Keith Emerson, the outsized co-founding keyboardist in Emerson Lake and Palmer has died. Long-time bandmate Carl Palmer said he passed last night (March 10) in Santa Monica, Calif. ELP later confirmed the news. No cause of death has been mentioned; Emerson was 71.
“Keith was a gentle soul whose love for music and passion for his performance as a keyboard player will remain unmatched for many years to come,” Carl Palmer said. “He was a pioneer and an innovator whose musical genius touched all of us in the worlds of rock, classical and jazz.”
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Keith Emerson (2 November 1944 – 10 March 2016) was an English keyboardist and composer. He began his career as a member of the Keith Emerson Trio, John Brown’s Bodies, Gary Farr and the T-Bones, The V.I.P.’s and P. P. Arnold’s backing band The Nice. Emerson first found success with The Nice in the late 1960s, before becoming a founding member of Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP), one of the early supergroups, in 1970. Emerson, Lake & Palmer were critically and commercially successful through much of the 1970s, becoming one of the best-known progressive rock groups of the era. Following the break-up of ELP at the end of the decade, Emerson had modest success in his solo career and with ELP again in the 1980s, as well as with the short-lived progressive rock band 3, with the album To the Power of Three. ELP reunited during the early 1990s, releasing the album Black Moon. Emerson also reunited The Nice in 2002 for a tour. His last album, The Three Fates Project, was released in 2012.