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?

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.

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

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.


 

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.

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.
 

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.
 
Sorry for tossing  a jazz hand grenade* into this thread. 
 
Cheers,
- Tom 
 
 
 
 
* would make a good band name
 

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.
 
 
 

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.
 
 

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.