For vintage prog-rock fans, Keith Emerson is an icon for his trailblazing virtuosic and often flamboyant keyboard work that broke ground in the rock world. He made it possible for other rock keyboardists like Rick Wakeman to become stars in their own right.
Beyond his work with the Nice and, more vitally, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Keith Emerson has had an on-again, off-again solo career that’s focused more on soundtrack work, detours into jazz and classical, and other diversions that has attempted to show other facets of his artistry. With The Keith Emerson Band featuring Marc Bonilla, released on August 20, 2008, Emerson seemed to finally be fully embracing his prog-rock past.
As Emerson himself once said of The Keith Emerson Band featuring Marc Bonilla: “I like to think it furthers the progression of “prog” by way of the same proven formats I used before. Namely a grand conceptual piece followed by lighter shorter pieces, providing a ubiquity of eclectic ideas that no doubt will develop in live performance using the same original keyboards that I used on this album – with the addition of real playing.”
Dang, he just about wrote my review for me. But as the title strongly implies, he’s getting it done with a lot of help from a key player in his band: guitar whiz Marc Bonilla.
Bonilla, also a vital cog in Danny Seraphine’s California Transit Authority, co-wrote the songs with Keith Emerson, co-produced the album and provided the vocals for songs that called for it. Even though Bonilla doesn’t sing for CTA, he did it well on The Keith Emerson Band featuring Marc Bonilla, sounding akin to Asia’s John Wetton. His guitar work was very good, as one would expect, but he wisely stayed out of Keith’s way.
Emerson, meanwhile, pulled out a full arsenal of keyboards: grand piano, Hammond B-3, church organ, and various synths. Many of the tracks seemed to be showcases for his various weapons of choice (“3rd Presence” for pipe organ, “Prelude To A Hope,” for acoustic, classical piano, and so on). Keith Emerson kept these showcase pieces short, though, so they never devolved into boring overindulgence. The best tracks on The Keith Emerson Band featuring Marc Bonilla were the three that run full-length, with “Marche Train” being the strongest.
This ain’t Tarkus, but The Keith Emerson Band featuring Marc Bonilla found him – at long last – definitively reestablishing a connection to the Emerson Lake and Palmer classics.
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