RIP Keith Emerson

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More sad news. I've been an ELP fan since their first album was released. I saw them at least 5 times (including once with the orchestra) and each show was fantastic. Truly a great keyboardist. R.I.P Keith.
 
Like everyone else I am very sad to hear of Keith's passing. I was very fortunate to see ELP four times, 1972 Trilogy tour, 1974 BSS tour, 1992 Black Moon at the Royal Albert Hall and their final gig at High Voltage, plus the Nice reunion tour twice and the KE Band. Every time the sense of anticipation of seeing and hearing Keith work his magic with the fantastic modular Moog was indescribable. Add to that the ribbon controller, the knives, the wrecking of a Hammond organ, and the shear brilliance of his playing made each concert entirely memorable in its own right. I saw him in July last year performing his Three Fates concert with orchestra and Mark Bonilla and band at an event to celebrate the life of Bob Moog. I am now so glad I went as I had hesitated initially about buying a ticket.

Keith Emerson's music has been a huge part of my life and always will be. I am sad that he has left us to join the celestial choir, albeit as their organist, but his amazing catalogue of work remains with us to enjoy over and over again and thanks to modern digital technology in superb surround quality. Rest in peace Keith and thank you for sharing your endless talents with us.
 
Although I love most all progressive music, YES & ELP were my church. Steve Howe motivated me to play guitar and Keith Emerson fascinated me so much I forced myself to learn his music even though I didn't play piano.

I can't communicate with words how much I was inspired by Mr. Emerson. I feel that his music and especially his interval to interval progressions were like no others. They just spoke to me. Each note & chord were perfectly placed. He was to me, a true genius.

Keith already had major nerve surgery on both wrists years ago but miraculously recovered to play but he loved to literally hammer at the keyboard, so he kept bangin, quite literally...His condition degenerated and he was so depressed that he couldn't play good enough...

People may criticise Keith but I can say this after having met Keith and having been lucky enough to spend 4 hours with him one on one, including playing a piano duet for over an hour:

Keith was a man made of pure music. We talked and talked and he was focused like a laser on old rag time players and piano-led bands of old days. What Carl Palmer said of him was so true. Keith was almost child-like in his devotion to music. If there is any interest from QQers, I could write up a bit on our meeting/duet, but for now I will say he was the kindest & gentlest soul I have ever met. All throughout our time together he was like a kid in the candy store talking & playing piano with me, he treated me like an equal musician, a shocking humility from such a master musician. I never expected such a kingly gift of his full attention & respect which I received & will treasure always.

I observed that he was different in that all of us are people first and then we have our talents. Keith seemed to be living musical energy that happened to be packaged in human form. When his ability to make music diminished the rest of him followed.

I never cared for the expression "rest in peace" since the deceased are gone and can't hear anything from us. But my spirit is lifted knowing I can personally testify about what an absolute gift to humanity Keith Emerson was.

His music will live on forever and he will continue to magically connect to many people even though he himself has left us.

I've no words to express my sadness over his passing.

Here is a picture from my evening with Keith:


photo uploading
 
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^ Awesome post Dennis...heartfelt and honest....so very well said. I only met him briefly in passing a couple times (signing sessions in the record I worked at) - would loved to have had some time to just shoot the breeze about music with him.
 
DANG!!!!
ANOTHER ICON????

To whoever is in charge...GIVE US A FCKIN' BREAK, OK??????


geeeeezzzzzzzzz


Mister Keith Emerson has gone to the revolving piano in the sky....hope they let him in with his HUGE Moog modular system...

My friend Rafi is a HUUUUGE fan...even has a MoogerFooger signed by him....

Was lucky enough to see ELPowell in Boston (GREAT SHOW!!!!) and on Halloween in 1992 in Madrid....

Funny, yesterday I was thinking of playing WBMFTTSTNE in Quad....

ROCK ON!!!!!!
 
well, I wasn't expecting that. Neither did I expect the impact it had on me when I heard ist this morning on the radio. I'm really sad. Now listening to Brain Salad at volume 11 (the 2000 DVD-A, mind you). RIP Keith, and thank you...
 
Some tributes I've found from other musicians:

Steve Hackett:
I was particularly sad to hear the tragic news of Keith Emerson's death. He was a brilliant musician, an extraordinary virtuoso and showman. He was also a very sweet guy. We got to jam together with Jack Bruce. Keith also did music for my wife Jo's film Soulscapes in the early 90s. He will be hugely missed.

