What are the thoughts on keyboard prodigy, Rachel Flowers within the Prog community? She’s been blind since birth, and as a big Keith Emerson fan, she’s covered his music and created a lot of her own, in prog styles and others. It’s especially fun to watch her play flute and piano at the same time.
https://youtu.be/jDlgfmLexoc
Dan Maske
Obviously she is an amazing talent. But go beyond her cover tunes and check out her first album, Listen. Its an amazing amalgamation of prog, classical, jazz and no doubt other genres, all blended together into a unique but beautiful sound. I really have no idea how to classify it.
By the way, aside from keyboard and flute, she can shred on guitar and she sings as well.
There have been a TON of treads about Rachel here over the years.
IMO, her new album "Bigger On The Inside" is her crowning achievement. Stunning, Epic and Diverse.
Cobra handling and cocaine use are a bad mix.
I just listened to "Bigger On The Inside.” There’s a nice variety, but at least a couple tunes that are very much in the ELP style. Well done, too.
You could feel the collective jaw drops at the KE tribute show where she banged out the fugue from "The Endless Enigma." But probably even more powerful was when she absolutely lost it after playing a piece at his memorial concert. Emotion is not something she tries to hide.
I'm holding out for the Wilson-mixed 5.1 super-duper walletbuster special anniversary extra adjectives edition.
Originally Posted by Paulrus
That one still hurts. While I have mixed feelings about some of ELP's music, as a person I liked Keith. He seemed like a good guy, and especially in his later years, pretty down to earth and amiable -- not thinking more of himself than was necessary. He left us with some great music to remember him by, but I still miss him. Also wish I could have seen Rachel's performance, that must have been incredible.
"what's better, peanut butter or g-sharp minor?"
- Sturgeon's Lawyer, 2021
When she got to play Emerson's keys...
Dave Sr.
I prefer Nature to Human Nature
^ brilliance at work
Not so long ago, schools for the blind routinely taught music to their students. Producing other geniuses like Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles and Jose Feliciano. Music education has fallen by the wayside in those schools, along with most other schools. Making Rachel a modern day rarity.
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
I think this is my favorite off Rachel's new album. I've seen her play several times at Progstock (she's been at all of them), but never with a band, only solo or duets. The ones with Michael Sadler of Saga and Chirs Clark of Brand X were memorable.
Bought both Bigger on the Inside and Listen. Two thumbs way up from me while I have a slight preference for Listen.
Yes, the way she laughs and giggles, as soon as she’s done playing something is inspiring. She has the time of her life playing music, and has no wish to hide that.
I think Rachel is terrific, Dan. I'm not sure if you caught it but I had the pleasure of having her as a guest on my show recently to discuss Bigger on the Inside. You can stream/DL it here if you're interested.
I also recently spoke with Saga's Michael Sadler, who said he is eager to record with her once their schedules align.
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A high definition video download of the Los Angeles tribute is available at https://fanfarefortheuncommonman.com/ and a CD/DVD combo is available at https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/...-2dvd-edition/. All proceeds from the sale of both the digital download video and the CD/DVD combo go to the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation, a charity that focuses on treating and finding a cure for dystonia, a debilitating neurological ailment that Keith battled.
That one still hurts. While I have mixed feelings about some of ELP's music, as a person I liked Keith. He seemed like a good guy, and especially in his later years, pretty down to earth and amiable -- not thinking more of himself than was necessary. He left us with some great music to remember him by, but I still miss him. Also wish I could have seen Rachel's performance, that must have been incredible.
Even more fun to see her shred on Zappa tunes :
I had no idea that Keith had Dystonia. So did Tim Smith. What a terrible and unfortunate condition that affected two monster musicians/composers/legends.
Guess I didn’t realize that either. Both genius musicians who got a raw deal in the end, sadly.
"what's better, peanut butter or g-sharp minor?"
- Sturgeon's Lawyer, 2021
I heard the Michael Sadler interview, which was great, thanks! I will check out your Rachel Flowers episode.
It's really great for her that because of her blindness, her brain has trained her to audio perfection. It's stunning to me that she's such a great keyboardist, but also that she can play just about any other musical instrument with such perfection. My hopes are that she's invited to play with a as yet to be prog super-group. And she's so good, she could easily be a stand-out with any other music genre. She's just awesome!
Day dawns dark...it now numbers infinity.
After you notice the amazing world class talent, and that she's blind, you notice how long her fingers are. I've noticed over the years that most musicians do have long fingers. It's almost as if they were born to be musicians.
She is indeed a friend of the board here (at least her mom is) and this is where i first heard of her. She's an incredibly talented young woman
And the code is a play, a play is a song, a song is a film, a film is a dance...
Checkout her SoundCloud. Here she plays around with recording and producing techniques and mainly does covers including ELP, King Crimson, Frank Zappa, Gentle Giant, Weather Report, ... Also has a few original tracks.
Jesus! She did Birds of Fire in a single day, the entire thing, all instruments and sounds and percussion and everything. Amazing!
I'm not lazy. I just work so fast I'm always done.
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