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Mount Rushmore for Keyboard Players


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Sitting here on this fine Presidents' Day thinking about who I would place on a Mount Rushmore for keyboard players, and thought I'd post here for anyone interested in this sort of fodder. This is not intended to be a list of "my four favorite keyboard players" but players you feel are deserving of this honor. Feel free to submit candidates within a single genre (e.g., jazz, classical, rock), one per genre, or any combination thereof.

 

I'm most familiar with rock, so I found it rather easy to construct a Mount Rushmore from this category. My "vote" would be for Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, Tony Banks, and Jon Lord.

 

If I could pick only one keyboard player per genre, it would be Keith Emerson....and then I get incredibly stuck among jazz (Oscar Peterson? Art Tatum?), classical (Beethoven? Mozart?), and any other final category I'm less familiar with.

 

Remember there can be only four candidates!

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing."

- George Bernard Shaw

 

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It's really impossible for me, because some days I'm all about the sophistication of Chick Corea, other days I yearn for nothing but the soulfulness of Nicky Hopkins. The process of vacillating between those poles has led me to my own style, such as it is. But I can't imagine putting Corea and Hopkins side by side on the same mountain. They each deserve their own mountain in their own state.

 

I don't think I'm at all unique in feeling this sort of dichotomy, and I'm sure there are players who would say that for them it's more of a trichotomy or quadrotomy.

Gigging: Crumar Mojo 61, Hammond SKPro

Home: Vintage Vibe 64

 

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It's really impossible for me, because some days I'm all about the sophistication of Chick Corea, other days I yearn for nothing but the soulfulness of Nicky Hopkins. The process of vacillating between those poles has led me to my own style, such as it is. But I can't imagine putting Corea and Hopkins side by side on the same mountain. They each deserve their own mountain in their own state.

 

I don't think I'm at all unique in feeling this sort of dichotomy, and I'm sure there are players who would say that for them it's more of a trichotomy or quadrotomy.

C'mon Adan! You only need two more! ;)

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing."

- George Bernard Shaw

 

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This is a fun game to play for a keyboard nerd while hunkering down during a Texas snow storm. I pondered this while I took a short afternoon nap and this is what I can up with:

 

Chick Corea- I feel like he was so connected with the past, present and future of jazz, was amazing on acoustic piano, Rhodes and synths, always going different musical directions, not to mention a great composer and such a kind man.

 

Ray Charles- He embodied the beauty and soul of American music, he was a true national treasure.

 

Floyd Crammer- His unique sound not only changed country piano styles but rock/pop as well.

\

 

I'm having trouble with a fourth candidate but I would say Liberace for his classical and pop chops, showmanship which brought our instrument front and center.

 

Others I considered, Elton John, Billy Joel, Billy Preston, Duke Ellington, Oscar Peterson, Nat King Cole, Fats Waller, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Dr. John, Alicia Keys

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Keith Emerson, George Duke, Chick Corea and Wendy Carlos.

 

Keith first made the Moog rock, but Wendy was the first to show off its broader classical, soundtrack and experimental potential.

 "I want to be an intellectual, but I don't have the brainpower.
  The absent-mindedness, I've got that licked."
        ~ John Cleese

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I saw Artur Rubenstein when I was 7 or so and I was gobsmacked. This elegant little man sat at the grand piano and moved his hands lightly - it sounded like he was pummeling it with sledge hammers at times!

One of my most important real world lessons on the power of music.

That's one.

 

I see Ray Charles posted above and YES! I was lucky enough to see him twice, both times with a HUGE and flawless band but it was Ray's show and he owned it.

That's two

 

Gonna go a bit off the beaten path perhaps, I've always though Garth Hudson of The Band was one of the most easily identified keyboard artists I've heard. He had his own unique sound and style, a Master. I never got to see The Band live but they've been favorites of mine since the second album.

That's three.

 

It would be easy to vote for Keith Emerson, saw ELP on the Brain Salad Surgery tour and he killed it, the band killed it. I'd nominate my friend Diane Leigh but nobody has heard of her, too much fun to jam with!.

I'm going with Herbie Hancock, who I saw on the Headhunters tours, hugely because a totally amazing player and also now I've got the jazz side of things indisputably well covered. And believe me, I sort of wanted to choose Matthew Fisher from Procol Harum, just for Whiter Shade of Pale, but...

That's four.

 

Artur Rubenstein, Ray Charles, Garth Hudson and Herbie Hancock.

 

And, I'm just a guitarist. I do know where the good stuff is!

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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I would just have to pick the four that influenced me in my formative years (i.e. the players on the records I wore out, listening to...)

 

Andy LaVerne (Woody Herman and The Thundering Herd)

Jeff Lorber (The Jeff Lorber Fusion)

Tom Schuman (Spyro Gyra)

Elton John

Legend '70s Compact, Jupiter-Xm, Studiologic Numa X 73

 

 

 

 

 

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Ron Mael, Keith Jarrett, John Cage, and Trent Reznor.