Adrian Belew:
unbelievable! another death!
Keith Emerson came to last years power trio concert in LA.
it was the first time we'd ever met. andre cholmondeley (who worked on his recent tours) brought keith backstage. he was so enthused and complimentary about the show.
we talked about doing something.
and now he's gone.
rest in peace Keith.
I wish I could have known you better.

Jordan Rudess (of Dream Theater):
It's been a very rough night for me personally. I'm still reeling from the news of his death. I'm feeling really bad for Keith Emerson's family. The tears were streaming down my face until just a little bit ago.

I just wasn't expecting this at all. I just saw him at the NAMM [musical instruments] convention in January. We were taking pictures together and he seemed OK. I don't know where this came from. His music meant so much to me and he was a friend and a really nice guy.

The story of how I discovered his music is interesting. I grew up as a classical pianist. I was a very serious young protégé from the age of nine, going to Julliard. I knew nothing about rock music. That all changed because a friend of mine in high school brought over Emerson, Lake and Palmer's Tarkus record and played it for me, and I couldn't stop listening to it. I thought it was incredible.

I knew about the kinds of harmonies Keith used, because I'd listened to classical music that had those kinds of chords, but I never heard them in a rock context. And I'd never heard keyboards in a rock context like that. It opened up all these possibilities for me. It allowed me to think about the keyboard as an instrument that could be really powerful in a rock context. It was the beginning of a big transition in my life, and an important one, too. If I hadn't heard that album, I'm sure that things wouldn't be as they are right now.

What blew me away were his harmonic concepts. He was really into suspended chords and fourths, things that nobody was doing. It was a whole harmonic sound that he was bringing into rock music. It was completely original. And then there were his sounds. He was opening up doors with synthesizers, like that classic sound in "Lucky Man," which everybody knows. That sound is infamous and I've used that sound as a tip of the hat to him on some of my albums, as well, knowing that it strikes a chord with people.

Tarkus made such an impact on me that I covered the whole suite on an album called The Road Home in 2007. The original meant so much to me that it was difficult to do. I wanted to do it justice and maybe have him be really pleased with it. Later, he said to me, "Jordan, I really don't like when other people cover my music, but your version of Tarkus is just amazing and my girlfriend, at the time, dances around the house to it and we love it. Thank you for doing it." That was really touching to me.

The story of how we met is funny. It literally took me seven or eight times of meeting him about 20 or 25 years ago before he remembered me. I would say hello to him because he was my idol; my keyboard hero.

I had done a tribute album on the Magna Carta label with a whole bunch of artists and I went up and introduced myself again. And he said, "I know who you are. I hated that album." I went, "Oh, my God." [Laughs] He said, "The only thing I liked was the thing that you did." I went, "Oh, my God. That's a relief." [Laughs] That's when he really took notice of me. After that, I was invited to his birthday parties, and we'd hang out and see each other and he was always very friendly.

I learned a lot about his playing from redoing that record. For one, his organ swipes – when he would run his hand over the whole organ and create that sounds – he had a way of doing that that created a sound that's hard to get. It's really hard to get. I'm still working on it to this day, trying to get it right. I ask everybody who knew him, "What was he doing? How did he do that sound?"

And of course, he had a great left hand. His left hand and his right hand were almost the same in that way. He was the master of doing an ostinato. That's not something I so much learned from Tarkus, but his whole way of setting up a figure in the left hand and being able to maintain it while he did whatever he wanted to with his right hand, that's still something to this day that I have carried on, and it's something I use to teach students. It's a a real keyboard player thing, too, because what other instrument can you do that with where the left hand and the right hand are playing totally different things?

Another thing about Tarkus is the way he took his Moog and tuned it to another note. It wasn't ever just a single note. He would do something where he would tune it to fifths or he would include the fourth, so he could have suspended chords if he was playing single notes. There were a lot of things that made his sound very, very unique.

He was a friend. He wasn't somebody I saw a lot over the years, but whenever I saw him it was very friendly and we had a lot in common. But he was a very funny guy. I don't know if people realize just how gentle and funny he was. He had a great sense of humor. When you were with him, it was kind of hard to remember that, "This is Keith Emerson," just because he was always looking for the humor in things. He was always really kind and really gentle and nice. He would always stop and say hello to people and take pictures. We hung out sometimes at the MoogFest in New York City. He was always nice with everybody there.

