By the late 1980's, Emerson, Lake & Palmer were more than a decade away from the period of their greatest success. They had released a few albums in the late 1970's, and although they still sold reasonably well, neither the critics nor the public were especially thrilled by them. After taking a break for half a decade or so, in the mid-'80s, Keith Emerson and Greg Lake were ready to reunite. Carl Palmer, however, was busy drumming with Asia. So Emerson and Lake hooked up with Rainbow drummer Cozy Powell for one album as Emerson, Lake & Powell, and broke up shortly thereafter…
Greg Lake left behind a rich musical legacy when he passed away in 2016. As a member of Emerson Lake & Palmer, King Crimson, pre-Crim bands The Shy Limbs and The Shame – not to mention his talents as a solo artist, producer, and composer – he helped define the landscape of progressive rock. A new career-spanning compilation called The Anthology: A Musical Journey will pay tribute to his contributions through the decades. It will be released on October 23 through BMG.
The working relationship between the legendary keyboard player Keith Emerson and singer and multi-instrumentalist Robert Berry started in 1987. Iconic manager Brian Lane (Yes, Asia, A-Ha, It Bites etc.) and Carl Palmer arranged a meeting between the two prolific musicians. The plan was to form a more melodic, song oriented band (compared to EL&P), which would allow Emerson, Berry and Palmer to follow in the footsteps of the success that Asia and GTR were enjoying in that period. The result of that collaboration between Emerson, Berry and Palmer was the band 3 , and the album …
Robert Berry will return with a second 3.2 album, "Third Impression" on February 12, 2021. The band/project is a continuation of the band 3, which a band Berry was in with Carl Palmer and the late great Keith Emerson.
In October 2015, conversations about a new "3" album started between Robert Berry and Frontiers President, Serafino Perugino as Robert had been speaking to Keith Emerson about releasing the long delayed "3" follow up album. Along with renewed fan interest in the band and those conversations, Berry had sparked revived enthusiasm from Keith Emerson for pursuing the project. The exchange of musical ideas and song collaborations ultimately paved the groundwork for 3.2’s first album, "The Rules Have Changed"…
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive-rock music.
As Nice As Mother Makes It
After two very robust but patchy albums the Nice adopted a slightly different approach to their third by exploiting a half live/half studio hybrid.
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection.
Although admittedly a posthumous release, I was very surprised at the rather dismissive tenor of many of the reviews of this album to date.