Volume Pedal Genius!!! If you know what I mean

Jerry Corbetta "Green Eyed Lady".

I love Keith Emerson's style of play. Keith and Rick Wakeman, these are the guys that most me inspired to play keys in the first place.

You can have these debates through the ages, but there is no real way to quantify who was the best. I respect all of the guys mentioned here, but we see things differently. Jimmy Smith was a master, but mainly I see him as a master in the blues / jazz and r and b genres. Could he have mastered the stuff Emerson wrote and played ? maybe .. That's how I measure it.. for me.. I'll never know the answer, nor will anyone else, and in retrospect, it probably wouldn't have mattered to him anyway, since he did "his thing".

I think Emerson played with a ton of feeling.. it's all in the interpretation. You have to understand, I've always been a guy who eschewed the top 40 type stuff and what the very commercial record companies tell me is the best music. I have always gravitated toward more experimental stuff, for as long as I can remember anyway. It sort of awakens a passion in me and challenges me to understand and interpret what is going on inside of the composer's mind.

Emerson's willingness to experiment and go in different directions drove rock music to places that I hadn't seen before. Was some of it over the top ? Definitely, but it also made more than a few of the guys in my generation want to play keys, at a time when the guitar had been the "sexy" instrument.

With Emerson, Wakeman, Jon Lord, etc.. suddenly, it was cool to be a kb player.
Still, my favorite kb player of all time Rick Wright, may have been a notch or two less technically talented ( by his own admission ) but in my own mind was certainly equal to or beyond when it came to driving in new and experimental directions. Rick has grown on me over the years more than I would have ever imagined. I can listen to Floyd without Roger, or Roger's interpretation without the rest of the band, and I love the original incarnation as well, with Syd, before David Gilmour, and it doesn't matter that much to me, except when Rick's parts aren't there.

It's all probably a generational thing and where we come from musically and physcially as well. My opinions won't change no matter what anyone else has to say about it, and neither should anyone elses.

Cheers

AJ

[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 11-27-2008).]

Aj, great post!!

Tom-Green Eyed Lady is a killer tune. Believe it or not, I still play it every chance I get
when I'm playing a B-3 or C-1 with a Leslie.

Often, it's the last song of the evening. This works if the job is the one I most often play with the B-3-a quiet Saturday 2 hour gig at a country club. Those who know what it is smile a lot. I leave really fast and avoid those with really confused looks on their faces. On guitar, the comperable song is the Edgar Winters tune from the Frankenstien album. It still ROCKS!


R.

Matthew Fisher/Procol Harum..."A Whiter Shade of Pale"...probably the most recognized Hammond solo/intro of all time.

Ian

Funkiest 6-second organ solo........Sly Stone - Dance to the music.

"Would you like to hear my organ.... I said, Ride, Sally, Ride".

chas


PS: Take that, Klaus W.

[This message has been edited by cgiles (edited 11-28-2008).]

Lets not forget GREGG ROLIE who played that fantastic Famous Hammond Solo in Santana's Band on "Evil Ways"

And believe it or not he's still performing with his own band on stage Live...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIzrhoGoOxk