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Topic ClosedFav Prog Keyboardist?
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Poll Question: Fav Prog Keyboardist?
Poll Choice Votes Poll Statistics
8 [10.13%]
2 [2.53%]
19 [24.05%]
4 [5.06%]
1 [1.27%]
6 [7.59%]
1 [1.27%]
1 [1.27%]
12 [15.19%]
0 [0.00%]
2 [2.53%]
2 [2.53%]
1 [1.27%]
0 [0.00%]
5 [6.33%]
1 [1.27%]
0 [0.00%]
2 [2.53%]
0 [0.00%]
1 [1.27%]
0 [0.00%]
1 [1.27%]
1 [1.27%]
7 [8.86%]
2 [2.53%]
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Mirror Image View Drop Down
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Points: 2111 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 25 2014 at 20:29
Originally posted by Rick Robson Rick Robson wrote:

Originally posted by Mirror Image Mirror Image wrote:

Tony Banks, for me, is the greatest keyboardist/pianist in rock history. I know there are so many others who deserve mentioning, but Banks is my favorite of them all. Such a tasteful player and someone who didn't need to dazzle the listener with his technical facility, although he had this in abundance. Besides his obvious gift for counterpoint, his approach to harmony is unrivaled in progressive rock. I can think of no other player whose chord changes make the same kind of impact as Banks'. All of the members of Genesis were important, but I feel that this band wouldn't have had the kind of influence had it not been for Banks' own keyboard playing and song-writing.

 
Does Banks solo works have the same brilliance? If so, which would you highlight as your fave ones? I'm thinking about checking it out because i know nothing about it.
 
I'm just curious about the reason for omitting from the list f.e. Jürgen Fritz, Detlev Schmidtchen and Manfred Wieczorke, i think it's pretty wrong not considering their work as brilliant as the others more renowned ones.

As genbanks so aptly pointed out A Curious Feeling is really Banks best solo album. His work with Genesis, however, produced some of his best work. He really needs to be augmented in some way by musicians who have just as strong of a musical persona as he does. Check that album out at some point. I think you'll enjoy it. His other albums were just too poppy for my tastes and I've longed for something more epic.
“Music is enough for a lifetime but a lifetime is not enough for music.” - Sergei Rachmaninov
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richardh View Drop Down
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Points: 26131 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 26 2014 at 03:37
Originally posted by King Crimson776 King Crimson776 wrote:

Originally posted by Mirror Image Mirror Image wrote:

Such a tasteful player and someone who didn't need to dazzle the listener with his technical facility, although he had this in abundance. Besides his obvious gift for counterpoint, his approach to harmony is unrivaled in progressive rock. I can think of no other player whose chord changes make the same kind of impact as Banks'. All of the members of Genesis were important, but I feel that this band wouldn't have had the kind of influence had it not been for Banks' own keyboard playing and song-writing.


Most of this is about songwriting/composition. I agree that Banks is one of the greatest composers of the last century, but in terms of pure musicianship, there are many who are more virtuosic and diverse. I feel similarly about Neal Morse.

My vote is easily for Keith Emerson. He could play literally anything he wanted to, with two different keyboards at once if necessary. His playing takes from just about every era of classical music and substantially from jazz and even ragtime/honky tonk and a couple others. He could improvise great ideas, as opposed to studiously composing. That was part of his approach too, but it's evident that the ideas poured out of his fingertips and he'd scrawl some of the main ones down later. He was not a genius composer (although a very good one), but definitely a genius musician.


a very good summation of Keith Emerson
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richardh View Drop Down
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Points: 26131 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 26 2014 at 03:41
I voted Keith Emerson but I was listening to Metamorphosis by Curved Air this morning. Fantastic keys work.Eddie Jobson has to be well up there I would have thought
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Points: 15916 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 26 2014 at 03:58
^ Air Cut - Jobson - Metamorphosis - INCREDIBLE !! Definitely my fave CA track, followed by Piece Of Mind (Monkman was quite innovative and gifted too).
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Points: 1607 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 26 2014 at 07:23
Originally posted by genbanks genbanks wrote:

Originally posted by Rick Robson Rick Robson wrote:

 
 
Does Banks solo works have the same brilliance? If so, which would you highlight as your fave ones? I'm thinking about checking it out because i know nothing about it.
 

Well, I must say that not. The only masterpiece, as a whole album, on Banks solo career is Curious Feeling, IMO. A conceptual and symphonic piece with stunning instrumental tracks and great instrumental passages inside the songs. Out of this he has some great tracks here and there. Some of his best pieces (aside from Curious Feeling) could be Thursday the twelfth (stunning instrumental from Bankstatement), Still it takes me by surprise (an acoustic ballad with an interlude on classical piano), Another murder of a day (an epic with Fish on vocals), both two from Still, and his best IMO, An island in the darkness, a prog masterpiece of 17 minutes long from Strictly Inc. He has some pop or prog pop pieces good too on those albums. His movie soundtracks have good things too.

I think that Banks needs some muscial partner to give power to his creations, as Hackett and Collins were doing all those years. They are great arrangers. But from his brain and from his soul, became some of the best ideas I ever heard in music. Without doubts he is a mastermind.
 
Thanks for your interesting suggestions genbanks, put them in my long "check out list", which never stops growing...
 
From Genesis i only know quite well Hackett's solo work, btw i don't really pay much attention to the virtuosism performances of him, to be honest i enjoy much more a nice composing, even if studiously done,  than the best improvisation or virtuosic performance. Well it's a fact that i admire more a good composer than a good musician.
 
Anyway i 've listened once to the song "Smallcreeps Day" from Mike Rutherford and enjoyed it a lot, i think it's another composer to take in account checking his solo works out.


"Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy." LvB
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genbanks View Drop Down
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Points: 956 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 26 2014 at 07:36
Originally posted by Rick Robson Rick Robson wrote:

... to be honest i enjoy much more a nice composing, even if studiously done,  than the best improvisation or virtuosic performance. Well it's a fact that i admire more a good composer than a good musician.
 
Anyway i 've listened once to the song "Smallcreeps Day" from Mike Rutherford and enjoyed it a lot, i think it's another composer to take in account checking his solo works out.

I agree with that, a nice composing over a virtuosic performance. Of course the ideal could be a combination of both two. 

About Rutherford, a guy not so aprecciated and of course much underrated. IMO he is the second Genesis biggest songwritter, and he is a damn good songwritter. Smallcreep is a masterpiece IMO. His second solo album is only for collectors (like me for example). The rest is Mike & the Mechanics. Not prog (well they have two or three proggies ones), but great music, I like them much and have all their albums.
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N-sz View Drop Down
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Points: 344 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 28 2014 at 00:26
Dave Stewart
Blank Space Records
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Tom Ozric View Drop Down
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Points: 15916 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 28 2014 at 00:57
Originally posted by N-sz N-sz wrote:

Dave Stewart
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dr prog View Drop Down
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Points: 2446 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 28 2014 at 03:50
Not crazy about Banks. Love his stuff is on trick of a tail though. Ronnie foster is a gun on keys though
All I like is prog related bands beginning late 60's/early 70's. Their music from 1968 - 83 has the composition and sound which will never be beaten. Perfect blend of jazz, classical, folk and rock.
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Points: 10213 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 28 2014 at 04:23







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