Film Comment: Rick Wakeman: Amazing Grace

Rick Wakeman: Amazing Grace (2007) is a concert film featuring Rick Wakeman (b. 1949, England), the virtuoso keyboardist best known for his work in the progressive rock music group Yes.  Wakeman began his career as a studio musician to artists such as Ozzy Osbourne, David Bowie, T. Rex, Elton John, and Cat Stevens.  He has produced music for over forty years (over 100 solo albums in addition to his work with Yes) in the genres of rock, progressive rock, pop, electronica, jazz fusion, classical, and Christian music, and has won numerous awards.  The instruments he uses include the grand piano, electric piano, organ, Moog synthesizer, Mellotron, and the Birotron.

The Amazing Grace concert was recorded live using a grand piano, an orchestra, and a choir.  The music was arranged and orchestrated by Wakeman.  Wakeman, in a flat deadpan voice (he is, after all, a keyboardist, not an announcer) introduces each song with a short bit of its history.  Then he does what he really wants to do, play the piano.

Wakeman's musical style is heavily ornamental and complex.  He makes it look simple and easy, but his skill is the result of a lifetime of study and practice.  Oftentimes, the camera fixates on his fluidly moving fingers, which never miss a key, never slip no matter how quickly they move, displaying technical and artistic virtuosity.

I criticized the music and images on another Amazing Grace film for being overly sentimental and syrupy.  There is none of that here.  The video here does contain some beautiful imagery; it also contains scenes of war and natural disasters.  Rick Wakeman has lost none of his edge.  He realizes that Christians do not have to retreat into "pretty." Christians can stare evil in its face. "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." James 4:7

Wakeman seems to be in the place he wants to be while playing his grand piano.  His face never changes as he plays, he is thinking of only one thing.  The one time he smiles is at the end of Amazing Grace, the last song in the concert, sung by his daughter, Jemma.  It is the smile of a proud father.



The songs in the concert film are:
Ode to Joy
All Things Bright and beautiful
O Come, O Come, Emanuel
Nearer My God to Thee
Morning Has Broken
Abide With Me
Amazing Grace
There is a Green Hill Far Away
Glad That I Live Am I
Jerusalem 
When We Walk With the Lord
All People That on Earth Do Dwell
I Vow to Thee My Country
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
The Day Thou Gavest
Amazing Grace