Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman and Elton John need to be mentioned.

All you need to know.

He recently released Jasmine with Charlie Haden. Very nice.

If you want more like the solo Carnegie Hall, check out Bremen/Lausanne; Koln; Paris; Vienna; Dark Intervals

For his trio with DeJohnette and Peacock, Bye Bye Blackbird; Standards; Always Let Me Go; At The Deer Head Inn

this is sweet tooo

@cjfphan21 said:

@Mr_Miner said:

@cjfphan21 said:

@cactoid said:

ummm seriously doubt you just posted youtube videos of recordings played by J.S. Bach

They definitely were played by J.S. Bach. I mean, we've had the ability to record music since the 1600s, duh!

JS Bach didnt jam....it was all comosed.

J.S. Bach could improvise an entire fugue (a real one, not the "fugue-like" stuff that gets talked about in Phish) at will. He did it several times actually. Do you understand what a fugue is? If you don't, you should research it. Then you will understand just how badass J.S. Bach was.

EDIT: And since when does composition (good composition at least) take less understanding and musical talent than improvisation? The best musicians can do both and will tell you that composing often times can be more difficult than improvising, which generally has less inherent parameters.

Um, not sure how to put this but.....I was making a joke. Some phish fans like the more compsed songs while others like the jams.

@johnnyd said:

Is Keith Jarrett in this conversation?
I'm not really knowledgable enough to weigh in, but I've been enjoying his playing lately.

I'd happily stump for Jarrett in the 'best all-around piano player we've got' category. Put his work with Miles next to his insane shit with the Haden/Redman/Motian quartet, his Euro quartet, and his unique intense solo stuff, and you've got a body of work no current pianist can touch. His left hand is insane.

I strongly recommend his live stuff with the American quartet on Impulse, the Cellar Door box with Miles (burning), and one of the recent solo albums (London/Paris, Rio). He's a titan.

Any of Frank Zappa's keyboardists... ever (Tommy Mars especially)
George Duke
Tony Banks (Genesis)
Jordan Rudess for sheer technical insanity
I'd have to throw Brent in there, just in the way he could handle a groove.

re: page

i keep saying he's the most technically limited player in phish. i stand by it. but on the other hand, he's better in his role than e.g. any of the dead's keyboardists, even hornsby (my pick for best of the dead's keyboard men), and right now, playing with three *really* voluble, really busy players, the amount of space page is able to make, and the information he's able to fill it with...just incredible. so much of phish's sound rests on him.

already mentioned above but love this vid....some hot keytar work here too

@triplesevener said:

Jordan Rudess for sheer technical insanity

I think he's part robot.

@JOBOOZOSO said:

Joey DeFrancesco & Lonnie Smith

http://youtu.be/UYWwNP0FTIA

Herbie Hancock

http://youtu.be/UbkqE4fpvdI

Im going to see Joey DeFancesco, Jimmy Cobb and Larry Coryell play the mucic of Jimmy Smith tonight in Cambridge. Only saw Jimmy Smith one time before he passed. This should be good.

I'm not saying she's the "Best All Time", but it's a crying shame this gal hasn't been mentioned yet:



I've seen Tori at least 20-25 times in the past 20 years. If you've never seen her live you have absolutely NO CLUE what a prodigy this girl is. She got a full ride scholarship to the Peabody Conservatory of Music at the age of 8 or something crazy like that (still the youngest person to ever get accepted there). She was playing classical orchestral pieces by 11, and playing professionally in piano bars in New York City by the age of 13.

Her Bosendoerfer Grand Piano is her trademark, I read somewhere it's from the 1800s and she paid almost $1 million for it.

The way she can play 2-3 keyboards at once is a sight to behold.

Not only that she is completely crazy, Which I like.

And she's hot too...which I also like

@MJZ1974 said:

I'm not saying she's the "Best All Time", but it's a crying shame this gal hasn't been mentioned yet:

http://www.blogto.com/upload/2009/08/20090811_ToriAmos2.jpg

I've seen Tori at least 20-25 times in the past 20 years. If you've never seen her live you have absolutely NO CLUE what a prodigy this girl is. She got a full ride scholarship to the Peabody Conservatory of Music at the age of 8 or something crazy like that (still the youngest person to ever get accepted there). She was playing classical orchestral pieces by 11, and playing professionally in piano bars in New York City by the age of 13.

Her Bosendoerfer Grand Piano is her trademark, I read somewhere it's from the 1800s and she paid almost $1 million for it.

The way she can play 2-3 keyboards at once is a sight to behold.

Not only that she is completely crazy, Which I like.

And she's hot too...which I also like

Good call. The live disc of To Venus and Back is rocking

Just heard this guy on Sirius jazz station.

Taylor Eigsti

http://grooveshark.com/#!/search?q=taylor+eigsti+caravan

So I kicked this around the office last week and we all had issues with:

Keyboard vs. Piano - and of course the shitstorm of people who are on/off the list based on this - namely any classical pianists who are most likely the best players like Horowitz. Most of us felt that Horowitz could probably "technically" play anything Tmonk could - but unsure of how style, etc. would come into play. It's a very interesting question. Either way Tori Amos doesnt even make the top 1000.

So maybe that was your intent - to leave it open. Most of the cats in my office agree that the best players are the classical guys - bottom line. Everyone else is a hack.

Seriously - there is nothing Horowitz could not play. In our eyes.

Here is a clip. May not even be his best. But I like it





And regreatably - Page doesnt make the list, nor does anyone in the Jam Band Scene, and most likely nor does anyone in Rock Music.

Art Tatum wears the crown in my book. By the way, if you don't know his story, it is amazing. He was blind and learned to play by listening to a record his mom bought for him not realizing it was 2 people playing simultaneously. He learned to play it exactly.