41%]
Rick Wakeman (Strawbs / Yes / solo)	10	[14.08%]
Rick Wright (Pink Floyd)	4	[5.63%]
Somebody Else (please comment)	16	[22.54%]
You can not vote in this poll

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