Richard Wright (musician) - Influence

Influence

Wright's style fused jazz, neoclassical and experimental music influences, which complemented the simple harmonic structures of the more blues and folk-based songs of Roger Waters and David Gilmour. As a keyboardist, he was more interested in complementing each piece with organ or synthesizer layers and tasteful piano or electric piano passages. Unlike his contemporaries Rick Wakeman, Tony Banks or Keith Emerson, he opted for solo playing only occasionally, notably in "Atom Heart Mother", "Echoes", "Any Colour You Like", "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" Parts 1–5 and 6–9, "Welcome to the Machine", "Dogs", "Run Like Hell" and "Keep Talking". Wright was known for his ghostly, atmospheric textures such as the Leslie piano arpeggios at the beginning of "Echoes", the echoed Farfisa Organ in the live versions of "Careful with That Axe, Eugene" and "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun", the distinctive Minimoog solo in "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" and the Wurlitzer passages in "Money", "Time" and the Fender Rhodes riffs in "Sheep". In "A Saucerful of Secrets" and "Sysyphus" he experimented with 'treated piano'. "Sysyphus" also made extensive use of Mellotron sounds, something of a rarity in the Pink Floyd canon. Wright also used modal scales in "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" and "Matilda Mother".

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