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Unfortunately, Keith Emerson (of ELP fame) has had to cancel his concerts and tours for the summer.

Seems his hand is still giving him trouble, and he feels he can't play up to the level he is known for.

Details on the Official Keith Emerson Web Site

Unfortunately I've also just found out his Mom passed away just before he and his girlfriend arrived in London.
They were headed there to see her, knowing she wasn't doing well. Our Condolences Keith.

If you've read Keith's book (Pictures of an Exhibitionist) you know he's a survivor. Hopefully he can get past all this and back to playing.

All the best to you Keith, we'll be waiting for you when you're ready to play again.

I had no idea that KE suffers from hand problems! I myself have lifelong teno-synovitis, only aggravated by, you guessed it, playing the piano. There are times when inflammation/swelling/aggravation make me have to stay away from the keyboard. It dissipates, and then I can play again, until the condition builds up again then I have to rest again.
I feel real bad for Keith, one of my all time favorites. I know exactly what he's going through.

My teacher worked with him for a while. I don't think he stuck it though. Shame, she might have sorted him out.

I have seen Keith E with the first ELP tour in Pittsburg, around 1971 I think when Lucky Man was getting radio play and on their album. I saw him years later in LA with Robert Berry. Seeing Keith with the original ELP inspired me so much, I made the decision then to head off to Berklee to study jazz piano. I was a B-3 rock and roller and sold it with the Leslie to pay my first semester tuition.

Keith was quite a showman and did may acrobatic moves, spinning around attached to the organ, flinging throwing knives at his Leslies, pushing the organs around on stage, many physical things that could have injured his wrists and nerves in the hands. And the continue classical practicing and constantly on the road and in the studio, he was either playing and then sleeping and eating and then back to the keys. Who knows what might have happened to Keith Jarrett, Oscar Peterson, Horowitz, Glenn Gould and other famous performers if they had displayed such a physical concert act that Keith put on.

All of this repetitive motion through the years may or may not have played a part in permanent injury and only rest may be the treatment for his dystonia condition. I can imagine how frustrated Keith must be, not being able to perform at the highest levels that he and his fans expect. I read somewhere when he first started having symptoms, he was diagnosed with a type of dystonia and underwent surgery I think in Los Angeles. We'll have to wait and see if Keith will return to the stage with all the passion, technique and chops all of us fans are inspired by.

katt

Katt,

I played in rock bands in the late 60's/early 70's.

There were some decent keyboard players in the major bands, but nothing too
difficult to emulate.

Then came Emerson!

Keith took it all to a whole new level.
I first saw him with the Nice at a concert in Boston (circa 1968/1969).

While I never came near to his level of play, his playing did inspire me
to become a better keyboard player, and to keep music as an important part of my life.
Piano World probably wouldn't exist if I hadn't been so hooked on keyboard/piano by Keith's playing.

I came so close to meeting him in Colorado last month (it was all set up to happen at Jeffrey Biegel's concert in Colorado Springs). I hope he's able to work
through all this, and that I get another chance to shake his hand.

Emerson was as far beyond any of his rock peers as pluto is beyond the orbit of the Earth, the first of the "fusion" players, classical/rock/jazz.
Frank, why don't you invite him to post here???

Hi Frank,

I was also a big Keith Emerson fan growing up. My whole style of playing (piano, Hammond C3/B3), with suspended fourths came from listening to his albums Trilogy, Tarkus, etc.

To mention briefly, I provided one of my pianos to Keith for his latest video and album "The Keith Emerson band featuring Marc Bonilla". Keith, Marc & their film crew went to a location here in Southern CA. and used an old Knabe baby grand (that I was thinking about rebuilding), to play and then later set fire to it for the live burn effect on the CD and video. I was also there and helped with the shoot. Keith was a nice guy and down to earth and they credited me on the album & video.

Last night I was watching the ELP video "Welcome Back" lent to me by Keith's engineer/keyboard tech. It has some great footage showing their early days as well as their reunion tour in 1992. Hope he's back up playing again soon...

Thanks Garron,

At least you got to meet him :-)

I was thinking of ordering the cd with Marc Bonilla, the excerpts on Amazon sound pretty good to me.

Yes, I hope he's back playing soon as well.

