KEITH EMERSON TALKS ABOUT THE MAKING OF HIS NEW ALBUM

Keyboard virtuoso Keith Emerson, who shot to fame in the late ‘60s as a member of The Nice, and subsequently went on to make his name in the progressive rock supergroup Emerson Lake and Palmer (ELP), is now working on a career-defining album. Thomas James spoke to Keith about its recording, and discovered how the musician felt about opening the recent Led Zeppelin gig at London’s O2 arena.

“I can honestly say that my forthcoming album, which has all new compositions, truly defines all that I have worked for, not only in my musical life, but in my entire life!” declares Keith Emerson emphatically, speaking from California where, at the time of our interview, he and The Keith Emerson Band were recording.

Forming the core of Emerson’s current recording and live setup is his beloved Hammond B3 (modified by Al Goff); a large Moog Modular system and an acoustic piano. In addition to these three staple components, Korg’s flagship workstation, the OASYS, has been drafted in to provide all the orchestral textures and Keith’s favorite pipe organ sounds. As Keith sees it, the Moog, Hammond and piano collectively represent the past, whereas the OASYS (and some of the other Korg keyboards he also regularly uses), introduce more contemporary elements into the music. “My new album takes in a lot of my past while making a huge departure into the future – hence the OASYS,“ he explains. “Bob Moog’s creation was, for me, the mother of all inventions which allowed great companies, such as Korg, to take it further. The material covers pretty much the history of prog rock and beyond; it is very organic.”

The recordings in question are being produced by Keith’s musical collaborators Marc Bonilla (who also wrote and co-wrote many of the tracks), and Keith Wechsler. “Bonilla and Wechsler know me better than myself,” he laughs. “They force the best out of me and all the surrounding Korg equipment. Marc sings and roars on guitar, while Wechsler, who also works front-of-house, checks it out. And there are some fine musicians on the album including Gregg Bissonette on drums.”

As for album names, after judging his initial ideas as sounding “too contrived,” Keith has gone for the most straightforward option. “ELP's first album was just called Emerson, Lake and Palmer,” he explains, “therefore my first original studio band album will simply be called The Keith Emerson Band, featuring Marc Bonilla.”

Gigging practice
On stage, Keith doesn’t yet use the OASYS to its full potential, but that’s perhaps not surprising given that his standard stage gear also includes a grand piano, Moog modular synth and Hammond organ! When asked if he’d considered the possibility of simultaneously triggering the workstation’s CX3 tonewheel organ and Leslie cabinet simulations together with one of its excellent EXi pianos, playing each one from a separate MIDI controller keyboard, Keith explains that his preference is to arrange things a little more simply. “I love improvisation in live performance but a complicated setup can make it confusing and is therefore restrictive, unless you can see what patch you’re on, and that’s not possible under certain light conditions. So I’d rather to go to other keyboards to achieve what’s necessary for a particular piece. It's very much like a choreographed performance: I have to choreograph where I go and learn all the moves, regardless of how much my keyboard technician or I program the set list. I also prefer not to split the keyboard for the same reasons.

“For anything that does need altering, I have an off-stage guy called Marc-Andre who operates a rack of Korg stuff and changes patches manually according to the set list. They are basically laid out in sequence. Some of these might communicate with the OASYS via MIDI so that we can alter the acoustics, but my rig is always being torn down and reconstructed depending upon what is necessary to do the job.”

Keith is the first to admit that he is happy to pass the programming of the OASYS over to Keith Wechsler, leaving himself plenty of time to concentrate on exploiting the workstation’s high-quality sounds, not to mention a number of choice Yamaha GX1 patches which the team have transferred into the OASYS’ memory.

Keith has also taken delivery of Korg’s new MR-1000 and MR-1 1-bit stereo recorders, which have found a role both in the studio and as useful live accessories. “I've used the MR-1000 quite a bit. I've taken it around on jamming gigs and use it as back-up in the studio. It's handy when you are on the road because it’s light, which the road crew appreciate.”

The live performance
Keith is known for his flamboyant and energetic live performances, often incorporating an outrageous stage routine in which he attacks his Hammond’s keys with large knives. Fans were recently treated to some of Keith’s keyboard wizardry, albeit without the weapons, when he and his OASYS took to the stage during the eagerly awaited Led Zeppelin reunion gig, taking place at London’s O2 arena in memory of Atlantic Records boss and Zeppelin mentor, Ahmet Ertegun.“ELP were originally asked to have a reunion on the same day but everyone knew it would be Zep’s day,” Keith recalls. “So I contacted Rick Wakeman, who thought it was a great idea for us to do Fanfare For The Common Man, together with Chris Squire, Alan White and Simon Kirke, who are all original Atlantic artists. Then Jimmy Page fractured his finger and the gig was postponed until the 10th of December, by which time Rick had other unmovable concert commitments. So I ended up using a brass section of 3 trumpets, 2 trombones and 2 French horns. The addition of real horns probably made it more to composer Aaron Copland’s liking, but there was no sound check so FOH screwed it up!”

According to Keith, rehearsals were so badly organized that nobody provided him with a backstage pass or left his name with security, so he was initially prevented from entering the arena. Incredibly, he only got in after some fans showed the guards his picture in the concert program!

“We opened the show and I played the OASYS on top of someone else’s Hammond,” Keith continues. “The sound engineers had no idea what was going on so the levels were really down at the beginning until some frantic arm waving from me finally got them up. But we made it and The Guardian newspaper actually published a review saying that Paul Rogers and I received the best applause in the first half! It was a bit of a nightmare but worth it for Ahmet, who everyone adored.”

Family matters
Keith has enjoyed a long and productive relationship with Korg, an alliance which has occasionally resulted in his trademark playing techniques influencing the design of features appearing on Korg’s instruments. On one notable occasion, Korg’s BX3 keyboard – emulating the classic Hammond sound – was given a key click knob to make it possible to apply a very Emerson-like percussive accent to notes.

“My Hammond sound came from ‘Brother’ Jack McDuff,” reveals Keith, referring to the US jazz organist.

“He had the spit and grunge I use today on my Hammonds. I encouraged Korg to utilize this but the idea to incorporate it into the BX3 was probably the brilliant work of Jack Hotop, although I can't rule out Jerry Kovarsky!” (Both from Korg USAs product team)

Such is the standing of Keith’s relationship with Korg, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the company has almost become an extension of his family, as is touchingly revealed in an old interview found in Korg’s ProView magazine, dated ‘Fall 1992’. The text reports that Keith wrote a musical sequence in honor of Korg’s founder, Tsutomu Katoh, and that Keith’s mum even took the trouble to knit the man a sweater!

“Yes,” confirms Keith when reminded of this, “my mother did knit Katoh-san a sweater! I'm grateful to have been associated with Korg since 1978. The whole team has been very supportive of me in all of my International tours. Wherever I am, if there is a problem – which I hasten to add has never happened – there is someone there on-line to advise and back you up.”

As for the future, Keith has ruled out working with fellow ELP founders Greg Lake and Carl Palmer saying “there's no likelihood of an ELP reunion.” Nevertheless, his fans have a lot to look forward to, with the exciting new album release just around the corner.