Which is the better band? ELP or UK (Danger Money era when they were a 3 pce like ELP

[Dave (in MA)]

At least Emerson doesn't make noises like Mel Blanc choking to death while he's playing.

[trurl]

I would have loved to see Jarrett and Glenn Gould in a cage match for loudest pianist

[Jeremy Bender]

If we include Gould's annoying grunts and off-pitch vocalizations, he'd win.

[JJ88]

I think Emerson's 10 minute'ish solo improvs were generally done in more of a light-hearted rock solo spot crowd pleasing piano kind of spirit....all the different quotes and deliberate stylistic tributes and such, mixed in with the more serious original lines

Not really comparable to someone who was building a whole live experience around serious improvised piano like Jarrett.

Yeah, that seems fair enough.

One of Keith's written solo pieces I've always really liked is 'Closer To Home'...a very emotional piece of music, IMHO. I much prefer that to the running-up-and-down the keyboard showcases in their concerts, though I do see that some did like that too.

Jarrett is certainly mercurial (to say the least) but again, capable of great beauty. One of my favourite pieces of music in any genre is his version of 'I Loves You Porgy' on that 'The Melody At Night With You' album.

[trurl]

If we include Gould's annoying grunts and off-pitch vocalizations, he'd win.

The vocalizations were what I meant

[A. Scherze]

Right. Emerson's improvisations on 'Welcome Back...' for instance are too heavy on flashy arpeggios

I think Emerson would get less flak if he called them "Piano Interlude".

Here's the one from CalJam. Where are the "flashy arpeggios"?

[Watanabe]

Emerson was one of only a few rock keyboardists of that era with genuinely capable left-hand chops and left\right independence.

Most of the other progressive players on the British scene especially(the Europeans were better imo, Van der linden, Moraz, quite a few of the Italians etc), weren't even close in that sense.Usually, just mainly right hand dominant stylists that relied on overdubbing for creating any complicated counterpoint.Not that there's anything particularly wrong with that for Keyboard in what most of the bands were doing and plenty of those kind of players i love....but sometimes when bands would be go for a more formally and intensely composed approach, it seemed the keyboardist would be technically out of his depth(Any of Wakeman's solo crap, or stewart with Egg for instance, though still enoyable enough to listen to, his playing is rarely able to take advantage of the full range of notes available because his left hand isn't strong)...Emerson was one of the few with enough facility to avoid struggling in that idiom(in terms of taking full advantage of what piano etc offer in terms of notes available to both hands) imo and i've always felt let down that ELP didn't do more stuff in the composed, chamber prog sort of vein.

[mozo-pg]

Wow! Just opened this thread wondering what the discussion might look like. Nice work gentlemen!