Rachel Flowers

              

If not...

Ladies and Gentlemen. Prog lovers of all nations let me introduce to you the greatest, most versatile musician on the planet...

I've been following this young lady since she was 13 years old. (yes I know how creepy that sounds) 

She is an accomplished Pianist and Flutist who can play the entire ELP catalog. No not just the keys but the bass and drums as well. 

She has recorded faithful covers of artist like Frank Zappa, Jaco Pastorius, Joe Satriani. 

Bands like Gentle Giant, Weather Report, Mahavishnu Orchestra, King Crimson, and many others.  

Every instrument you hear is played by her. The drums are programmed and performed by her. 

All Bass, Guitar, Keys, Chapman Stick, Horns, Vocals are performed and recorded by her at her home recording studio in her bedroom.

Oh...and did I mention...She's blind! 

Check her out. She is going to blow your mind. 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=rachel+flowers

Sound Cloud: https://soundcloud.com/rachelflowers-1

Comment on this forum. 

Tell us what you think of her talents. 

She has a prog album of her own, so I reiterate the suggestion for inclusion

When one thinks of "Progressive Music", one seems to always aspire to something that is "bigger" and "better" than most conventional music on the top ten world.

The one sad element, now and then, is, how folks forget that fact when they post and opine in this board, and the number of youngsters that simply post about their favorite band, and are not capable of listening to something else, or different in their ears ... saying that lightly, not harshly, please.

One of the greatest compliments to how great some music is, is all around us, but we only look at rock songs, and not a history of any kind of instrumentation that could go back as far as a 1000 years or more. So, you checking out JoJoBlahblah doing Albinoni's "Adagio in Prog G", ,means absolutely nothing to many folks, including how music was known and came to be known at that time, when there was no radio, no tv, no ipod, no "media" per se (newspapers are a 1850's and later thing) ... but at the least, it gives you an idea of how music appreciation goes.

My examples are simple ...

If you listen to Rachel Flowers, first do this ... put on the ELP's Tarkus album ... and loud ... so you can hear the long piece. Now go sit on the porch for 5 minutes and think on that piece. Then go inside and bring out the PIANO version of Tarkus by Rachel Flowers. I think you will find, this is an incredible piece of music, and that what Rachel has done, is simply showing what a magnificent composer Keith Emerson was, but he is not entitled to that because this is the time of electricity and rock noise, not MUSIC!

The second example is more subtle, but you need a super/hyper stereo to hear it ... put on KC's Starless and Bible Black from the album, kinda loud. Then go back to the porch and have your smoke. Now go inside and put on Rachel Flowers version of it ... guess what she did? She added all the little teeny weenie touches that Bill Bruford used to do when he was "bored", just to add something that made the music better and more interesting ... and you can hear this on Rachel's version, when in the original, these were partially hidden, because .... it wasn't music ... or the producers didn't think that something that stupid, should be there!

I don't know, what is supposed to be history or not in music and the arts. But I know when I see something special that you and I will never see again, or ever have the chance to experience it. That moment, in time, will live forever in my heart as one of the few things that stood out that made my life worth living ... and inspired me for days and days on end.

This, is what "art" and "music" is all about. And seeing someone like Rachel Flowers play all these different things, is just ... an amazing achievement, that most of us can not conceive or understand, or appreciate ... and then turn around and pull off a piano concerto ... that should embarrass all the progressive folks that think all of this is just a song ... sorry my friends, it's more than a song, or most of us would not have bothered.

Where do you stand in this progressive music thing? Ohhhh ... wait ... I gotta go get my fix of that evil dark prog rock!