Jazz Articles about Roger Powell

Roger Powell: Fossil Poets

by John Kelman
November 2, 2006

Best known as charter member of Todd Rundgren's sometimes progressive/sometimes New Wave pop band Utopia, Roger Powell has also worked with David Bowie and Meat Loaf. Keith Emerson may have made a bigger splash with Emerson, Lake & Palmer, but it was Powell who, with Cosmic Furnace (Atlantic, 1973), released the first all-synthesizer rock record. Tangerine Dream had already been around for a few years, but its synth-laden work always featured other instruments, including guitar, bass, flute and violin. Fossil ...