Rachel Flowers covers Pirates

Anyway, this sounds good. Does she sing too or is that someone else?

Never heard of her before I saw this thread title and I have now watched two youtube videos. And I'm not sure what I'm more impressed by, her musical memory and skill while being handicapped or the fact that she has made me take an interest in ELP's music, a band I've never really had much time for before now.    This one is amazing:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iGjW2oYEX0

 

Up until 50 years ago, this could only be done with a SCORE sheet that showed the notes, and you played them.

Rock music, and even jazz, kinda changed that because the score sheets did not have the emotion that showed a lot more for the note, or notes, something that a score sheet has never been able to define well, and that even opera has failed because its singers, and progenitors do not have the talent to improve the singing, and at times, even disregard some of the score to make the singing better, specially for today's audiences that were weened in rock music, with amplification, and even vocal effects.

For the 21st century, you argument kinda falls apart some in my way of seeing this ... you can break up the music a lot more, than just notes, since a DAW can tell you the effect and what was done, and many things can be redone and relearned ... I suppose that we should say this is the new SCORE sheet, and it will improve many pieces of music in the future, although the old ones ... well, they will lose even more of their appeal, once that older generation is gone.

Taking a score sheet and "copying" the music is what many conductors have done, with the difference that some thought that Beethoven wanted to feel this or that, and others felt differently and put the emphasis somewhere else, up to and even considering at least one conductor, who had the habit of changing the setup in the orchestra so he could make sure that one instrument was heard better and more up front, and picked up loud and clear by the microphones, where in the regular setup they would be buried.

Rachel, will do her interpretations when she does the Endless Enigma, or Tarkus on the piano ... but in these pieces, when she is merely playing the stuff that she obviously loves, I think that "copying" is a bit harsh of a criticism, although I don't really think you mean to criticize that much.

But for today's audience, and listeners, what she does is valuable and important, because as a recording, it is much more up to date, and its audibility (is there such a word?) is much clearer than it was 45 years ago when the recording of it, was fine and we bought it, but not as loud and clear as it can be, which is what SW has been doing for the last 10 years. With Rachel you don't miss much, and when listening to some of the Bruford/KC pieces, she even has all the little fry pans and touches that Bill added that no one ever heard, and neither did SW ... but her ears picked it up, and she made sure that all the ticks, and tacks and touches were in place ... and it adds to the piece magnificently ... it adds a certain touch of the eccentric, which fits KC and RF ... possibly not all the others, but it does fit Bruford and maybe Cross, which made that era of KC one of the best for me.

Doing ELP, is a bit different, and I think that she sees the compositional side of the works a lot more than we do ... and that seems to be what helps her decide which piece is coming up next ... Pirates was probably the obvious one, and I'm not sure there will be many others aside from the classical compositions that Keith had, most of which we have never heard, and are probably still sitting on a closet until someone gives it to her! She's the only one that can make KE shine ... like no one else has been able to all these years, and let us see, that there was a lot more in there ... that we failed to see, thinking that a man was just showing off his chops, when in fact he was trying hard to make sure people noticed the quality of his work!