A clip appeared in my YouTube of a boogie-woogie piano dual performance of Keith with Oscar Peterson.
As much as I'm in awe of the man's creativity and sheer technical perfection, I'd always suspected that it might be possible that Keith was just far too aggressive in his playing for his mortal wrists and mortal hands to take such relentless pounding over time and the contrast between his playing and Oscar's playing in this clip could confirm that hunch ...
Thanks for your comments Alec. Keith was very happy about meeting Oscar Peterson and getting to jam with him; he said as much in his autobiography "Pictures of An Exhibitionist". He suffered from Focal Dystonia, which affected the use of his 4th & 5th fingers in his right hand. He did play brilliantly on the "Moscow" DVD with the Keith Emerson band. I was lucky enough to see ELP 3 times in my life, the Works tour of 1977 with the full orchestra (Soldier Field Chicago) was amazing! His life and legacy live on in the recordings of The Nice and ELP...
There's nothing quite like the sound of a Moog modular!
A clip appeared in my YouTube of a boogie-woogie piano dual performance of Keith with Oscar Peterson.
As much as I'm in awe of the man's creativity and sheer technical perfection, I'd always suspected that it might be possible that Keith was just far too aggressive in his playing for his mortal wrists and mortal hands to take such relentless pounding over time and the contrast between his playing and Oscar's playing in this clip could confirm that hunch ...