Keith Emerson RIP

[gvopedz]

I know many people hated ELP (and Carl Palmer has been trashed many times on jazz forums) - nevertheless, RIP Keith Emerson

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-35787187

[felser]

Very surprised and sorry to hear this.  While much of his music has not necessarily aged well, it brought a thrill and broadened horizons back in the  day.

[Tom 1960]

Too many people whose music I grew up to have passed recently. I don't like this trend.

[StarThrower]

Tragic ending for a great musician. The first ELP album still sounds great to my ears!

[Dave Garrett]

Certainly listened to "Karn Evil 9" and the like a fair amount when I was growing up, but was also a fan of his pre-ELP work with The Nice. RIP.

 

[Hardbopjazz]

Although I mainly listened to jazz as a teen, ELP was one of the rock bands I really enjoyed. Art Rock as it is called was the only rock I would listen to. RIP Keith.

[A Lark Ascending]

RIP 

Didn't expect that. Although subtlety was never his strong suit and I lost track of him after about '72, Emerson played a big part in shaping my musical curiosity between '70-'72, first with ELP and then digging back to The Nice. I first consciously became aware of Sibelius, Mussorgsky, Copland, Bach (and, unconsciously, Bartok and Janacek) through his rock arrangements [I also recall reading him raving about Ginastera and contemporary South American music in the early 70s, the first time I was aware there was classical music from that part of the world]. Probably less obvious was the way he shaped my ear for jazz (not much of that in Yes or Genesis!) - I could pick out when he went 'jazzy' from hearing that fuddy-duddy music on TV, but it was in the Emerson context that I began to think 'I'd like to hear more like that'. The Nice's take on 'Blue Rondo a la Turk' had a lot more Bach in it than Brubeck's original - admittedly great lifted slabs, probably remembered from music lessons, but very exciting to a 14 year old with no classical training. 

I still play the first 'Emerson Lake and Palmer' and 'Pictures at an Exhibition', 'The Nice' and 'Elegy' with great pleasure.  

Edited March 12, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[soulpope]

Part of my youth for sure .... Keith Emerson R.I.P

[mikeweil]

Mine, too - I still must have the 45 of "Brandenburger" on some shelf. I liked the stuff he did with The Nice, but he lost me when he went bombastic with ELP. That band would have needed a better drummer, Carl Palmer never really understood the odd time rhythms of  some pieces. 

Anyway, we lost another influential figure of our teen years - seems we're getting older .... R.I.P.

[7/4]

On 3/11/2016 at 4:20 AM, mikeweil said:

Mine, too - I still must have the 45 of "Brandenburger" on some shelf.

I never knew that was on 45! This is the kind of shit people should be listening to while they're getting blasted at the bar.

My post from the Book of Faces last night when I finally got home:

I'm just shocked as anyone else to hear of Keith Emerson's passing. His music was part of my teenage years, lying between the stereo speakers in the middle of the band listening to The Barbarian, Trilogy, Tarkus, Brain Salad Surgery, Knife Edge. Keith had the most amazing sounding keyboards and the heaviest compositions.

I heard my hero play twice.* Once with ELP on the Works tour in Princeton after they dropped the orchestra and about 10 years ago at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville with his band.

Rest easy Keith Emerson, your suffering is over.

* edit: Emerson, Lake and Powell too.
* edit: make that four times, I caught the Black Moon tour at the Garden State Arts Center.

Edited March 13, 2016 by 7/4

[A Lark Ascending]

Nice tribute here from classical pianist Peter Donohoe:

How Keith Emerson's inventiveness influenced my musical career

[BFrank]

12 hours ago, A Lark Ascending said:

RIP 

Didn't expect that. Although subtlety was never his strong suit and I lost track of him after about '72, Emerson played a big part in shaping my musical curiosity between '70-'72, first with ELP and then digging back to The Nice. I first consciously became aware of Sibelius, Mussorgsky, Copland, Bach (and, unconsciously, Bartok and Janacek) through his rock arrangements [I also recall reading him raving about Ginastera and contemporary South American music in the early 70s, the first time I was aware there was classical music from that part of the world]. Probably less obvious was the way he shaped my ear for jazz (not much of that in Yes or Genesis!) - I could pick out when he went 'jazzy' from hearing that fuddy-duddy music on TV, but it was in the Emerson context that I began to think 'I'd like to hear more like that'. The Nice's take on 'Blue Rondo a la Turk' had a lot more Bach in it than Brubeck's original - admittedly great lifted slabs, probably remembered from music lessons, but very exciting to a 14 year old with no classical training. 

I still play the first 'Emerson Lake and Palmer' and 'Pictures at an Exhibition', 'The Nice' and 'Elegy' with great pleasure.  

This sounds just like MY experience with Emerson - almost word-for-word.

[7/4]

The assholes at the NY Times show Keith Emerson's obit in the obits, but not in the music section.

 

 

[7/4]

girlfriend Mari Kawaguchi:

ELP star Keith Emerson 'shot himself because he could no longer perform perfectly for his fans'

 

Bandmate: I feared for ELP star Keith

"Greg Lake, whose Emerson, Lake & Palmer bandmate Keith Emerson was found dead on Friday evening, said last night that he had feared for the keyboard-player’s state of mind for many years."

.

Edited March 13, 2016 by 7/4

[medjuck]

On 3/11/2016 at 3:44 PM, Dave Garrett said:

Certainly listened to "Karn Evil 9" and the like a fair amount when I was growing up, but was also a fan of his pre-ELP work with The Nice. RIP.

