Short Reviews [Various Artists - 2021 - "Fanfare For The Uncommon Man. The Official Keith Emerson Tribute Concert"]

On March 11th, 2011, Keith Emerson died, leaving behind an immense musical legacy. Five years later, to the day, and Cherry Red Records released a 4-disc CD/DVD set of the concert which took place in May 2016 as tribute to the man who had impacted on so many others. Performers on the night included Steve Lukather Brian Auger, Eddie Jobson, Jordan Rudess, Steve Porcaro, Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, Vinnie Colaiuta, Marc Bonilla, Gregg Bissonnette, CJ Vanston, Troy Luccketta, Rachel Flowers, Terje Mikkelsen, Philippe Saisse, Joe Travers, Travis Davis, Ed Roth, Jonathan Sindelman, Mike Wallace, Mick Mahan, Karma Auger, Rick Livingstone, Kae Matsumoto, Aaron Emerson, Dan Lutz, and Michael Fitzpatrick, playing not only ELP but music from throughout his career. It must have been incredibly hard to choose the material to be performed that night, as well as deciding on the musicians (I am somewhat surprised to see names missing I am sure would have been involved such as Robert Berry, Carl Palmer, Dave Kilminster etc). However they chose those to be involved, the organisers knew what they were doing as this is a wonderful collection of material, performed beautifully. It is hard to really fault the material choices, although I am somewhat surprised at the omission of “America”. I remember seeing Keith play that with the reformed The Nice back in 2002 and it was simply stunning, and I would have expected to have seen it in a set like this. Still, one can’t have everything, and there are plenty of others here for the fan to enjoy. For the most part everyone stays restrained and allows the focus to stay on the music and the keyboards, although the guitar workout in “Hoedown” did seem somewhat unnecessary. I have not seen the DVD, but the audio is a wonderful reminder of some of the great music Keith gave us through his career. All proceeds from the DVD will be donated to the Keith Emerson Fund at the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation to increase awareness of this debilitating disease.