After you name yours, I'd love to see your reasoning for such a choice.

My cornerstone player would be Tony Levin because: 

 - he can get along with anybody, 

 - he can play any kind of music (included among his over 500 albums, are diverse artists such as Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Judy Collins, Cher, Alice Cooper, Buddy Rich, Lou Reed, Todd Rundgren, Seal, Gary Burton, James Taylor, Herbie mann, Sarah MacLachlan, Peter Frampton, Timm Finn, Richie Sambora, Dominique Vantomme, Peter Kater, Chuck Mangione, Larry Fast, California Guitar Trio, Al DiMeola, Phil Keaggy, Don MacLean, Lou Christie, Deodato, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Phobe Snow, Mike Manieri, Melissa Manchester, Burt Bacharach, Ben Sidran, Laura Nyro, Art Garfunkle, Jun Fukamachi, Peter, Paul & Mary, John Lennon & Yoko Ono, The Roches, Bill Chinnock, Roy Harper, Kazumi Watanabe, Warren Bernhardt, Joan Armitrading, Johnny Warman, Jules Shear, Mark Knopfler (Local Hero), Gowan, Frida, Catherine Lara, Tom Waits, Marshall Crenshaw, Brian Ferry, Andy Pratt, Rosie Vela, Warren Zevon, David Torn, Jill Jones, T Bone Burnett, Robbie Robertson, Julia Fordham, Richard Thompson, Ringo Starr, Stevie Nicks, Steps Ahead, Laurie Anderson, Jeanne Mas, Claudio Baglioni, Phil Manzanera, Paula Cole, Chris Botti, Andy Summers, Eros Ramozzotti, Kevin Maxx, Magellan, Gov't Mule, Steve Hackett (Genesis Revisited), David Bowie, Willie Oteri, Michael Whalen, Eddie Jobson, Jakko Jakszyk, Nad Sylvan, Marco Minneman, Alec Sebastien, Phil Collins, Katherine Kaye, Jerry Goodman, Brandon Flowers, Steve Thorne, Sarah Brightman, Days Between Stations, William Ackerman, Slow Electric, The Weepies, Ólafur Arnalds, Steven Wilson, Goatika Creative Lab, Randy Vanwarmer, Lara Fabian, Steve Howe, Mike Portnoy, Gigi D'Alessio, Gibonni, Jordan Rudess, Niyaz, David Sancious, Ivan Lins, )        

 - he works well in the studio or live on stage (and has been touring almost continuously with an amazing variety of bands for the past 50 years including many of those listed above), 

 - he is a virtuoso musician (not just bass player) 

 - he is an incredibly adept and fast learner (has sat in on tours with Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Sarah Brightman, James Taylor, Paul Simon, Richie Sambora, Ivanno Fossati, Carly Simon, Herbie Mann, Peter Frampton, Judy Collins, and many more)  

 - yet he is also very creative (is collaborative member of several outstanding bands, including Stick Men, King Crimson, Bruford-Levin Upper Extremities, Levin Brothers, Levin Torn White, Levin Minneman Rudess, Perfect Trio, and Liquid Tension Experiment as well as his own solo releases)

 - he has several very distinctive sounds (yet does not necessarily dominate the music, rather, blends in or helps create a very unique yet-always-interesting sound landscape)

 - LOVES music! (all kinds; is unafraid to try anything)

Keith Emerson...for all the obvious reason I guess.

Innovator

Composer

Multi-style player

Multitude of sounds

Has played with some of the best rockers in the world

He's dead

Bruford i& Squire are certainly good suggestions. 

The problem with this is that the very best are really strong personalities, and may not be able to accept anyone else leading. Fripp has played with many and is a genius, still a supergroup around Fripp is bound to play Fripp music and nothing else (of course there's some space for variation within Fripp music, but still). Levin or Bruford are better candidates for this task, having played with so many other geniuses. Still I was normally more convinced by them playing Fripp music rather than leading their own band (even though Bruford has some good stuff as band leader). I won't go for these rather obvious choices and explore something else.

The next candidate is from my favourite band, Jaki Liebezeit of Can. Outside Can Jaki has done a lot of stuff (very little if anything of which is on PA). If he were still alive, for sure he'd be up for team play, still his drumming is so characteristic that wherever he has his hands in sounds like him. The issue here is that he is really not a composer (also Holger has said that he's quite scary but I hope the others in the band are strong enough personalities that they can deal with that).

