Rock keyboard pioneer Keith Emerson dead in apparent suicide

Keith Emerson, the flamboyant yet accomplished keyboardist who pioneered the use of synthesizers in rock music, was found dead Friday in an apparent suicide. He was 71.

The English virtuoso, who became famous for his dazzling stage feats with band Emerson, Lake and Palmer, died from a bullet wound to his head at his condominium in the Los Angeles area, police said.

His longtime girlfriend, Mari Kawaguchi, called police at 1:30 am (0930 GMT).

“It is being investigated as a suicide,” said Sergeant Erika Aklufi, a police spokeswoman in oceanside Santa Monica.

Former bandmate Carl Palmer mourned Emerson as “a pioneer and an innovator whose musical genius touched all of us in the worlds of rock, classical and jazz.”

“Keith was a gentle soul whose love for music and passion for his performance as a keyboard player will remain unmatched for many years to come,” Palmer said in a statement.

Inspired by Jimi Hendrix’s theatrics with the electric guitar, Emerson created a new showmanship with the keyboards as he would attack the keys with knives and play the organ upside down with the giant instrument suspended over him.

He reached the height of his mainstream fame in 1974 when Emerson, Lake and Palmer closed California Jam, considered the last in a generation of great rock festivals which drew some 250,000 people to a speedway and was broadcast on ABC television.

Emerson, with his always flowing hair, ended the festival by strapping himself to a grand piano and playing as it spun around some 50 feet (15 meters) in the air.

Asked later about his attention-grabbing performances, Emerson told the British publication Counterculture: “Guitar players were the most mobile musicians on the stage and it’s very difficult to make a 350-pound (160-kilogram) Hammond part of you.”

“That part of the act was something that just felt natural to do; something that allowed me be more expressive,” he said.