 Keith Emerson with Moog
 Glen Berger
 Keith on harp and Bruce Lofgren
 Keith and Brian Auger jamming
 Amazing musicians! What a night!
 Keith, Adam Garrie - the author & Brian Auger
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Out Of No Element
By Adam Garrie
If someone were to run into Keith Emerson at a small airport outside of Los Angeles,
it could be a safe assumption that he was there piloting an aircraft. But safety has always
evaded the man who would surely be an Olympic Gold Medallist, if only Hammond Jumping were an
official event.
Indeed risk and adventure are the mothers of revelation, and likewise a man implicitly
associated with “progressive” rock, has little time to move in any direction that doesn't
carry him into exciting and unexpected territory.
The scene was a small, but rather hip airport bar where a delicate
mixture of pilots, seekers of afternoon leisure, pensioners in
Hawaiian shirts, and devoted Emerson, Lake and Palmer fans gathered.
This odd bunch of characters each entered the Typhoon Restaurant with differing musical proclivities
and experiences, but every one experienced an electrifying evening of brilliant music.
Long time Los Angeles band leader and guitarist Bruce Lofgren led a big band that
consisted of some of the finest studio musicians in the region. Lofgren's band easily
re-orientated themselves between pre-war swing selections, bossa-nova tinged arrangements,
and the more mellow danceable number. Overall the band were highly disciplined with a
propensity to stick to the charts as though the musical notation was a shopping list from an
irritable wife.
At the end of the first set, the energy was given a much deserved augmentation, as Lofgren
welcomed the legendary Keith Emerson to this unusual stage. Sandwiched between a newer digital
keyboard and the monstrously brilliant (or brilliantly monstrous) Modular Moog, a synth
that has been with Keith through it all, Keith started the show.
The picturesque sonic exhibition that followed, saw Keith improvising on his Moog whose every
oscillator and modulator he knows like the back of his hand. Despite the improved sampling
technology in digital keyboards, the warmth and purity of a great analogue synth is difficult to surpass.
Keith then moved to the electric piano and improvised on some new themes and some familiar compositions,
including a smattering of the Eruption Movement from Tarkus. The band then launched into the Bird classic
“Au Privave” with Keith on piano.
For many of the fans in attendance who are only familiar with The Nice and ELP, Keith's extraordinary,
and importantly authentic abilities with formal jazz, came as a surprise. But Keith is a musician
who paradoxically is always pushing the envelope whilst never forgetting his roots in classical and jazz.
Keith then broke out his “Honky Tonk Train Blues”. Through some of the piece
the band seemed to be pushing the tempo at a faster pace than necessary, but after years of playing
with Carl Palmer, rushing is something Keith must be used to (we love you Carl, and Asia have
never sounded better).
The first set finished with a big-band arrangement of the ELP version of Copeland's
“Fanfare For The Common Man”, which featured intense soloing from Keith on
both pseudo-Fender Rhodes and Moog.
After a second set by the big-band, Keith returned to play
Monk's “Rhythm-A-Ning”. Keith and the band really let loose at this point,
matching each other's energy quite nicely. It was at this time that Keith invited un-announced
guest Brian Auger onto the band stand for “duelling keyboard” duties. Brian,
like Keith, was in stellar form and brought his unique high energy playing to the table, which
complimented Keith's simultaneous Moog machinations very nicely.
The finest hour was to come when Keith unveiled a new composition, “After All Of
This” arranged especially for Lofgren's band. The piece began with piano chords as
lush as haunting, and then suddenly kicked in to a surreal yet groove-laden passage that is best
described as incorporating the tonality of Debussy coupled with the sensibility and timbre of
neo-fusion. The piece concluded with an almost Rachmaninovesque finale, that was as dramatic as
sincere. Keith's composition skills are, if anything, more unique today than they have been at
any time since ELP's zenith. It's safe to say Keith's latest album for prog-quartet will be highly
anticipated.
The set concluded with a new arrangement of “Rondo” which was a synthesis
of Brubeck's 9/8 version and the 4/4 version familiar to all Nice and ELP fans. The performance
incidentally included some of Keith's famously successful attempts to play from the opposite side of the
keyboard. Aside from the apparent debut of Keith's new piece, this former ELP show-stopper was once
again the highlight of the night, a night capped by another Honky Tonk Train ride, this time with Brian
Auger on board.
In a music industry that is often more industry than music, where albums are defined by the
personalities and imagery of the music rather than the sound, it is utterly refreshing, and a
bit humbling, to see a musician who is just that, and only that.
Richter never played the blues, Monk never wrote a concerto, and neither could make beautiful music
from a device that looks more like a telephone switchboard than a musical instrument. Yet tonight,
a motley crew turned adoring fans, saw what Keith's devoted base have always known, you can take
the progressive sensibility out of rock, but you can never take the rock out of progress.
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