Comments on: Ebonies and Ivories: Billy Preston and the Strange Case of the Dissapearing Keyboards

by: The Five Love Language Man Edition

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 13:23:08 +0000

If I were to really, really, think about it, Ebonies and Ivories: Billy Preston and the Strange Case of the Dissapearing Keyboards is a great way to frame your point, especially when The Five Love Language Man Edition is taken into account.

by: Carlota Montealegre

Sun, 08 Apr 2007 08:03:14 +0000

If you are missing the dissapearing keyboards, you should check out Brian Mitchell. He was Allen Toussaints understudy many years ago, and recently has been sharing the stage with him (Allen) at Levon Helm’s (of The Band) Midnight Rambles. Billy and Allen are two of his hero’s. Brian was lucky enough to play with Billy before he died. I truly think Brian is one of the cats holding on to what you are talking about. He’s also an amazing accordion player. Go to his myspace page if you’re interested www.myspace.com/brianmitchellmusic or go to his website www.brianmitchellmusic.com Brian plays with his many bands all over NYC and Austin. try and catch a gig (not sure where you’re from). Brian also recently did an interview with Allen Toussiant for Keyboard magazine. I had the luxury of reading the unedited 12 pages of amazing conversation and history.

by: livingin

Wed, 21 Jun 2006 22:17:41 +0000

Grant: Yeah, I’d thought of mentioning the loss of the sax as well, but then decided against it…for several reasons, I guess. Its absence doesn’t represent a break with church music specifically or with the gospel impulse more generally; people don’t compose, typically, on the saxaphone; the instrument’s run as an expected part of the rock ‘n’ roll sound was fairly brief compared to keys; and…I tend not to like rock and roll saxaphone!

I would much rather have seen you play the piano, than Gary Wright.

by: Squeezyboy

Wed, 21 Jun 2006 20:59:37 +0000

Riccardo,

I think you’ve entirely misunderstood my sense of humour.

Squeezyboy

by: Grant Alden

Wed, 21 Jun 2006 20:54:10 +0000

Mourn keyboards if you will, but what ever happened to the saxophone, the onetime lynchpin of early rock ‘n’ roll (the bass line, before bass amps were readily available, I’ve been told).

And I played [sic] piano for six years. My third concert, to make it worse, was Gary Wright opening for Rick Wakeman, nothing but keyboards at the Paramount. So there. Whatever all that means: Nothing, then.

by: Riccardo

Tue, 20 Jun 2006 22:08:14 +0000

Dear Squeezyboy, you cannot blame Rick Wakeman for killing what you call “the cool image of pianists and organists”. If you really think so, I must assume you are not aware of Wakeman’s astounding versatility at the piano and all the keyboards, his many crucial contributions as a session man to important recordings by many important musicians, and more in general the role he played in the history and evolution of rock keyboards. Nor you seem aware of the role he played in most of Yes’s masterworks.

IMHO, I would instead say that Wakeman was crucial in shaping a wholly new (and cooler as well) image of pianists and organists in rock music. The same goes, of course, for Keith Emerson and other great Prog Rock keyboardists of the 1970s.

Riccardo

by: DJA

Sun, 18 Jun 2006 06:44:40 +0000

Who are today’s piano- and organ-centric pop artists? John Legend, Alecia Keyes and…Ben Folds?

Fiona Apple.

by: livingin

Fri, 16 Jun 2006 15:05:12 +0000

I don’t know why that is, Barry, not exactly. When the synth was introduced it was often presented playing classical music–a way of presenting it as a legitimate instrument, I suppose, not just some silly noisemaker. I remember when I was in grade school or maybe junior high seeing a film in music class where a moog played Bach’s Little Fugue in G Minor–and loving it so much I went out and bought one of those Spaced Out Bach lps or whatever they were called, where the moog was used like a modern harpsichord.

Certainly it was the classial approach that so-called art rock bands like ELP went with. But why that would have to be the case with the instrument, I don’t know… Preston and Wonder used synths along with their other keys, but by the time the 80s came around, synths were used mostly for big washes of sound or sustained chords like a string section….

by: Barry

Fri, 16 Jun 2006 14:46:00 +0000

I think the composing aspect may be the key thing, Dave, in terms of the melodicism issue. Virtually anyone who composes at the piano mentions that in talking about the sound of the result. There are just more notes, blue notes and chords readily at hand, more ways to breka out of some pattern and find a new one, it seems, than when people are compisig via guitar chording.

What I don’t quite understand, and would like to hera more about, is why the keyboard-based synthesizer isn’ simply expanding those pluses. It doesn’t seem to–while offering an incentive for so many acts to opt out of having a pano, organ et live on stage.

Barry Mazor

by: Squeezyboy

Thu, 15 Jun 2006 21:10:36 +0000

It’s Rick Wakeman.

That he’s drawing upon classical rather than church styles is an interesting point though.