So I have my band headed by a surprise (?) selection, namely Kate Bush. Of course Kate is only known for her solo work, but many good musicians have contributed to it, so she can play well in a team, too, and I'd really be super curious what she could come up with having behind her a band full of prog genuises with their own strong ideas. One reason why I go for her rather than some of the seemingly more obvious candidates is that I'd expect this band to come up with a unique synthesis, something that is really different from what Kate as well as her collaborators have done up to now, so something that would make me really curious. I hope she'll accept Jaki as a drummer (Bruford is unavailable because he has to tour with different supergroups; also both Kate and Jaki are known for exercising witchcraft, so that'll be a good fit and they can hopefully keep each other within limits), and we can talk about the rest later.

I much prefer Holdsworth as a sideman to a leader. I find his solo stuff way too self indulgent. He may have been too much of a tortured soul to lead a band.

Agree on the Levin solo material, I like it but its hardly ground breaking. Probably the ultimate perfect sideman.

My cornerstone for a super prog group would be Neal Morse.

Why?

1.  He's already a cornerstone for several groups, including Spock's Beard, Transatlantic, Neal Morse Group, Flying Colors, etc.

2.  He is obviously able to work with a diverse array of artists, as evidenced by the various groups he is in.  Seems to get along well with others, and seems to be well liked.

3.  A prolific songwriter and seems to be comfortable spending endless hours in the studio and/or on tour.

4.  A great musician, playing keyboards, guitar, mandolin, and who knows what else.

5.  Able to work in a number of different styles/genres of music.

Your statement "He was by far the most valuable contributor to anything and everything KC did!" is silly. Most of KC's greatest music was created before he was a member. 

Holdsworth was also an innovator. Ever heard anyone else play the SynthAxe as well as Allan?

The guy could do it all...from glam (Roxy Music) to Genesis covers (his amazing work with Steve Hackett) and everything in between!!  

Having seen him with LTIA era KC, Asia, and UK, I was always impressed at his talent for singing his heart out while playing complicated, fast lines on bass guitar!  

Here, please enjoy!  

Kate Bush is a great call but the rest of the band would have to get used to releasing one album every decade.

Try his solo output. The Martin Barre bad is quite remarkable. “Back to Steel” and “The Road Less Traveled” don’t have any Tull songs, and Martin’s own writings.

True enough! I would actually be interested to hear who else would get into it.

Chris Cutler - Drums

Robert Fripp - Guitar

It's strange ... I don't think that I have acquired many albums over the last 50+ years, based on one person only, and my choice, is not based on one talent, but on ALL the talents by all the folks involved.

In other words, it is the "group" working together that matters to me the most, not just one player. I shudder to think that Rick was better than the rest of the band, or that Keith was better than the rest of the band, or that Peter was better than the band, although some folks will probably state that Ian was better than the band since he continued to do his stuff with different musicians and still made it work!

IF, I have a choice, the group I would choose would be Amon Duul 2 .... but only a specific period ... from YETI, to DANCE OF THE LEMMINGS, to CARNIVAL IN BABYLON, to WOLF CITY, and then VIVE LA TRANCE. Those 5 albums show something that is rare for most bands, specially one that was so independent of its own "style" and simply did what they wanted, and some of that stuff is phenomenal. And at this time, the Live album LIVE IN LONDON shows a very good band on top of it!

Hard to say all this, as I could easily say the same thing about CAN, and then TANGERINE DREAM ... and if there was ONE PERSON, that would fit this thread, it would be EDGAR FROESE, specially as he commandeered so many versions of the band, and it seemed like it always got better, when you watch the videos of so many of their shows. Not to mention that the music itself is incredible.

Hi,

Rather odd combination, when hearing Kate's album 50 WORDS FOR SNOW, which has a couple of songs that do not have a "beat" and one drummer does great on them, something that I like to use as examples when people talk about "great sticklers" that can't do anything but keep time! BUT, Jaki would make it right, and you can hear it on FUTURE DAYS, and then SOON OVER BABALUMA, when the drumming adds to the music, by not keeping time or a beat ... but simply adding touches that furthers the moment of the keyboard ... something that the majority of drummers never learn ... afraid that they would lose the beat or worse, throw off the poor musicians in front of them, when they are not sharp enough and rehearsed enough to know how to pick things up when the lamp fell down and shattered on the stage. It's about the music, not the beat. You certainly don't hear a lot of "drumming" in music history for centuries, and now we are considering some of them "excellent" and those guys can't do music without a beat! 

