Rick Wakeman - Sheets

On a blog called Wakemaniac I found sheets for Wakeman's most famous albums.
I'll share them with you:

The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and The Knights of The Round Table

Journey To The Centre of The Earth

The Six Wives of Henry VIII

Catherine Of Aragon
Anne Of Cleves
Catherine Howard
Jane Seymour
Anne Boleyn
Catherine Parr

Rick Wakeman - Hampton Court, 2009

Rick Wakeman's show at Hampton Court (first time Six Wives was entirely played, including also new songs, orchestrations, etc) is being release as CD, DVD and Blu-Ray.

Support him!

(or at least see these amazing concerts at Youtube)

Rick Wakeman - Moogfest 2004 - Catherine Parr

B.B. King Blues Club & Grill, New York, USA
Tue, May 18, 2004

Catherine Parr is a song with lots of room for improvisation and different arrangements: Rick has already played it with a horn section (in the 70s), with choir, with long guitar solos.
But to me the definitive version is this one, from Moogfest.
Rick writes on his site:
Sometime way back at the beginning of the year, I had been asked to perform at Moogfest, a celebration of 50 years of the Moog Synthesizer in the honoured presence of Dr. Bob Moog at a club called Ben E Kings on 42 nd Street in New York. By pure coincidence the show was to take place on my birthday and, as I had nothing else planned for my birthday, (well when you reach 55 you start trying to forget how old you are) , it seemed like a really good idea.....and so it turned out to be as well.
The world and his uncle seem to be taking part in the evening and it was brilliantly organized as well. There was a wonderful party atmosphere and the camaraderie was amazing. I was playing just the one piece, (a very long version of Catherine Parr), and had a pretty amazing band performing with me containing some of the top New York session boys and to say they were “good” would be the understatement of the year! Jason from Dream Theater joined me as well to play the parts that Adam used to play years ago and all went swimmingly well. Korg were amazing in sorting out keyboards for me to go with the mini-moog and my great friend, ex NYPD detective Billy Burns, was on hand to “look after me” and keep me out of trouble, which he certainly did!
As I went on stage I was unexpectedly followed by Bob Moog and Keith Emerson, the latter playing Happy Birthday on the Moog synthesizer and then in front of a very enthusiastic crowd I was presented with a huge cake on a huge stand by a very pretty scantily dressed young lady with huge........well, some things are best left to your imagination I think!

Jordan Rudess, from Dream Theater, played keyboards with him, and I suppose the other musicians were the backing band for Moogfest (James Genus on Bass and Gene Lake on Drums). But the important here are Rick's fast fingers, doing some of the best moog improvisations I've ever heard.
This live record was sent to me by a keyboardist friend, who calls attention to Rick's "fan fingers", that is, the ultra-fast hand whose fingers open and close like a fan, a technique common in Bach.

No need to say the audience to Moogfest was crazy during Rick's performance. One review says: "Until Bob Moog came along, we (keyboard players) were hidden in the background. He gave us an instrument that can cut through concrete and frighten guitarists to death," growled Rick Wakeman, the hulking, platinum-blonde keyboard player for the progressive rock band Yes.

The following video shows Rick's conversation with Bob Moog (recently dead) and some seconds of Catherine Parr, where we can see Jordan Ruddess's bald head behind Rick. But don't forget to download the complete song!


Link on comments!

2008 - Rick Wakeman and Orchestra - Merlin the magician

Rick Wakeman did a couple of concerts in Chile, playing only piano with orchestra and choir. Several videos can be found at Youtube. This one is from December 6.

2007 - Rick Wakeman Live in Toronto

Rick Wakeman and the English Rock Ensemble
2007-08-19, Danforth Music Hall, Toronto, Canada

Rick's plan for this year's second semester was doing small tours with orchestra, playing The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Kinghts of the Round Table and Journey to the Centre of the Earth. For reasons unknown, it didn't work, so he did only a couple of normal shows with his English Rock Ensemble.
But the most interesting about this recent show are exactly the long parts of these two records that were played. Without the orchestra, he still played most of the albums, in arrangements for his rock group. And these new arrangements really rock!
The singer is Ashley Holt, whose voice is far away from what it was in the 70s. But the rest of the band is very good, and Rick does what only he knows to do, with dozens of keyboards (including playing backwards, as you see below!)
















Disc 1:
Journey-Recollection-The Battle
The Forest
The Spaceman
Catherine Parr
The Visit


Disc 2:
Jane Seymour
Sea Horses
Wendy House
King Arthur
The Last Battle
Lancelot and the Black Knight
Merlin the Magician
Crowd Noise
Starship Trooper

Links on comments!

2006 - Jon and Rick

Saturday 14 October 2006

Jon Anderson has been doing many solo shows in these last years, always with a very simple approach, simple one-man show with simple instrumentation. A show of 2004 can be seen here. Then, in 2006, he noticed that Rick was also fond of this approach lately (after touring with orchestras and big bands, he seems to have got somewhat tired of that), and they decided to do a short tour in England. The result was a unique show, more interesting than Jon's solo ones (in my opinion), as it combines Jon's beautiful - and, here, not laid back at all - voice, his most simple acoustic guitar, and Rick's well known style accompanying, here using only a grand piano.
I really miss the guitars, basss and drums on most songs, but if you regard them as new and surprising arrangements, it's a very interesting concert.
Simpler songs, such as Your Move and Roundabout, became better than some more complex, like Ritual. Rick's solo section is so good, I'm sure their fans will love it. Oh, and of course his talent as a raconteur and joker are as entertaining as his piano playing!
Leap of Faith (Part 1)
Yours Is No Disgrace
Leap of Faith (Part 2)
Wonderous Stories
Anyway and Always
All Good People
South Side of the Sky
Time and a Word
The Garden
Awaken
Piano Medley: -Set Sail - Close to the Edge - Who could Imagine? - Mary Me Again - The Revealing Science of God
Give Love Each Day
Nous Sommes Du Soleil
Nursery Rhyme Concerto
Catherine Howard
Eleanor Rigby
And You And I
Turn of the Century
Owner of a Lonely Heart
Sweet Dreams
Deeper Love
Roundabout
The Meeting

An excerpt of Turn of the Century:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7daPeAYiHI

Links on comments!

Rick Wakeman – Live at State Kremlin Palace 2001

This is a bootleg recorded in Moscou, Russia, with very good sound quality and a great performance by Rick. Highlights are Catherine Parr, with more than 10 minutes and mind-boggling moog solos, and Eleanor Rigby, a good version to The Beatles' song.

Jane Seymour (from The Six Wives of Henry VIII)
Music Reincarnate (from No Earthly Connection)
Chatherine Parr (from The Six Wives of Henry VIII)
Buried Alive (from Return to the Centre of the Earth)
Eleanor Rigby (from Tribute to The Beatles)

Link on comments!