Keyboardist
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Robert Walter is a keyboard player specializing in instrumental soul jazz on the Hammond B3 organ. He is a founding member of The Greyboy Allstars, and has since led his own band Robert Walter's 20th Congress.A keyboardist is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instruments with keyboards have come into common usage, requiring a more general term for a person who plays them. These keyboards include:
- electric pianos such as the Fender Rhodes and Wurlitzer electric piano
- electronic pianos such as the Roland Digital Piano
- Hammond and other electric organ such as the Farfisa and Vox Continental
- analog synthesizers such as Moog and ARP synthesizers
- digital electronic keyboards such as those produced today by Roland, Yamaha, Kurzweil and Korg
- samplers
- mellotron
- clavinet
- pianet
- piano (but see Pianist for a list of famous pianists)
- harpsichord
- reed organ
- celesta
- clavichord
- pipe organ
- harmonium
- keytar
It became stylish among hard-rock enthusiasts and musicians to adopt an attitude of scorn and derision towards keyboardists and keyboard music. As an example, guitarist Ted Nugent goes hunting and shoots a keyboard in one of his DVDs. However, in general, the keyboardist has seen something of a resurgence in rock music in recent years, with bands like Maroon 5, Athlete and The Killers featuring keyboards prominently.