 

Naturally, the centerpiece of the mountain's dedication ceremony would be to blow it up, preferably with a low-yield tactical nuclear bomb.

Dr. Mike Metlay (PhD in nuclear physics, golly gosh) :D

Musician, Author, Editor, Educator, Impresario, Online Radio Guy, Cut-Rate Polymath, and Kindly Pedant

Editor-in-Chief, Bjooks ~ Author of SYNTH GEMS 1

 

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Mozart because he was the first (and probably to this day, the biggest) rock star.

Bach because Bach.

Rick Wright because of all the goosebumps he gave me.

Michel Camilo because the world would be a much sadder and more boring place, without some Caribbean sunshine and hurricanes.

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Keith Emerson - (every night at dusk pyro would launch from a carved ribbon controller)

Cory Henry - because you don't have to be old or deceased to be supremely awesome

Gregg Allman - every crew needs a badass

Chuck Leavell - quietly waiting in the corner making everyone else look good.

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Plenty of classical and style-specific monsters that could qualify; but to keep it to four, I'm thinking keyboard players who, while they might be known for a particular influence or style, are technically versatile enough to easily morph into a few more areas. In other words, wide-ranging musical geniuses. So my keyboardist Mt Rushmore would include Rick Wakeman, Mike Garson, Herbie Hancock and Bill Payne.

'Someday, we'll look back on these days and laugh; likely a maniacal laugh from our padded cells, but a laugh nonetheless' - Mr. Boffo.

 

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You could have Herbie up there 4 times from different eras.

 

The same could be said of Chick Corea. Never the same twice.

 

I'll add another vote for Rachmaninov, although I confess to liking Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto, too. However, Tchaikovsky wasn't known as a piano player the way Rachmaninov was...so, yeah, Rachmaninov.

 

Keith Emerson.

 

Not sure who I'd nominate from the jazz world. There were some stellar players, but none of them stick to me the way the horn/reed players do.

 

I'm almost exclusively rock, jazz, and classical, so I'd be hard pressed to nominate someone from another genre. Might have to do two from the same genre. Have to think about this.

 

Grey

I'm not interested in someone's ability to program. I'm interested in their ability to compose and play.

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Chick is a sentimental favorite right now, but he undoubtedly owns a spot. I would personally like to see Lyle Mays up there, along with Elton John, and forgive me, Rick Wakeman.

 

And just to prove that punctuation is important, that last one could have read 'forgive me Rick Wakeman" if I hadn"t double checked.

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Shouldn't it be an American tho? Would a Brit or an Austrian (Zawinul) even WANT to be on Rushmore? If that's the case, it simplifies things a little: Chick, Jimmy, Corey, Joey, and Herbie... still a hard choice. Plus, I personally would add Derek Sherinian to that list as a fantastic bridge between Jazz/Rock worlds. But he might prefer a mountain in Armenia. Chick might prefer one in Spain too.

 

PS: Tony should be chiseled into the BANKS of the mountain.

Puck Funk! :)

 

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

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I'd go with

  • Bach, who not only composed and played, but was an amazing improviser, probably even better than Keith Jarrett.
  • Liszt -- the second rock star (first was Paganini, not a keyboardist). He made the piano (and its player) a force to be reckoned with, like no one before him.
  • Jimmy Smith, who literally invented modern jazz organ playing.
  • Tough call, but I think Emerson, not because he was the most skilled -- he wasn't, by a long shot -- but because of his versatility: he could move effortlessly between Romantic, Jazz, and Rock; he could compose true Art Song (think "Trilogy"); he was comfortable on piano, organ, and synth, which are really distinct instruments; and he consistently gave us something to watch while he did it.

If I could have five, the fifth would probably be either McCoy Tyner or Barbera Dennerlein. Maybe Myron Floren.

-Tom Williams

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PC4-7, PX-5S, AX-Edge, PC361

 

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...and forgive me, Rick Wakeman.

 

And just to prove that punctuation is important, that last one could have read 'forgive me Rick Wakeman" if I hadn"t double checked.

 

I have debated Keith Emerson vs. Rick Wakeman with myself over the years. Sometimes I'd think one was better, then the other, back and forth. I eventually decided that Emerson was probably the better player, but that I happen to like Wakeman's style better, subjectively. Fortunately, I don't have to choose either/or on a permanent basis...I can listen to either one depending on my mood.

 

If Wakeman's face got chiseled on Mt. Keymore, I wouldn't argue.

 

Grey

I'm not interested in someone's ability to program. I'm interested in their ability to compose and play.

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Insanely difficult....but then gotta go with my early influences

 

In no particular order:

 

Joe Zawinul

Herbie Hancock

Keith Jarrett

Chick Corea

 

Would suggest a couple of more Mt Rushmores so all the others like George Duke, Lyle Mays and Cory Henry to name only a few can have

their own rightful place too.

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

Arthur Schopenhauer

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