Rick Wakeman The Journey (the Essential)

Rick Wakeman One of the premier rock keyboardists of the progressive era, Rick Wakeman cut his teeth as a London session musician at the tail-end of the 1960s before earning star status as a member of prog rock superstars Yes in 1971. He left the band in 1973 to concentrate on his burgeoning solo career and within a few years had released a trio of ambitious, classical rock albums that proved highly successful: The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, and The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Wakeman briefly rejoined Yes in the late '70s, and during the next decade produced the film score for Ken Russell's Lisztomania; he also co-wrote a musical version of George Orwell's 1984 with lyricist Tim Rice. He subsequently recorded a series of acclaimed new age albums, recorded and toured intermittently with Yes, and maintained a prodigious recording and touring schedule, balancing his rock, new age, religious, and solo piano work. In the 21st century, albums like 2000's Preludes to a Century and 2017's Piano Portraits earned Wakeman critical acclaim and even a return to chart success, especially on his prog-heavy 2020 outing The Red Planet.