Vagabond Synth Nerd’s Journal Vol. 176 - A Special Feature of Famous Records on Electric Keyboard

The acoustic piano is one of the most irreplaceable instruments for music.
The piano is a versatile instrument that can play melody, harmony, rhythm, and bass.
In the 1960s, the acoustic piano was launched as an electrified = electric piano along with the development of technology. However, among the many electric pianos that have been created, not many remain today
In this issue of Keyboard Madness Drifting, we would like to take up electric pianos that are still being used by musicians and the famous pieces and masterpieces on which they are used as a random feature.

Two great electric pianos are the Fender Rose Electric Piano and the Wurlitzer Electric Piano?

The first great electric piano that comes to mind is the Fender Rose Electric Piano. Musicians call it Rose Piano, Fender Rose, Rose, and other abbreviations.
Another one that should not be forgotten is the Wurlitzer electric piano.
These two famous machines, the Fender Rose piano and the Wurlitzer piano, have produced many famous albums and songs.
Speaking of electric pianos, Yamaha's CP70 and CP80 electric grand pianos, released in the late 1970s, are also famous machines that should not be forgotten.
The DX electric grand, created by Yamaha's DX7 digital synthesizer, was also used in many famous compositions, as was the CP.
The electric pianos, which were electric versions of acoustic pianos, had their own distinctive tones, and were used in various categories of music that suited their characteristics, resulting in the creation of a wide variety of musical compositions.

Fender Rhodes Electric Piano, CC BY-SA 3.0 DEED (adapted from Wikipedia)

Wurlitzer Electric Piano, CC0 1.0 DEED (taken from Wikipedia)

Rose Piano is the most famous electric piano! Memories of the Rose Piano

The Fender Rose Piano is, after all, the most famous electric piano. The list of users of this instrument is endless, including Chick Corea, Richard Tee, Joe Sample, Donald Fagen, and many others. It was the first choice of many musicians. The sound of the hammers striking the tone bar was picked up by the pickups and amplified to produce a nice, clear sound similar to a vibraphone.
There are two types of this Fender Rose piano: 73-key and 88-key. There was a stage type with four metal legs that were screwed into the body and supported by two more metal bars, and a suitcase type in which the Rose itself was placed on top of a similarly sized speaker unit.
I owned an 88-key suitcase type. I selected a used Rose piano that sounded the best out of the five Rose pianos in my senior music store.
When I was a student, I used a 73-key stage type owned by a friend in a college club for practice.

The Rose has a wonderful sound. However, there was one major drawback.
It was impossibly heavy. In the light music club, two of us had to carry the Rose upstairs to the classroom during practice, and this was more painful than anything else.
The 88 keys I owned were even heavier than the 73 keys because of the large number of keys, and I had to sell the Rose when I broke my back.

■ Recommended album: The Crusaders “Rhapsody & Blues” (1980)

This is the follow-up to the hit album Street Life featuring Randy Crawford.
Pianist Joe Sample created this album as a tribute to the great composer Gershwin. The Crusaders changed the composition of their albums to feature more vocalists, which may have been a strategy to boost sales. In addition to Randy Crawford, the musicians used on the album include Joe Cocker, Tina Turner, BB King, and other unique vocalists.
The album features Bill Withers, who got his big break when he played on Grover Washington jr.'s epic Wine Light album. The album contains masterpieces of dark gray colored music that are the polar opposite of Randy Crawford's sparkling vocals.
Joe Sample is a great acoustic piano player, but he is best known for his Fender Rhodes piano. Although the Crusaders are categorized as jazz, Sample's piano playing does not have a four-beat jazz-styled aftertaste, but rather a forward-looking rhythmic approach to playing the piano. This creates a kind of unique groove with drummer Stix Hooper and Wilton Felder.

Recommended track: “Soul Shadows”

I consider this Bill Withers track to be the number one vocal track on the Crusaders' album.
The song is quite simple, but the backbone of the song is the Fender Rhodes piano played by Joe Sample. The choice of this Rhodes piano gives the song a beautiful shade of color.
The muffled vocals of singer Bill Withers add even more depth to the song. The highlight of the song is Joe Sample's ad-lib solo on the Fender Rhodes piano in the middle section. The restrained ad-lib line, which does not overplay the technique to the max, is wonderful. The subtly scaled-out solo brings out the best of the Rhodes piano, and together with the quality of the music, elevates this track to a higher rank.

Musicians, albums, and recommendations featured in this issue

• Artist：Joe Sample, Bill Withers, etc.
• Album：Rhapsody & Blues
• Recommended song: “Soul Shadows”

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