Emerson Plays Emerson [Import]

Keith Emerson, Keith Emerson And the Nice | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 13, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Import
• Label: EMI Import
• ASIN: B000063DTD
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #271,808 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Vagrant

2. Creole Dance

3. Solitudinous

4. Broken Bough

5. A Cajun Alley

6. Prelude to Candice [From Murderock]

7. A Blade of Grass

8. Outgoing Tide

9. Summertime

10. Interlude

11. Roll'n Jelly

12. B&W Blues

13. For Kevin

14. The Dreamer [From Best Revenge]

15. Hammer It Out

16. Ballad for a Common Man

17. Barrelhouse Shakedown

18. Nilu's Dream

19. Soulscapes

20. Close to Home

See all 22 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What Emerson fans have been waiting for..., June 21, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Emerson Plays Emerson (Audio CD)

Finally, Keith Emerson's long-promised album of (primarily) piano solos has been released! Emerson has often been critically slammed for his overbearing, ultra-fast, and garish synthesizer and Hammond Organ solos with Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. This CD should hold his talents in a new light. His wonderful piano playing has often been featured in a band context (Take a Pebble, Karn Evil 9 2nd Impression, etc.)but rarely in a solo context. Now he's making up for lost time. This CD features 22 pieces in that unmistakeable Emerson style. Some of them have been released in one form or another (Honky Tonk Train Blues, The Dreamer, Hammer it Out to name a few)and others are familiar from his concerts with ELP (For Kevin, Creole Dance, Close to Home). Much of the rest is new to my ears at least, and ranks as highly as any of the pieces mentioned above. He draws largely from torch jazz and classical phrasing and chord changes, and the result is absolute beauty. Among the "new" tracks that really hit me are the subtle Vagrant, Solitudinous, A Blade of Grass (a b-side for a Black Moon single)and Nilu's Dream to name a few. Some of the other tunes display his love for blues and ragtime, such as Roll'n Jelly and B&W Blues. I give this album 4 stars because, for me at least, it is sometimes jarring to listen to the shift in styles like he does here. For instance, following classically-themed pieces like A Blade of Grass and Outgoing Tide with the trio version of Summertime is like watching a few frames of Die Hard in the middle of a Merchant-Ivory film. Still, this should more than satisfy ELP fans and piano lovers. Hopefully Keith will make this aspect of his work his primary focus. Hey Keith, where's that Piano Concerto #2?

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Antidote to Keith Jarrett, September 9, 2002

By 

Martin Harper (Italy) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Emerson Plays Emerson (Audio CD)

Those of us who were secretly hoping that Keith Emerson would mature into a leading Jazz pianist will surely enjoy this album. Approaching sixty, his awesome technique still intact and with nothing left to prove in the rock field, he has free rein, here, to play the music he loves. The result is a kind of safari through 20th century piano music, taking in impressionism ("Broken Bough"), the driving, percussive "Creole Dance" by Ginastera, ragtime, stride, barrel-house and boogie-woogie, with nods to Jelly Roll Morton and Gershwin, all delivered in Emerson's own unmistakable style. His big technique adapts itself effortlessly to lush, filmic themes such as "Outgoing Tide" and "The Dreamer", the tricky time-changes of "Hammer it Out" as well as more introspective pieces like "Vagrant", "Solitudinous" and "Nilu's Dream", which are Romantic with a capital 'r'. No aimless noodling here; most of the tunes are only two or three minutes long and none of them outstays its welcome. This conciseness and intensity, plus the crisp digital recording which fully captures the rich sonorities of the Steinway, make for a fine record all round. At over sixty minutes, there is plenty to pick and choose from and the final piano duel with Oscar Peterson on "Honky Tonk Train Blues" rounds it off nicely.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars great Keith !, June 20, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Emerson Plays Emerson (Audio CD)

a great cd , not just ELP fans should pick
this up, but anyone into piano, worth it alone
for the oscar peterson / emerson duo on honky tonk train blues,
from a tv appearence in 1976, creole dance is great also,
tracks range from blues to jazz to classical & over 60 mins
playing time.