The Rick Wakeman

Rick Wakeman is an English keyboardist, songwriter, television and radio presenter, and author. He is best known for being in the progressive rock band Yes across five tenures between 1971 and 2004 and for his solo albums released in the 1970s…

Richard Christopher "Rick" Wakeman (born 18 May 1949) is an English keyboardist, songwriter, television and radio presenter, and author. He is best known for being in the progressive rock band Yes across five tenures between 1971 and 2004 and for his solo albums released in the 1970s…

11/14/2011 - London, UK - As a follow-up to their critically acclaimed CD 'The Living Tree' from 2010, YES legends Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman prepare to release 'Anderson / Wakeman - The Living Tree In Concert Part One' on Gonzo Multimedia on November 28th. The CD was recorded during the duo's British tour in 2010 and comes housed in a sleeve design by Mark Wilkinson who was also responsible for the design of the artwork for 'The Living Tree'…

This excellent solo piano album (also released, in fact, as The Piano Album) was recorded at Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California in 1994. It's a wide-ranging survey of Wakeman's career, featuring new instrumental versions of songs Wakeman recorded with Yes, ABWH, and the Strawbs; songs he recorded as a sideman with David Bowie ("Space Oddity" and "Life On Mars") and Cat Stevens ("Morning Has Broken"); and solo material both classic and recent, including a definitive version of "Gone But Not Forgotten." Wakeman is in great form throughout, and this is one of his most enjoyable releases.

This live performance presented by the King Biscuit Flower Hour is an above average production of Wakeman's best-loved tunes. King Biscuit appropriately keeps the concert full-length, without any splicing, so that the songs are enjoyed exactly as they were during the staging. Wakeman electrifies San Francisco's Winterland Theater with stunning versions of "Lancelot and the Black Night" and "Merlin the Magician," two of this album's finest cuts. Particular attention is given to "The Forest," a track rarely played live from Wakeman, but placed fittingly in the middle of the eight selections here. Recorded in 1975 at the height of progressive rock's glory days, Wakeman's attentiveness and passion can be felt from the opening keyboard surge.

Rick Wakeman's third solo album is among his best, as he employs his vast array of keyboards to their full extent, musically describing the characters pertaining to the days of King Arthur's reign. With orchestra and choir included, although a little less prevalent than on Journey, he musically addresses the importance and distinguishing characteristics of each figure through the use of multiple synthesizers and accompanying instruments…

Based on music Wakeman wrote for the finale of a Dickens Festival in Rochester-upon-Medway, England, this is an unclassifiable melange of an album, stylistically similar to Phantom Power or Time Machine…

Straight from the mixing board on their mini-tour, Adam and Rick Wakeman (the former keyboardist in Yes) have released this lengthy 2-cd live set. The material ranges from classic Rick (Six Wives, Journey, King Arthur) and recent W W studio material to covers of Beatles and Stones tunes, all of which has been very well recorded and produced to yield a sound quality far beyond what we normally associate with the term "bootleg." Adam and Rick work well together, in fact so well that you can never be sure who is playing what parts, but it would be nice if the younger Wakeman could find his own identity rather than follow in his dad's footsteps.

Within the same year of re-joining Yes for 1977's Going for the One, Rick Wakeman released yet another solo instrumental (mostly) concept album. Criminal Record, Wakeman's sixth album in five years, involves six tracks that instill Wakeman's keyboard wizardry to both fictional and historical accounts of punishment, villainy, and crime. With help from both Chris Squire and drummer Alan White, Wakeman managed to land the album within the U.K. Top 30 before the year's end, even though it fell well beyond the Top 100 on the U.S. album charts. Wakeman does a great job at sketching each theme with an appropriate dose of keyboard fire, with "Judas Iscariot" and "Crime of Passion" arising as two of the album's most potent tracks…