An impossible and pointless question

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Glyn Barnes
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2018/08/13 16:50:30 (permalink)

An impossible and pointless question

But I had to answer anyway
Who is the greatest prog keyboard player of all time?
 
So wanting to mix it up a bit with some obvious and less obvious choices I stuck down.
Keith Emerson
Dave Greenslade
Danny Manners
Gleb Kolyadin
Rick Wakeman
 
Kolyadin is certainly up there IMHO. I almost wanted to leave Rick out but... "Close to the Edge"
 
 

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    jamesg1213
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    Re: An impossible and pointless question 2018/08/13 17:14:46 (permalink)
    Rick Wakeman
    Kerry Minnear
    Danny Manners
    Larry Fast
    Andy Giddings
     

     
    Jyemz
     
     
     



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    batsbrew
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    Re: An impossible and pointless question 2018/08/13 17:16:24 (permalink)
    Glyn Barnes

    An impossible and pointless question

     



    Yes, an impossible and pointless question.

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    batsbrew
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    Re: An impossible and pointless question 2018/08/13 17:21:43 (permalink)
    my personal favorites,
    who did not have to battle for 1st place in the 'best prog keyboarder of all time' contest.
    ;)
    richard wright
    tony banks
    vangelis
    eddie jobson
    joe zawinu
    robin lumley

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    paulo
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    Re: An impossible and pointless question 2018/08/13 19:35:56 (permalink)
    That Rudess fella seems to know the black ones from the white ones.
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    bapu
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    Re: An impossible and pointless question 2018/08/13 19:40:39 (permalink)
    paulo
    That Rudess fella seems to know the black ones from the white ones.


    I guess the forum rules on 'no politics' has been abandoned then?
     
     
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    msmcleod
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    Re: An impossible and pointless question 2018/08/13 20:28:46 (permalink)
    Rick Wakeman
    Jordan Rudess
    John Beck
    Mickey Simmonds
    Tony Banks
    Mark Kelly

    Mark McLeod
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    dmbaer
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    Re: An impossible and pointless question 2018/08/13 20:42:53 (permalink)
    - Adam Holzman (Steven Wilson's go-to KB collaborator) - this one gets my official vote
     
    but also there's:
     
    - don't have a name, but the KB guy in Big Big Train is brilliant
    - John Evan of Jethro Tull - maybe not in the running for *best* but certainly deserving of honorable mention
    - Tomas Bodin of the Flower Kings certainly merits mention in this discussion
     
    I must confess I'm not familiar with the names Dave Greenslade, Danny Manners, or Gleb Kolyadin, but I may know the groups with whom they play.  Google here I come.
     
    Edit: Danny Meyers of Big Big Train ... of course ... what I said earlier!
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    Glyn Barnes
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    Re: An impossible and pointless question 2018/08/13 21:10:50 (permalink)
    Dave Greenslade from Coliseum and later Greenslade in the early 70's.

    Gleb Koyladin is piano player with contemporary Russian Prog duo I am the Morning.

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    bitflipper
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    Re: An impossible and pointless question 2018/08/14 15:28:27 (permalink)
    In terms of strictly technical chops, Jordan Rudess is an overclocked, quantized MIDI sequencer in human form. Nothing but awe for that guy's fingers. He's also a great guy and a generous teacher. But after I bought his tribute to classic synth songs without hesitation, I actually only listened to it once. Somehow, he'd managed to make Tarkus sound even more mechanical than the machine-like original. Had to put on Emerson's version to flush my ears.
     
    More important is what the keyboard player adds to the song and to the band. Rick Wright embodies that ideal, and that's someone I can listen to for hours.
     
    Wakeman, however, gets my vote for the top spot, having both the chops and musical sensibility. He may be past his prime today, but his material from the 70's (e.g. Six Wives, Center of the Earth) will be long-remembered as classics. 
     
    I have to say, though, that I've stolen more licks from Dave Greenslade than anybody else.


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    Starise
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    Re: An impossible and pointless question 2018/08/14 15:53:39 (permalink)
    I would have to  agree Rudess is a highly technical player. You would swear he has spiders instead of hands. Maybe he's an alien hybrid?

