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Prominent frontmen that are keyboardists


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I stumbled upon this a long time ago. It's a very brief EVH, a tad wasted, playing a grand.

Cool find David. Appearances would suggest you have also proven yourself to be a master of witty understatement.

Do you think that's bigger than a grand?

 

 

:D

Well, I certainly would have paid more than a grand for it...

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Probably the most well known example (in my mind) of a Band Leader who plays Keys = Keith Emerson (ELP)

 

No, he doesn't sing... but he definitely matches the thread title "Prominent Frontmen that are Keyboardists"... almost exclusively.

 

I guess because of RIP, we forgot about him?

 

 

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Probably the most well known example (in my mind) of a Band Leader who plays Keys = Keith Emerson (ELP)

 

I guess because of RIP, we forgot about him?

 

 

I *think*--though I admit that the thread's rules are a bit Baseketball-like to me--that the topic is, people primarily known as non-keyboard-playing frontmen, who turn out to be great keyboard players.

 

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Toni Tennille

 

I"m thinking that the topic is lead singers of a duo or group that perform a significant portion of their show behind a keyboard as their primary instrument. Solo artists aren"t included.

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Does Peter Wolf count?

Seth Justman played keys for J. Geils.

Yeah, but I thought Wolf also was credited with keyboards.

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I thought the OP intended the thread for non-key-centered front men who were actually significant keyboardists in other contexts. If I'm right, that would invalidate 90+% of the postings. Gee, am I clever!

 

That's why I included Greg Lake, since he was Emerson's front man, and rarely played keys in ELP. I would not include Emerson because he never fronted his groups.

 

I think Lennon and McCartney would fit that criterion.

 

Hmm. How about the Pittsburgh Symphony's conductor Andre Previn, who happened to be an excellent jazz pianist?

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Does Peter Wolf count?

Seth Justman played keys for J. Geils.

Yeah, but I thought Wolf also was credited with keyboards.

Ah, I didn"t know that.

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I'm not sure at this point exactly what we're looking for, but as a fan of the Guess Who I never realized until I finally saw them in '72 that Burton Cummings was the keyboardist (and his playing was way beyond anything I heard on the records).
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I'm not sure at this point exactly what we're looking for

Yes, there has been a lot of confusion about that. ;-)

 

My own reading was that it's supposed to be BANDS (not solo acts) where the front-person does NOT generally play the keys on stage, but DOES play keys on at least some of their recordings.

 

As Tom said above, most of people's entries in the thread don't actually qualify.

 

And actually, to be more precise, the OP was even more restrictive than my interpretation... he said that live, the front-people ONLY sing, and I took some licence from that by suggesting Stephen Stills. In in CSN/CSNY (and Buffalo Springfield and Manassas), he doesn't ONLY sing live, he also plays guitar, and also he will SOMETIMES walk over and play keyboards on a song live, but he is not the band's keyboardist, that's not where he spends most of his on-stage time. So technically, even my own suggestion didn't fit the bill, but it was close. ;-)

 

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Emily Haines plays occasional Keys with Metric. Main instrument is a Sequential Pro-One.

[video:youtube]

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We all know Keith Emerson, which is why no one mentioned him. I'm interested in sussing out "hidden keyboardists"... which Mr. Emerson most definitely IS NOT! lol

 

Good call on Amy Lee, not being a big Evanescence listener, I would never have known!

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Puck Funk! :)

 

Equipment: Laptop running lots of nerdy software, some keyboards, noise makersâ¦yada yada yadaâ¦maybe a cat?

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Lol, I had to re-read the entire thread before I understood (I think) the question. Really looking for 'sleeper keyboardists' that front bands?
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Brian May did some keyboard parts on Queen records, though he did sometimes also play them live (e.g. the DX7 Syn-Orch patch on "Who Wants To Live Forever").
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  • 3 years later...

I'll answer if the OP ever says what he meant :) The title sounds like frontmen who are primarily known as keyboardists, but then he listed Joe Walsh as an example, so then it sounds like frontmen who oh btw happened to play some keys, which could be almost anyone it seems. 

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7 minutes ago, Al Quinn said:

Annie Lennox

https://www.annielennox.com/royal-academy-music-awards-annie-lennox-honorary-doctorate-university-london/

 

"Annie Lennox studied flute, piano and harpsichord at the [Royal Academy of Music] from 1971". I had to look that up - I knew she was a flautist, and obviously keyboard skills are a part of any music college course, but I didn't know piano/harpsichord were part of her study. There's a sort of lineage from baroque counterpoint to early monophonic synthpop lines, I suppose.

 

Cheers, Mike.

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