This topic contains 25 replies, has 8 voices, and was last updated by irocku 4 years ago.
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This forum is to capture the great rock performers who have inspired each of us.
Please join in and contribute your keyboard influences. We are looking for all generations of keyboard legends from the early blues to today.
Here are the guidelines we are following:
1. The artist has to have made an indelible mark on rock piano.
2. The performance should either make us smile, stomp our feet, or sit back in awe.If you find a performance that you would like to share please include the link and we will embed it into this forum.
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I think Chuck would be the first to agree that this page cannot be complete without the incomparable Nicky Hopkins. Videos of his performances are sadly a little harder to find, but this is terrific.
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“Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!” I have seen so much footage over the years that it is rare that I am floored by what I see, but the Billy Preston with Nat King Cole clip, he is 10 or 11 and is already out of control. It is obvious to Nat and the rest of us that this guy was born with it! So relaxed, great pitch in his voice, timing, tempo and so much soul, but it is the funkiness of his groove that slays me!
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Nat Cole is soooooo underrated. Consummate musician.
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The duo of Gath Hudson and Richard Manuel in the Band have been one of my favorites. Here’s just one of their performances.
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Here is Otis Spann, one of my heroes from the Chicago-style blues playing.
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Some of my influences include boogie-woogie pianists Meade Lux Lewis, Albert Ammons and James P. Johnson, as well as rocker Elton John and jazz greats Chick Corea and McCoy Tyner. Here’s some Elton…
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Otis Spann is probably the most over-looked figure in the birth of ‘Rock and Roll,” outside those people who know what’s, what. This clip represents the essential link from R&B to Rock and the electrification of the blues that took place in Chicago in the 1940’s and 50’s. The work Otis did for Chess Records, backing Muddy Waters and the other greats – the tracks he recorded on those records were critical and inspired a new generation to play the music. Otis Spann and his peers represent the genesis of what would become Rock and Roll. What a great clip – thanks!
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Here’s one of my favorites- Pinetop Perkins
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Oh wait, what about this one?!? Art Tatum pioneered playing both hands together rapidly and with harmonic complexity.
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In 1971 Rod Stewart and Elton John produced an album for legendary British blues player “Long John Baldry”. The album is called “It Ain’t Easy”.
Side two featured a young Elton on piano, but side one Featured Ian Armitt on piano. Listen to “Conditional Discharge” from this album with Ian Armit. -
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