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    Glyn Barnes
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    Re: An impossible and pointless question 2018/08/14 16:04:36 (permalink)
    bitflipper
     
    More important is what the keyboard player adds to the song and to the band. Rick Wright embodies that ideal, and that's someone I can listen to for hours.
     
    Wakeman, however, gets my vote for the top spot, having both the chops and musical sensibility. He may be past his prime today, but his material from the 70's (e.g. Six Wives, Center of the Earth) will be long-remembered as classics. 
     

    I remember thinking what a blow it was when Wakeman left the Strawbs, but his replacement Blue Weaver really melded with the band in a way Rick never did. Blue Weaver could have made my list. He went on to make a fortune with the Bee Gees and Saturday Night Fever.

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    jamesg1213
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    Re: An impossible and pointless question 2018/08/14 16:15:06 (permalink)
    Of course Wakeman also played piano on some iconic pop hits in the '60s and '70s. His piano on Cat Steven's Morning Has Broken is just beautiful

     
    Jyemz
     
     
     



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    Glyn Barnes
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    Re: An impossible and pointless question 2018/08/14 16:22:58 (permalink)
    jamesg1213
    Of course Wakeman also played piano on some iconic pop hits in the '60s and '70s. His piano on Cat Steven's Morning Has Broken is just beautiful


    Life on Mars.


     

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    Glyn Barnes
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    Re: An impossible and pointless question 2018/08/14 21:31:14 (permalink)
    Nobody's mentioned Jon Lord yet. I guess it comes down to defining "Prog" but Purple were certainly progressive, if maybe with a small p.

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    batsbrew
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    Re: An impossible and pointless question 2018/08/14 21:59:39 (permalink)
    i don't consider classic purple prog at all.
     
    good heavy blues and rock,
    with a touch of the classical thrown in.
     
    love john lord's playing,
    but would never consider it prog.
     

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    emeraldsoul
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    Re: An impossible and pointless question 2018/08/15 14:34:25 (permalink)
    I'm just gonna throw Lyle Mays into this, even though fluid jazz fusion isn't prog rock, either.
     
    If you put all the prog rock keyboard gods in a room with one keyboard and Lyle, I bet they would all sit down and ask him to play.
     
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    Glyn Barnes
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    Re: An impossible and pointless question 2018/08/17 18:59:41 (permalink)
    emeraldsoul
    I'm just gonna throw Lyle Mays into this, even though fluid jazz fusion isn't prog rock, either.


    I think the genre was never strictly defined back in the 70's and progressive was used to define things that were, well progressive and it was a pretty broad church. Latterly the term has become Prog and got stricter and is used to define a narrower band of music, I still like the old definition. A lot of later Prog is not that progressive at all.
     
     
     

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    Glyn Barnes
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    Re: An impossible and pointless question 2018/08/17 19:10:11 (permalink)
    Another player I really rate is Jonathan Edwards from Panic Room, never flash but always playing exactly what the track needs, he got me loving the sound of a Rhodes again.
     
    They released a EP called Altitude which included an amazing cover of ELP's ****es Crystal (you will either love it or hate it). Edwards jazz infused electric piano and Anne Marie Helder's vocal make it so different to ELP's original. A much as I love ELP I prefer this version.
     
     

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    Glyn Barnes
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    Re: An impossible and pointless question 2018/08/20 18:58:59 (permalink)
    Just been listening to Beardfish, Rikard Sjöblom's keyboard playing is exceptional. I knew him primarily from his guitar (and occasional) keyboard work with Big Big Train, but did not realise quite how good he is on keys.

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    jamesg1213
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    Re: An impossible and pointless question 2018/08/20 20:27:31 (permalink)
    Glyn Barnes
    Just been listening to Beardfish, Rikard Sjöblom's keyboard playing is exceptional. I knew him primarily from his guitar (and occasional) keyboard work with Big Big Train, but did not realise quite how good he is on keys.


     
    His playing on Judas Unrepentant on the Merchants of Light album is incredible, sounds like he has 7 fingers on each hand.
     
    I bought his last Gungfly album recently. Great instrumentally, but vocally/lyrically it's pretty poor. I was really disappointed, glad I downloaded it rather than buying the CD.
     
     

     
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    Magic Russ
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    Re: An impossible and pointless question 2018/09/04 15:45:45 (permalink)
    bitflipperMore important is what the keyboard player adds to the song and to the band. Rick Wright embodies that ideal, and that's someone I can listen to for hours.

     
    Case in point: David Gilmour's Live in Gdansk.  Wright played on that album and the interplay between the two at the end of "Echoes" was just sublime.
     

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    Bristol_Jonesey
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    Re: An impossible and pointless question 2018/09/04 21:29:54 (permalink)
    For many years my vote would have gone to Wakeman, but I still think Emerson tops him in all the important areas - composition, technique, flair
     
    The piano parts of the first 2 sections of the title track from Trilogy still leave me with goosebumps every time I hear it.

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    Glyn Barnes
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    Re: An impossible and pointless question 2018/09/27 14:12:19 (permalink)
    Well. Prog magazine's results are out. They have published the top 50, which I am not going to type out here. But here is the top 10
     
    1 Keith Emerson
    2 Rick Wakeman
    3 Tony Banks
    4 Richard Wright
    5 Jordan Rudess
    6 Mark Kelly
    7 Patric Moraz
    8 Geoff Downes
    9 Derek Sherinian
    10 Jon Lord
     
    Of the newer artists the terrifically talented Russian Gleb Kolyadin makes it to 15, how well would he have done without the nostalgia element? At 29 he is the youngest in the list.
     
    Geddy Lee is no 19!
     
    Some other favorites of mine
    21 Martin Orford
    24 Dave Greenslade
    31 Danny Manners
    34 Vincent Crane
     
    There are some interesting stat at the end of the article. By sales (solo and with bands) the top three would be 1 Richard Wright, 2 Tony Banks, 3 Rick Wakeman (I wonder if this includes Wakeman's session work?)
     
    52% British, 22% USA. 4% Canada.
     
    70% had first appeared on record before 1980 and only 6% since 2000, this probably says as much about the voting demographic as anything else.
     
     
     
     
     

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    ØSkald
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    Re: An impossible and pointless question 2018/09/27 19:38:01 (permalink)
    A really underrated keyboardist is Lasse Finbråten from Circus Maximus.
     
    He is not the “best”, but Circus Maximus is just a hobby project because of low income of the music, and he is still giving this much effort is giving him a big star.
     
    And the guy just enjoys playing live.
     

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    bitflipper
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    Re: An impossible and pointless question 2018/09/29 03:12:14 (permalink)
    70% had first appeared on record before 1980 and only 6% since 2000, this probably says as much about the voting demographic as anything else.

    Another possible factor...
     
    8 years ago Prog Magazine said Rudess was #1. Since then, two of the four guys above him on today's list have died. Jordan just needs to kick the bucket to reclaim the top spot. 


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    Glyn Barnes
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    Re: An impossible and pointless question 2018/10/01 17:19:37 (permalink)
    Interestingly Rudess was a guest on Gleb Koyladen's solo album, so 2 of the top 15 on one album! Gleb is primarily a piano player, so Rudess did other keyboards on some tracks.
    Following the success of two highly-praised albums with Iamthemorning, Russian virtuoso pianist Gleb Kolyadin affirms his musical authority with his debut, self-titled album on Kscope. The record features a staggering who’s-who of performers, including: Gavin Harrison (King Crimson Porcupine Tree) on drums; Nick Beggs (Steven Wilson) on bass; Theo Travis (Robert Fripp / Porcupine Tree / Steven Wilson) on flute and saxophone; the unmistakable voice and lyrics of Steve Hogarth (Marillion) alongside Mick Moss (Antimatter); and Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater) on additional keys.”the single greatest pianist I’ve ever met in my life.” Daniel Cavanagh (Anathema).

    Some videos etc. here http://www.kscopemusic.com/artists/gleb-kolyadin/
     
     
     

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