 

I saw them do this at the Royal Albert Hall in '68.  They painted an American flag and then burned it. Supposedly all involved were banned from the RAH forever.  It was an anti-Vietnam concert.  I'd gone to see Hendricks and Ross who were singing together (no Lambert). The only other thing I remember is Julie Driscoll with Brian Auger and the Trinity singing This Wheel's On Fire. 

[jeffcrom]

I haven't listened to Keith Emerson for many years, but as a teenager I was an ELP fan, and an Atlanta Emerson, Lake & Palmer show was the first big rock concert I attended, in 10th grade or so. RIP.

[CJ Shearn]

RIP, I was really shocked to hear the news.

[BFrank]

5 hours ago, 7/4 said:

girlfriend Mari Kawaguchi:

ELP star Keith Emerson 'shot himself because he could no longer perform perfectly for his fans'

 

Bandmate: I feared for ELP star Keith

"Greg Lake, whose Emerson, Lake & Palmer bandmate Keith Emerson was found dead on Friday evening, said last night that he had feared for the keyboard-player’s state of mind for many years."

.

Wow. Very sad. 

I had a friend who took his own life a few years ago. You just never expect THAT to happen. And then it's too late to help.

[A Lark Ascending]

12 hours ago, BFrank said:

This sounds just like MY experience with Emerson - almost word-for-word.

I think a lot of people from the 60s/70s who went on to get very interested in classical music made a start with the likes of Emerson. It's interesting reading Gramophone magazine (the best-known UK classical review magazine). When I first started buying it in the late-70s it had a very haughty, donnish tone. Over the years it's become much less hectoring ('you must admire this, you must disapprove of that') as new generations of reviewers have moved in and I remember on several occasions references by those reviewers to the origins of their interest in the likes of Emerson. So maybe, unwittingly, Emerson helped in the democratisation of the classical music world (a work still in progress!!!!). 

The back page of Gramophone has a regular feature featuring a short interview with a celebrity (not just musicians but actors, politicians etc), inviting them to talk about their musical background and recordings that have influenced them. Emerson did this a few years back. Sadly, not available online (though it probably lies in their subscription site).

**************************

 I remember borrowing 'Five Bridges' off a friend around the age of 14/15 and being very taken by the version of the 'Karelia Suite' main theme (which was used as the theme to a major TV news programme in the 60s so already recognisable). Desperate to impress, I went round for several days telling anyone who would listen how much I loved Sigh-bee-lee-us. A friend who was studying music eventually took pity and gently informed me of the correct pronunciation. But a couple of years later it was a recording of Sibelius 5 with the Karelia Suite that became my first classical LP purchase. Thanks Keith!  

[l p]

 

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

i dont like the OP's post.  i dont like the thread starting out like that.  i came here as part of the healing process, here is my statement-

RIP Keith Emerson, who took the Moog synthesizer out of the studio and onto the road, changing rock performances forever. Seeing Emerson, Lake & Palmer is the greatest experience I've had, in life. November 2, 1944 - March 10, 2016.

 

[bluenoter]

12 hours ago, 7/4 said:

The assholes at the NY Times show Keith Emerson's obit in the obits, but not in the music section.

 

 

What I see online, as of this post, is that only a headline (with a photo) appears under Obits, and that links to the rest of an article by Ben Ratliff in Music:

Quote

Music

Keith Emerson, ’70s Rock Showman With a Taste for Spectacle, Dies at 71

By BEN RATLIFF    MARCH 11, 2016

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/12/arts/music/keith-emerson-70s-rock-showman-with-a-taste-for-spectacle-dies-at-71.html

At the end of the article: "A version of this article appears in print on March 12, 2016, on page B7 of the New York edition" with the same headline.

 

From Google, I see that at some point the NYT has also run a straight AP obit headed Arts:

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/03/12/arts/ap-us-obit-keith-emerson.html

Edited March 13, 2016 by bluenoter

[mikeweil]

On 12.3.2016 at 10:20 AM, mikeweil said:

... I still must have the 45 of "Brandenburger" on some shelf. I liked the stuff he did with The Nice, but he lost me when he went bombastic with ELP.

 

23 hours ago, 7/4 said:

I never knew that was on 45! This is the kind of shit people should be listening to while they're getting blasted at the bar.
 

Spinning this right now - such a nice introductory riff he wrote! And they used Bach's string parts, too, and had a nice groove. This could have been my very first exposure to some of Bach's music - my mother loved classical music, had wanted to become a professional dancer in her teens and took piano lessons, but that was all rendered obsolete by the worsening living conditions under the Nazi regime - she was born in 1919. Everyday Sunday she played records of Beethoven or Schubert symphonies, but no Bach. I once bought her the Brandenburgs for a birthday present. Emmerson probably stirred my interest in this music. 

He was very influential - I remember playing an audition together with a drummer friend of mine for a keyboarder who was looking for people to form a new band, but  it was just like Emerson - very bombastic rock. Oh well .... it's hard to grow old as a rock musician, and when you're getting health problems like he did - you should always know how and when to retire.

Edited March 13, 2016 by mikeweil

[7/4]

Dave Stewart (Egg, Hatfield and the North, National Health, Bill Bruford) on Keith Emerson

 

 

 

 

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Edited March 13, 2016 by 7/4

[clifford_thornton]

Never really followed ELP though I appreciated their contributions (and his) from a historical perspective. RIP and, as we've learned it was suicide, an extra-harsh loss.