Progressive Rock Keyboardists — Musician Guide: Players, Bands & Key Albums

Progressive Rock Keyboardists — an atmospheric illustration of a semicircle of vintage organs, pianos and synthesizers in violet light

MusiciansKeyboardists

Progressive Rock Keyboardists — Musician Guide: Players, Bands & Key Albums

The keyboard players of progressive rock: who they are, the bands they played in and the albums where to hear them.

  • InstrumentKeyboards
  • Guides249
  • OrderBy scene
  • Each guideBands, albums, where to start

Want the full stories? My books map every scene → All instruments

This hub gathers the prog rock keyboardists covered on Prog Atlas: organ, piano, Mellotron and synthesizer players, each with a guide to the bands, the key albums and a place to start. The list is sorted by scene, so you can follow the keyboard players of one tradition from band to band.

Keyboard players who also sang are listed here when the keyboards are what they are best known for; the guide itself covers the rest.

Already on Prog Atlas

Larry FastAmerican synth player and composer; worked with Peter Gabriel and Nektar

Electronic composers with a guide of their own

For electronic music, these composers already have full guides of their own, most of them on my Progressive Electronic scene page:

VangelisGreek composer and performer; Aphrodite’s ChildJean-Michel JarreFrench composer, performer and producerKlaus SchulzeGerman electronic music innovator; Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra TempelEdgar FroeseGerman musician, founder of Tangerine DreamPeter BaumannGerman musician; Tangerine DreamMichael HoenigGerman composer; Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel, Agitation Free

Prefer the whole story in one place? See my books →

The keyboardists, scene by scene

249 guides, grouped by the scene of the band each musician is best known for, in alphabetical order.

British Progressive Rock

Adam Wakeman Andrew Giddings Andy Richards Anthony Moore Barry Beckett Bill Rieflin Blue Weaver Brian Eno Chris Copping Christian Madden Dave Greenslade Dave Lawson Dead Fred Dee Palmer Del Dettmar Dik Mik Don Airey Eddie Jobson Eric Woolfson Francis Monkman Gabe Dixon Geoff Downes Gregg Dechert Guy LeBlanc Hugh Banton Igor Khoroshev John Evan John Hawken John Mealing John Sinclair John Tout John Young Jon Lord Josh Phillips Keith Emerson Keith Hale Ken Hensley Kerry Minnear Kit Watkins Maartin Allcock Manfred Mann Mark Hart Matthew Fisher Michael J McEvoy Mickey Simmonds Mike Pinder Oliver Wakeman Patrick Moraz Peter Bardens Peter Jones Peter Solley Peter-John Vettese Phil Lanzon Richard Tandy Richard Wright Rick Wakeman Robert Kirby Robin Lumley Rod Argent Simon House Steve Swindells Thighpaulsandra Tim Hodgkinson Tom Brislin Ton Scherpenzeel Tony Banks Tony Kaye Vincent Crane Woolly Wolstenholme

Italian Progressive Rock (RPI)

Alberto Bravin Alessandro Scaglione Arturo Stalteri Baffo Banfi Beppe Crovella Claudio Simonetti Danilo Rea Ernesto Vitolo Fabrizio Puglisi Federico Troiani Flavio Premoli Francesco Sartori Franco D’Andrea Gabriele Lorenzi Gian Piero Reverberi Gianluca Tagliavini Gianni Leone Gianni Nocenzi Giorgio Usai Joe Vescovi Mark Harris Maurizio Guarini Maurizio Salvi Michele Bon Oliviero Lacagnina Paolo Rustichelli Patrizio Fariselli Tony Pagliuca Vince Tempera Vittorio Cosma Vittorio Nocenzi

German Progressive Rock & Krautrock

Bernhard Arndt Christopher Franke Detlev Schmidtchen Florian Fricke Florian Schneider Ingo Bischof Irmin Schmidt Jean-Jacques Kravetz Jerome Froese Jimmy Jackson Johannes Schmoelling Joo Kraus Jürgen Dollase Jürgen Fritz Matthias Ulmer Paul Haslinger Ralf Wadephul Stefan Zauner Steve Schroyder Thorsten Quaeschning Ulrich Schnauss Volker Kahrs Werner Nadolny Wolfgang Neuser Xaver Fischer Zeus B. Held

American Progressive Rock

Allen Lanier Bob Kinkel Chick Corea Christopher North David C. Lewis David Rosenthal Derek Sherinian Don Gallucci Doug Ingle Erik Norlander Gavin Castleton Gayle Moran Gregg Rolie Guy Babylon Herbert Schildt Jan Hammer Jim Beard John Locke Jonathan Cain Jordan Rudess Kevin Moore Martin Gerschwitz Mary Harris Michael Pinnella Moogy Klingman Oliver Palotai Ralph Schuckett Richie Castellano Roger Powell Ryo Okumoto Stu Goldberg T Lavitz Tollak Ollestad Tom Doncourt Tommy Zvoncheck

Modern Progressive Rock

Andy Tillison Bernt Moen Gleb Kolyadin Helge Sten Isaiah “Ikey” Owens Joakim Svalberg Lars Fredrik Frøislie Leo Genovese Les Smith Michał Łapaj Per Wiberg Richard Barbieri Tomas Bodin

The Canterbury Scene

Alan Gowen Dave MacRae Dave Sinclair Dave Stewart Geoff Castle Gordon Beck Jan Schelhaas Mike Ratledge Steve Miller Tim Blake

Neo-Progressive Rock

Clive Nolan Gonzalo Carrera Mark Kelly Martin Orford

Symphonic Progressive Rock

Aníbal Kerpel Benoît Widemann Claudio Parra Eddie Rayner Eduardo Parra Flávio Venturini François Cahen Gábor Presser Haakon Graf Kitarō Lars Hollmer Marián Varga Michel Graillier Patrick Gauthier Simon Goubert Thierry Eliez Thijs van Leer

Psychedelic & Space Rock

Arnaldo Baptista Clive John Jon Povey Malcolm Morley Phil Ryan Túlio Mourão

Progressive Metal

Alessandro Del Vecchio

Post-Rock & Math Rock

Barry Burns Brendan O’Hare Kjartan Sveinsson

Experimental & Post-Metal

Bryant Clifford Meyer

Jazz Rock & Fusion

Alan Pasqua Fiachra Trench Hendrik Schaper Hermann Weindorf Joe Zawinul Kristian Schultze Larry Young Lionel Grigson Michael Hornek Roberto Di Gioia Scott Kinsey Tom Grant Webster Lewis

Progressive Folk

Dave Bainbridge Jeff Fisher

Indo-Prog & Raga Rock

Deepak Dev Jay Darlington

RIO & Avant-Prog

Antoine Guenet Chris Joris Daniel O’Sullivan Marc Hollander Marc Moulin Matt Mitchell

Heavy Prog

David Stone Reese Wynans

Crossover Prog

Andy Clark Charly García Daniel Salomon Duncan Mackay John Beck Vic Emerson

Eclectic Prog

Dave Newhouse Rick van der Linden

Further reading on the blog

My ranking of the best prog rock keyboardists of all time is the companion to this directory. For the instruments themselves, try the best Moog and synthesizer moments in prog rock, the best twin-keyboard bands in prog, the best keyboardists who front a band and Rick Wakeman's wall of keyboards.

How these guides work

Each musician guide follows the same plan: the bands, the albums where the playing can be heard, the line-ups the musician was part of and a place to start. A musician who played in several bands has one guide, filed under the band that made the name, with links to all the others. The guides go online in stages, scene by scene.