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Here is a word for word reposting of an old review of a great concert I attended sixteen years ago. I admit I was quite skeptical when the opportunity arrived to see Rick Wakeman's "Grand Piano Tour." I was expecting dinosaur rock & roll from a dinosaur musician but instead we were all treated to an outstanding night of music from a man who is a true keyboard virtuoso. Wakeman played alone on his grand piano all evening. He didn't have a band and he didn't need one. He performed music from all phases of his career and regaled us with extremely humorous and detailed stories about every piece. We heard music from his days with the Strawbs. He played two Yes classics, "Wondorous Stories" and the lengthy but superb "And You And I" from Yes's Close To The Edge . He played half of his 1972 solo album The Six Wives Of Henry The VIII and an instrumental version of "Morning Has Broken," the Cat Stevens class...

Jon Anderson's mystical lyrics aside, Close to the Edge (#4 UK and #3 in the USA) ranks with The Yes Album as one of the enduring prog-rock quintet's two very best works. It's a masterpiece from start to finish. Everyone in the band was in top form on the more than eighteen minute long title track. Anderson's tenor vocals were brilliant even if the meaning of his lyrics remained indecipherable. The songwriter's voice never quite reached those soaring, spectacular heights again. The interplay between Chris Squire's bass, which is front and center, Bill Bruford's drums, and Steve Howe's guitar is astounding, but the star of the show was the phenomenal keyboard genius, Rick Wakeman. His perfect, hard rocking solo three quarters of the way through the track is clean, unpretentious, and menacing all at the same time and it came not long after the virtuoso gave us some majestic church organ sounds that grew out of the quiet mid-section of the piece. Side...

In the early 70s most rock musicians who became deities were guitarists who earned a living within the blues and hard rock idioms. Keyboard players seldom captured the hearts and minds of music fans in the same way the most famous axemen did. One of only a handful of men who pounded the 88s and achieved the exalted status of gods like Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, and Jimi Hendrix was the extraordinary Rick Wakeman. In his brief time with Yes Wakeman immediately become a star but he quickly looked beyond the constraints of being a sideman. This led to his first solo LP, The Six Wives of Henry VIII , in early 1973. Wakeman wrote the following in the album's liner notes, "The album is based around my interpretations of the musical characteristics of the wives of Henry VIII. Although the style may not always be in keeping with their individual history, it is my personal conception of their characters in relation to keyboard instruments." Those of you who are not well e...