[Video] Yes - Close To The Edge Organ Solos - Wakeman, Wakeman, Brlisin, Downes

[Bruno Sampaio Barbosa]

https://vid.me/qbCM

[2steves]

Nobody does Rick better than Rick---amazing and original----Breslin is next, should have been in Yes---he does Rick very well and sort of puts in a little of what Moraz did---the other two don't move me. What I mean by that is son of rick and downes don't seem confident and are not spot on.

[Skullhead]

https://vid.me/qbCM

That's just comical...
Thanks for posting!

[Genital Giant]

God, Downes is totally embarrassing. I saw another vid of Downes doing the piano intro of Awaken and it was like watching a seven year old's interpretation of it.

[Man In The Mountain]

Good video to watch after you've read a heap full of Wakeman slagging. He could have added Moraz at QPR doing the solo too... but hey, why spoil the illusion that Pat is YES's greatest keyboard player?

[A. Scherze]

Good video to watch after you've read a heap full of Wakeman slagging. He could have added Moraz at QPR doing the solo too... but hey, why spoil the illusion that Pat is YES's greatest keyboard player?

Yes’s 1974 album Relayer included a jazz-prog-fusion workout titled The Gates Of Delirium, featuring Wakeman’s replacement, Swiss keyboard maestro Patrick Moraz (“The best Hammond player I ever worked with,” offers Squire. “But Steve and him didn’t have a bond”).

[progfan1]

God, Downes is totally embarrassing. I saw another vid of Downes doing the piano intro of Awaken and it was like watching a seven year old's interpretation of it.

Yep, he is not a soloist. He does a wonderful job with "soundscaping" and arrangements. It sounds like he's trying to improvise something in there and just falls back on blues licks and smears. I wish he would at least plan out a solo that suits his style and chops more. I maintain that, in terms of the whole Yes repertoire, Igor was the best man for the job, although Brislin probably could have done it fine, too.

[the illusionist]

I remember the first CalProg I attended and saw Spiraling, Brisiin was amazing!

[Yodelgoat]

Is Brislin the dark haired guy? He was superb. He had the right attack set on the solo, and that made a huge difference. He didntl look like he was playing drom memory, and I actually thought he improved the solo. If you are going to change something, you should change it for the better. He did. Some of that was almost unlistenable. At least make an attempt to capture the intent of the solo. The only thing I heard that impressed me was the dark haired guy That must be Brislin, because I think I know all the others.

Get some percussive attack on your keys guys. If anyone else had done that, it would have massively improved ALL of the solos. it has nothing to do with talent. Just get the patch right and your halfway there. Its like people who dont bother to tune. If you just bother to be in tune, you automatically become much better than 80 percent of the musicians out there.

[Kevin Caffrey]

Great video. RW & TB definitely sound the best to me.

[battema]

Strange choice for RW, unless it was simply that ABWH was the best video source available. And IMHO Close to the Edge isn't his best organ solo - that'd be Roundabout.

Downes has chops, but his organ playing has never really convinced me. Even the solo on Subway Walls feels a bit forced. Synths and textures are his stronger suit: both Drama and Fly From Here have some of the best-sounding keyboard layers of any Yes album.

Pretty sure Brislin could play all of them under the table and then some. He would've been wasted on Yes in terms of creativity.

[arturs]

Yep, he is not a soloist. He does a wonderful job with "soundscaping" and arrangements. It sounds like he's trying to improvise something in there and just falls back on blues licks and smears. I wish he would at least plan out a solo that suits his style and chops more.

I saw Downes play CTTE at the Camden Yestival in 2013. It was a great show overall. All of the band were spot on and even White was in fine form. But.. The worst minute of the show was that one. Downes just smeared the whole solo, and poof it was over. I kept waiting for the soloing to actually start, and then it dawned on me: it was over already.

[BravadoNJ]

Rick rules this one, Brislin close second- show much more energy. Rick's son was alot like his fether. Geoff was a mess.

[nycsteve]

Wakeman Sr
Brislin
Wakeman Jr
Downes
This selection isn't Downes moment to shine.

[onward]

Any vids of Moraz or Igor?

[progfan1]

Any vids of Moraz or Igor?

Igor at 19:00:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2SVySJNufo

Moraz at 16:38
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdgVQ4Looxg

[the winter tree]

The Moraz solo was atrocious!

[BobM]

sounds like Igor memorized the solo on the record almost note for note - nothing new there

[Man In The Mountain]

Moraz does worse than Downes, like he doesn't even know what the solo is so he just makes some noise on the organ... but people say he's the best and want him to return to YES. So what do I know?

I thought Igor sounded great! I might give him an edge over Brislin, but very close. Igor covered everything quite well.

Great:
Wakeman Sr
Igor
Brislin

Meh:
Wakeman Jr
Downes
Moraz

[Gorillclub]

Moraz does worse than Downes, like he doesn't even know what the solo is so he just makes some noise on the organ... but people say he's the best and want him to return to YES. So what do I know?

Curious to listen Downes on yes/moraz materials ! ;-))

[A. Scherze]

Moraz does worse than Downes, like he doesn't even know what the solo is so he just makes some noise on the organ... but people say he's the best and want him to return to YES.

So what do I know?

Nowhere near what Squire knew.

[Man In The Mountain]

Nowhere near what Squire knew.

He knew not to hire him again?

Moraz sounds great playing Moraz material, as does Downes playing Asia material.

[floyd umma gumma]

So interesting to see/hear them back to back. Agree with the common view here on who does it better than others. I remember Squire in the 80's saying that Downes was the best keyboard player Yes had ever had, and I think I remember Squire saying at some point in latter years that Tony Kaye was the best Hammond player, so perhaps his views evolved over time.
I also remember reading comments from Adam (not Oliver) Wakeman about the one time he performed with Yes - he played Starship Trooper with them at a gig he attended. He had spent a lot of time preparing and he said that the band told him it was very important that he play the keyboard solos as close to note for note as possible, as opposed to just filling the 12 bars with whatever notes you want, as long as they fit with the chord progression of G - Eb - C or whatever. This is in contrast to what is seen in vids of Moraz or Downes basically playing whatever they choose as long as its within the general framework of the rhythm and the chords.

[ronmac]

Interesting comparison.

While it's not fair:

- Rick was playing like it was his millionth time;

- Wake II (Is it Adam?) was playing like he simply memorized it;

- Brislin was playing with what appeared to be genuine passion; and

- Downes was playing the "Hears what it sounds like with gloves on" version.

[Plasmatopia]

Personally I'd put them in this order from best to worst:

Brislin (the most energetic and made it his own)
Wakeman Sr
Igor
Moraz (points for at least initially having some good riffery and energy...but it all went wrong in the end by losing focus)
Downes (placed above last because I liked his sound and was wasn't even trying to copy RW, lol)
Wakeman Jr (I think the tempo didn't help, but this was just weak sounding)