Keith Emerson (November 2, 1944 - ) born in Todmorden, England is a British keyboard player and composer. Formerly a member of The Nice, he went on to start Emerson Lake and Palmer (ELP), one of the first supergroups, in 1970. Following the breakup of Emerson, Lake and Palmer, he reunited The Nice in the mid-nineties to go on tour.

As a child, Emerson learned western classical music, from which he derived a lot of inspiration to create his own style, combining classical music, jazz, and rock themes. As a performer on the Hammond organ, Emerson jumped at the opportunity to collaborate with Robert Moog, and work with his invention, the Modular Moog, an analog synthesizer, in 1969. While other artists such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones had used the Moog, Emerson was the first artist to tour with the Moog.

He is known for his technical virtuosity and for his live antics, including using knives to hold down keys during solos and employing a special rig to rotate a piano through 360° while playing it. Along with contemporaries Jon Lord of Deep Purple and Rick Wakeman of Yes, Emerson is widely regarded as one of the top keyboard players of the progressive rock era.

External links

• http://www.keithemerson.com/
• http://www.brain-salad.com/Emerson/emerson.html
• http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/emerson_keith/bio.jhtml