Most of you know Keith Emerson is my all time favorite keyboard musician.

You may even know that I've been following him since 1969/1970 (yes, I'm that old).

So how come nobody told me he'd be at the Winter NAMM 2009 Show????

I was there, at the show, for four days!
Arggghhh

Sorry to hear that. I love ELP as well. Favorite album? Trilogy! Love it. Love it. And love it again.

Keith is my inspiration. Whenever I need some motivation, I listen to Karn Evil 9.

Now that you mentioned Keith, I'm going to put Tarkus in my CD player for the ride into work tomorrow.

I have a feeling that he often goes. I seem to recall reading in the past about him being there. So, let me be the first to tell you that he will be at Winter NAMM 2010! (If it turns out that way, you read it here first!)

Lawrence

I plan on attending the 2010 NAMM show in Anaheim, so I'll be looking for him.

Keith was a amazing pianist - his jazzy stuff on Karn Evil 9 was his style I loved the most and in the 70's rock world I prefer his piano playing to Rick Wakemans.

Top of my list for that period though is Patrick Moraz. I think he's an incredible pianist.

Unfortunately, Keith suffers from a devastating condition called focal dystonia, which has no real cure and can only be treated in ways that would be of no use to his quest to return to his former level of playing. He actually cancelled the remainder of his performances for the year because of this. It should deeply sadden all of us that a genius like Keith is subjected to such a devastating condition.

Thanks CC2

Yes, I'm aware of the problem.

http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1195735/Keith Emerson Cancels Tours.html

I actually flew to CO to meet him a few months ago. Jeffrey Biegel (concert pianist member of the forums) was playing Keith's Piano Concerto and Keith was supposed to attend. He never showed.

We found out later he had to fly back to the UK because his Mother's health had taken a turn for the worse. She passed away while he was in the air on the way back.

I don't expect he will be playing any more concerts, but he is certainly capable of short performances like the Korg display at NAMM.
And he is no less a giant of the keyboard in my eyes.

I still hope to meet him some day, so I can thank him in person for inspiring my love of music.

I think his best piece was Fugue from the Trilogy album. Not overdone, harmonically interesting 3 minute ( or so) prelude and fugue. Strictly IMO, of course.