If there's one keyboard player on the planet Earth that has affected my life this much, it's him. There are other guys who have certainly had an influence, but nobody as powerfully as Keith Emerson.
 
Again, RIP Keith...what an outstanding musician. Here's a cool pic of Keith, Tony Iommi and David Gilmour....

March%2012%202016.jpg
 
So, so sad.

As stated earlier in this thread, Yes and E.L.P. were also my foundation in music.

I know that we are all aging and I guess "Looking over our shoulders" thinking who is next.

To lose Chris Squire and Keith Emerson in less than a year is an awakening for sure.

Just a thought my friends : We all have heard this many times, "Enjoy the moment", perhaps maybe we should really start to live the rest of our lives that way. I know that I will.

Thanks to the great folks in this forum for lending an ear or giving advice. You are my friends indeed. :smokin
 
I love this clip of "Fanfare For the Common Man." It's not with ELP. It's from a short-lived super-group featuring Emerson, John Entwistle, Jeff Baxter, Joe Walsh and Simon Phillips.

[video=youtube;xTEmldzx1xE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTEmldzx1xE[/video]
 
I love this clip of "Fanfare For the Common Man." It's not with ELP. It's from a short-lived super-group featuring Emerson, John Entwistle, Jeff Baxter, Joe Walsh and Simon Phillips.

[video=youtube;xTEmldzx1xE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTEmldzx1xE[/video]

THANKS !!!

That clip just put the biggest smile on my face. What a group of talent there.:smokin
 
I love this clip of "Fanfare For the Common Man." It's not with ELP. It's from a short-lived super-group featuring Emerson, John Entwistle, Jeff Baxter, Joe Walsh and Simon Phillips.

[video=youtube;xTEmldzx1xE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTEmldzx1xE[/video]

Thanks private, wow. Never seen that one, nor did I know those guys played together. What a hell of a band...freaking OX is a man among boys in terms of bass talent. Jeff Baxter and Joe Walsh together? Whoa.....and then the mighty Simon Phillips on drums....talk about a super group. Makes me drool. Of course, Keith is amazing. I don't how he did what he did.
 
I love this clip of "Fanfare For the Common Man." It's not with ELP. It's from a short-lived super-group featuring Emerson, John Entwistle, Jeff Baxter, Joe Walsh and Simon Phillips.

[video=youtube;xTEmldzx1xE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTEmldzx1xE[/video]
this is so good - thank you for posting it!
 
I love this clip of "Fanfare For the Common Man." It's not with ELP. It's from a short-lived super-group featuring Emerson, John Entwistle, Jeff Baxter, Joe Walsh and Simon Phillips.

[video=youtube;xTEmldzx1xE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTEmldzx1xE[/video]

Amazing!!! Thank you for posting. Does anyone know if the ELP version of this song is available in surround? I think I read that this was originally a B-Side from Brain Salad Surgery.
 
A second tribute from Adrian Belew:

Cincinnati Gardens has never been a great venue for hearing music. more like a big hockey rink, it's cavernous and brash sounding. but in november 1973 I went there with some friends to see Emerson Lake and Palmer in concert.
the opening act was the James Gang, who played locally many times in the Cincinnati area and were regional heroes for hitting "the big time". I liked the James Gang, a funky trio with Joe Walsh on guitar. they played a good set that night. then Emerson Lake and Palmer, a different kind of trio took the stage.
the evening suddenly went from black and white to Technicolor.
when Keith Emerson played the immense-sounding synthesizer solo at the end of Lucky Man, Cincinnati Gardens transcended into a cathedral. I can honestly say at that moment something in my head changed.
I left that night obsessed with this question "how can I do that on guitar"? at that time keyboard technology was light years ahead of guitar processing. it would be another 7 years before I had the first usable guitar synth, the Roland GR-300 given to me while I was in Japan with Talking Heads (since it wasn't yet available outside of Japan, I believe I was the first to have one).
the next year 1981 I was onstage with King Crimson playing Sheltering Sky when it occurred to me I had finally reached my goal. had I never heard Keith Emerson playing I might be a different guitarist than I am today. thank you Keith.
in november 2014 the Power Trio played McCabes in LA. andre surprised us by bringing Keith backstage. he was truly excited by our performance.
life had come full circle.
 
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