British music legend Rick Wakeman to perform in Cuba
Campaign News | Saturday, 9 April 2005
Yes keyboard player to give press conference on April 18
Havana, Apr 8 (Prensa Latina) British keyboard player Rick Wakeman, worldwide known as one of the top figures of progressive rock, member of the seminal British band Yes, will perform in Cuba.
Wakeman will host a press conference in Havana on April 18, to talk about his performance in Cuba, the Cuban Music Institute informed Prensa Latina.
A pioneer in the use of electronic keyboards, the excellent pianist of classic education had gained some fame before joining Yes in 1971.
His collaborations as a guest or session musician list artists such as the "King of Glam Rock" David Bowie, Lou Reed, Elton John and Black Sabbath.
Wakeman became highly skilled at playing the temperamental and notoriously intractable Mellotron, an electronic musical instrument that worked using continuous prerecorded tape loops.
Although not of a commercial or technical success, he invented the Birotron, developed with David Biro, and designed to overcome the quirky challenges on the Mellotron.
Born in Middlesex, Great Britain in 1949, Rick Wakeman has had a successful solo career with albums such as The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1973) and The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (1975).
The latter mentioned album, voted the favorite by fans in recent polls, includes his most famous work in Cuba, the song Arthur, used as the theme for the popular weekly TV movie show "Historia del Cine."
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