I suppose that I would like to choose Jaki, but I prefer the duo of Peter Leopold and Danny F in AD2, who seemed to made things work just fine, and you can't even tell that there are two of them in there, though sometimes it is not listed as both of them, and one of them went to visit the group next door (Popol Vuh) and so on!

@mosh: In fact I have no idea how Jaki would work with Kate, which is a reason why I'd love to try it out. There is something in Jaki's style that seems alien to Kate's approach, but then he has the "breathing" that Kate has as a singer and her songs have, but I don't locate in the drumming on most of her material. Who knows?

Peter Leopold is a hugely underrated great drummer, but I've got to say that Danny hasn't impressed me that much. They have worked well as a team though.  

Wow, quite an amazing roster...I find it hard to envisage how they would sound, but it would be one glorious cacophony.

Possibly enlivened by the occasional fist fight.

Hi,

I don't think that Kate would bother with SW ... my guess is that he is about the song and how it sounds to his ear, and for Kate, it is mostly about how she sees herself in the song, as if it were an actress doing their work. I don't see her even thinking about him. It reminds me of SW doing the live thing with Ninet ... and he doesn't have the guts to even try that a 2nd time, not the same but similar, allowing the lady the freedom she needs to express herself, which I think she came up with, not him! He doesn't have that side in him, that scary anger ... he's too English for that (right!!!! next ..... ).

I look at SW as someone that doesn't know music and how to interpret his words and meanings. I think that if he concentrated on music alone, it would be more consistent and better, but his words seem to put a stop to that. They prevent him from "tripping", so to speak, but maybe this is something he doesn't want to do anymore since he did it for so many years, and now the music has "less meaning" than it did then, in regards to tripping and dreaming! (how time flys ... ).

But I suppose that Kate would be nice to head a supergroup, and include some folks like Eberhard Weber, Steve Gadd and some other folks that have colored her music so well ... but I would imagine that it will just tire her too much and take away from the music itself ... she's about her poetry and making it come alive, not really about anything else, and I kinda think that the "song" part is just an addon, and many times not necessary at all.

 After I originally posted my choice (Emerson) I went away and thought about it and then came up with John Wetton as another great choice. Such a fantastic bass player but also one of the great English baritone's voices in rock music. 

I like this choice as well for sure 

Hi,

One funny bit ... sort of. When David Bowie was in Berlin, he wanted BADLY to have Edgar play guitar on one song or two, but DB was having problems finding his "voice" in the song according to the producer, and eventually EF left and told DB that this was his music and he could not add a whole lot to it, and make it better. AND, I think that Edgar did not like the idea of a "song" limiting his ability to fly, and I think this is the part that DB underestimated, although it did not seem to bother Mr. Fripp in one song when he pretty much solo'd all the way through it ... Heroes. And I bet that DB requested that, to help him define the piece of music.

David Bowie might be another good choice for the "supergosh" idea!

If we are going down the drummer being the cornerstone of the band and also being able to supply creativity then Neil Peart is so far out in front its ridiculous. More the question is , why on earth wouldn't you want this guy?! 

Those 3 for me too, and they've all be involved in a number of different bands and have run at least one, Yoshida has been involved in a ridiculous amount of creative bands.

My cornerstone player would be Paul Mc Cartney because: 

 - he can get along with anybody, 

 - he can play any kind of music, His work with the Beatles and solo can prove that 

 - he works well in the studio or live on stage, 

 - he is a virtuoso musician (not just bass player) 

Hackett can do compositions, including orchestra, so you have a complete range there. 

Plus, a great album is going to need a first-rate producer. Wilson has been remastering the greats, with much approval, so he's my idea of a producer for whatever project. 

I could do the rolling eyes thing but hey ho 

Yes, the Great Mike Keneally is quite versatile, plays guitar and keyboards, is a fantastic composer, and an overall great guy, who can get along with anyone.

My cornerstone would be someone like Roger Waters, if only he could get on with his cohorts. That aside he is/was a great lyricist, *architect, concepts & ideas man, and band leader.  Not to mention being a more than decent bassist & vocalist.

*in a musical sense

Danny Carey 

Up to around the time they were making 'Wish You Were Here' PF seemed to function in reasonable harmony with two artists (Wright & Gilmour) and two architects (Waters and Mason), but from the making of 'Animals' onwards Roger started taking more and more control, to the point of 'Final Cut' being more or less a Waters solo album.

I also believe that he would gel with nearly any artist that he recruited into his group, he seems eager to please and very likable. Whereas some of these other options being thrown out would most likely clash with their band mates and cause issues.