Elephant 9

Ah, a Karn Evil beast.

If Keith Emerson had been younger. And Norwegian.



More stuff here.

Keith' Christmas

Seeing Elvis

We'll start a little series on "What Did Keith Do, Rather Recently?".

And we'll do it rather now.

Apparantly he attended an Elvis show and played some Tarkus a few days ago.

I checked out Elvis Schoenberg and the Orchestre Surreal last night. They were doing a set of mostly big-bandish/Zappaish arrangements of Hendrix tunes. It is a big, loud group with a string quartet, eight brass players, guitar/bass/drums/keys, percussion, several singers, dancers, . . . Anyhow, they don't play too often, but are a treat. The highlight was a version of little with with electric sitar, string quartet, and vocals.

An additional treat was that Keith Emerson was in the crowd and played a bit of "Tarkus" for us. Alas, no Moogs in sight.

Stay tuned.

Keep tappin'

24 seconds in pristine quality.

Ham'n knife

One video document of Spinal Tap at Wembley yesterday, playing Heavy Duty.

Please note their guest keyboard player on Hammond and Knife, especially from about 4 minutes.

Unfortunately a bit blurred picture. And the keyboard player is hidden behind an official camera man.

Other that that, a great sight.

The general idea was to have Keith getting stuck beneath the Hammond and then to be carried out on a stretcher. Though it seems he didn't stick to getting stuck after all.

Rather nutty still, as one reviewer commented.

BTW, here is Spinal Tap discussing the tune as such:



Take care. Whether there is a Hammond close by or not.

12 most bombastic synth solos of all time

Or at least 12 synth solos from different players.

Ivories strike gold

A rather to the point review of the American release.

If the name Keith Emerson doesn’t ring any musical bells, you may be too young to recall the heady days of progressive art rock when instrumental proficiency carried more weight than flashbulb image or red-carpet appearances. After churning out a succession of mediocre solo albums and critically acclaimed soundtracks, the keyboard’s greatest and perhaps most flamboyant player returns with “The Keith Emerson Band featuring Mark Bonilla,” a self-titled CD that stands proudly among his best work with Emerson Lake & Palmer.

Best of all, this version also contains an update of Barbarian, the piece that gave the first ELP album it's headstart. Or headblast.

god vs. god

What shall one say?

Except, of course, there really is no contest.

"The Art of the Duel", an original piano piece inspired by and dedicated to the two giants of piano prog rock: Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson. Written and performed by Matej Hrovat, pianist and com...
"The Art of the Duel", an original piano piece inspired by and dedicated to the two giants of piano prog rock: Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson. Written and performed by Matej Hrovat, pianist and composer from Slovenia who also composes and publishes electronic music under the alias "Aziraphal". Recorded at a live piano performance in 2006; directed by Boštjan Miha Jambrek.
More information and music at http://www.aziraphal.com and http://www.soundclick.com/aziraphal

Radio in

Excactly what we have been waiting for - especially after having staid home for some days, due to a rather nasty little virus.

May even inspire some more blogging.

Visions from the vault

Keeping to the latest theme and time signature, there is a great interview with Keith and Marc in Record Collector's December issue, for a page and a half.

Among other interesting stuff, Keith mentions something that are more interesting than others

"RC: Is there much in the ELP archives?

KE: I've got loads. I've come across some really interesting bootlegs like the concert with orchestra, and wow! Trilogy in Germany. We didn't play it for very long as it was too demanding for Greg!"

And there are more.

"RC: Do you have any unissued pre-ELP tapes?

KE: Yeah, in the vaults of Sanctuary, now Universal. They're transferring tapes of jams we did. I remember when we were in Compass Point Studios for two months - and you can imagine how much that cost us".

Hopefully the lead time between interviews with Keith in RC and the actual release of the material will decrease significantly.

Though I doubt it will ever take less than a year.

UK papers maturing

At least some are getting a lot more respectfull, as in this great interview from Monday about yesterday and today, not to mention the future.

There’s still, patently, an appetite to break new ground. But where did his original inspiration come from? “Where bands like Led Zeppelin and the Yardbirds were influenced by US blues, my roots go back to European music – classical and jazz. Music from people like Vaughn Williams, Shostakovich, Dave Brubeck.’

Aaron Copland was another influence and it’s interesting to note that not only did the American composer give Emerson one of the biggest hits of his career – 'Fanfare to the Common Man’ – but also the name of one of his sons. It makes a neat loop in the fabric of time that that son is also a musician!

“Yes, what we were doing was groundbreaking at the time – using mixed media, fusing different styles of music, using orchestras. We’d also do some mad things – like bringing in bag pipes.”

Revolutionary stuff. But has it become harder or easier to experiment does he think?” We’ve seen a decline in the power of record companies,” he says, “in that it was harder to get a demo made and then recorded. Now you can record it all yourself and even use the web to release it. I produced the latest album – and then went out and got a record deal.”

Perhaps it’s that ability to innovate without worrying about record company executives that makes his new album so refreshing. Certainly, Keith Emerson’s new collaboration with Marc Bonilla is a worthy addition to the discography of one of the leading keyboard players of the last 50 years.

Hopefully we may look forward to more.

Japanese

Rather hectic these days, seems like it will continue for some time.

In the meantime a snip from Japanese TV may hopefully comfort a few.

Review revealed

Again, as expected.

Time for a name

As technobabble go, babbling about synths are more interesting than most.

Like this interview from 1977.

How do you feel about the prototype Polymoog that you have?

Well, I don’t really like it that much. I don’t use it anymore. You know, I helped design that. I spent about a week with Dave Luce in the studio. While I was there I was saying, "It’s good, but it could be better if you did this and this, and added this to it." So he made some notes and then went back to Buffalo and had the second prototype made up. When I went to Buffalo, I tried it again. All the bumps were out and I said, “Well, it could be good if you had the knobs in this position." So he made some more notes, followed those ideas through, and the next thing I’m expecting is to see the end result. You’d think that after working on the instrument I’d get to see it. But the next thing I know, they’ve sent it to Switzerland. I won’t say to
whom. Well, I was a bit upset."

Hopefully Patrick has returned it by now.

And the real one

Prelude to a hope, a piece from the new album.

Not just his fingers he's still able to move.

European tour?

Seems from rather good sources (like Keith himself) that he may tour Europe early next year.

Hopefully he does not mean Bosnia and Slovakia, only.

Bloggers discover KEB - part 2

The jury is however still out on whether Mauro Aimetti ever will recover from meeting the Maestro.

Check out his blog for the full and fearsome story. Take care, though - and not only for the latinglish.

Bloggers discover KEB

The reviews are beginning to come.

And, no surprise, they are good.

Album ahoy

Well, it can't be a week without mentioning the new album from the Keith Emerson Band. This time the artwork. Not the least as it is released also on vinyl.

Be delighted.

Emo promo

Worth a look - and a listen.

Keep it up, Tony!