Keith+emerson

Formed in 1970, Emerson, Lake & Palmer were torchbearers of the progressive rock sound and one of rock’s first super-groups. The world-conquering, stadium-filling prog giants helped to broaden the audience for the genre from hundreds of thousands into tens of millions and were one the most commercially successful rock bands of the 1970s.

Recorded live on April 6, 1974, at California Jam, Ontario Motor Speedway, Ontario, CA.Shout! Factory continues its campaign of archival ELP live releases with Live in California, 1974, the first-ever official release of their legendary California Jam (AKA CalJam)performance, which captured the band at its peak, playing for the largest audience in its career. Says Greg Lake, "The band was at the very pinnacle of their performing powers, the event was of biblical proportions and the performance itself was almost flawless." With Keith Emerson on keyboards, Greg Lake on bass and vocals and Carl Palmer on drums, ELP broadened the audience or progressive rock. The band released a series of landmark albums in the 1970s, and several more in the '90s after a 14-year hiatus.

This DVD features two complete programs! "Works: Orchestral Tour" was shot on August 26, 1977 at Montreal's famed Olympic Stadium. The concert film documents the legendary Works Tour where, in 1977, Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, and Carl Palmer became the first rock band to assemble and tour with a full 65 piece symphony orchestra. "The Manticore Special" was filmed while the band was writing, recording and touring the material that eventually became the Brain Salad Surgery album. This film captures the legendary band as they were in 1973, during what was unquestionably one of the most artistically fertile phases of their entire career.

Sprawling double CD set that's an important document of ELP's early seventies live shows.The highlight for me is an extended Tarkus that includes some impressive synth impovs from Keith Emerson.Most of the rest of the album is taken up with reproducing the classic Brain Salad Surgery album which they succeed in doing well enough if not exactly adding anything new to it.But a mark has to be deducted for the self indulgent Piano Improvisations that's does nothing for the flow or continuity of the performance. However if you prefer live albums generally then this is the best one of ELP to get.

Live in California 1974 captures ELP in front of their largest audience and at the height of their success after the release of 1973’s progressive rock classic, Brain Salad Surgery. Unfortunately, Live in California 1974 also finds the supergroup trio buffeted by the vagaries of recording technology. This is clearly not helped by the echoing acoustics of the gigantic California Jam at the Ontario Motor Speedway, and the resulting album sounds decidedly hollow in parts.

Recorded live on April 6, 1974, at California Jam, Ontario Motor Speedway, Ontario, CA.Shout! Factory continues its campaign of archival ELP live releases with Live in California, 1974, the first-ever official release of their legendary California Jam (AKA CalJam)performance, which captured the band at its peak, playing for the largest audience in its career. Says Greg Lake, "The band was at the very pinnacle of their performing powers, the event was of biblical proportions and the performance itself was almost flawless." With Keith Emerson on keyboards, Greg Lake on bass and vocals and Carl Palmer on drums, ELP broadened the audience or progressive rock. The band released a series of landmark albums in the 1970s, and several more in the '90s after a 14-year hiatus.