I wouldn't be playing in a band now, if it weren't for Keith Emerson. But I haven't seen him since the ELP days in the 70's. I guess I won't for a while longer.

Dittos for being inspired by Keith Emerson. I saw them in concert numerous times in the early 70's and the argument of the day was who was better, Rick Wakeman or Emerson (I always said Emerson hands down). I also got into one of the few arguments I ever got into with a college professor over ELP. One of my music professors told us to not even THINK of bringing in ELP's Pictures at an Exhibition to class as he had heard it and it was total junk. Granted, today I would rather listen to a fine pianist play the original works but at the time I loved that album and if nothing else I can credit it for at least introducing me to classical.

As far as Keith "flinging throwing knives at his Leslies", actually what he did was use knives to hold down chords by jamming them between the keys. That was in the days of The Nice. I would question if Keith hurt his hand by acrobatics or if perhaps it was just an injury that developed from over use and never given a chance to heal because of his constant touring?

Hi Frank,

Yes, the new CD "The Keith Emerson band featuring Marc Bonilla" is really good (Marc gave me a copy when they got back from Japan). If you decide to get it I would recommend getting the import version that comes with a DVD.

I couldn't play it on my home DVD player but could play it in my computer. There is lots of behind the scenes stuff including burning the piano in the desert, studio footage, the video of Keith playing in the church (its on YouTube), and it ends with some concert footage. Very entertaining and really good stuff

Don't want to upset anyone but can you see the level of tension here? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvQIobg0BwU
How awkard he looks? Elbows stuck out, wrists stiff? Would work for an amateur but not someone who has to go at it for hours every day. Then check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIVJw8yX6GY&feature=related

Here's a tiny short showing his dystonia:http://www.box.net/shared/du2fb3kx2z The fingers suddenly curl up. If you watch the original you'll see he's fighting it all the way through.

Yes. But some people will play that way for a lifetime and escape the worst (lucky genes), while most will do damage. What a shame.

Sorry to hear that he's still having hand problems. I hope he can sort it out.

I remember that argument from those days as well. To me Emerson was unquestionably The Man. But I was never a Yes fan anyway. I never understood their appeal. ELP was so much more interesting. Besides Keith's obvious talent, I was always blown away by Carl Palmer's equally monstrous drumming chops. Greg Lake's vocals were perfect for what they did.

BTW....



Was that intended to be a bad joke ?

I'm a Yes fan only because of one tune, "Roundabout", one album, "Relayer", and Steve Howe, with Chris Squire getting honorable mention for being the first "fusion" (rock/funk) bass player and being able to sing and play seemingly impossible cross-rhythm bass-vocal counterpoint (Listen to his bass lines on Roundabout and To Be Over and compare to what he's singing!).

Wakeman, et. al, were wusses compared to Emerson in the Classical-rock fusion genre.

Yea, I always preferred Emerson although I was also a huge Yes fan as well. I swiped Keith's piano improv on their live album (Welcome Back..) for my high school talent show in 75. Wakeman also did some piano work for the movie soundtrack "Lisztomania". If you want to hear Roger Daltry (The Who) sing "Liebestraum", well.... (not recommended)



My favorite recording of "Pictures" is by Isao Tomita; an all synthesizer recording.

Have you heard this Tomita album:



IMO, it transcends all of his other work.

I have Tomita's "Pictures" too. All ARP synths as I recall. Pretty impressive given the technology of the time.

As an impressionable keyboard-playing teen in the 70's, I was a huge fan of both Yes and ELP, but I always knew that Keith's playing was superior - perhaps partly due to the fact that ELP's sound, as a trio, was dominated by the keyboard, while Wakeman was more of a supporting player.

I think Emerson won the Contemporary Keyboard (now Keyboard Magazine) readers' poll as Best Overall Keyboardist five consecutive years, until they finally created a Hall of Fame for him, which disqualified him from further polls.

BTW, Wakeman and Jon Anderson have also had recent health issues.

Bjones,

I was a bit disappointed with "Planets". Tomita's sonic pallette became too predictable by that album. I'll admit that I'm not a big Holst fan. I sort of drifted away from him starting with that album. I did like his Bolero (Ravel) interpretation.