The piano-bass-drums trio is one of the classic formats in jazz, and (almost ?) all jazz pianists have played in one at some point : Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, Horace Silver, Lennie Tristano, Brad Mehldau, Ahmad Jamal, Oscar Peterson, Chick Corea, Art Tatum…
I can’t think of any in rock. Of course, it’s a much, much more guitar-centric genre but I would have thought that someone had tried it. Jerry Lee Lewis, perhaps ? I’m not very familiar with his work.
There is a Swedish trio called Dirty Loops that are fantastic, and comprised of keyboards, bass and drums. Their music is hard to classify though. It contains elements of rock, jazz, pop, r&b, classical, and soul. They are quite popular on YouTube.
If we’re allowing keyboards, then surely Emerson, Lake, and Palmer must be the gold standard.
Elton John’s early live album “17-11-70” features just piano, bass and drums, to a brilliant effect.
There was also a prog rock band called Triumvirat, sometimes referred to as the “German ELP”.
The Ben Folds Five was a piano/bass/drums trio.
Keane is a foursome, but Tom Chaplin is primarily the vocalist.
Greg Lake would sometimes pick up a guitar, but yeah, I would expect that what one would probably think of as the “typical” ELP sound would have him on bass.
Similarly, the ever-mutating Soft Machine had a period with an organ-bass-drums lineup (and then continued for a bit with the addition of sax player Elton Dean, from whom Elton john took the Elton part of his stage name). You would have found them in the rock section of your record store, back when going into a record store was a thing, but if you were looking for some good ol’ rock ‘n’ roll, they probably weren’t the band for you.
This is such a canonical example that I thought, before opening the thread, that the OP would have had it in mind. They were successful enough that I would think there would have been other groups with such a lineup, but I don’t know of any, though there may be individual songs that feature this instrumental combination. Semisonic’s song “Never You Mind” is performed that way in the clip below, though the studio version features some guitar.
Yeah, I was surprised that I was the first to mention them.
I have an example that’s not quite fitting but very close, so I have to mention them: The Attractions, Elvis Costello’s backing band for his best works, were a bass-drum-piano (and other keyboards) trio. Sure, EC played guitar, but mostly very sparsely in that outfit, and the core band of the Attractions dominated the songs and the arrangements. Great band.
I’d argue otherwise. Though maybe we’re just looking at things differently. He wasn’t playing a lot of solos, such that the guitar wasn’t overwhelmingly dominant like in a band like Van Halen. But his guitar work is pretty omnipresent on the vast majority of his songs (actually, I like his playing). I would in no ways refer to any EC band as having inconsequential guitar elements.
It’s funny, inspired by this thread, I’m right now listening to “Punch the Clock”, an album I hadn’t listened to in a long while, and i’m noticing how little guitar is on it. Sure, in addition to the Attractives, this special album also has much horns, but the brunt of the backing are the bass-drums-keyboards by the Attractions. I also like to note how crucial John McFee’s lead guitar on “My Aim Is True” was, while on the first album with the A’s ("This Year’s Model), EC dialed the guitar way back and let them take over. I agree that EC’s guitar often was important by playing the riffs, but OTOH the riff was provided by Steve Nieve on keyboards just as often.
Does the most successful incarnation of The Thompson Twins qualify?
Weren’t they more pop than rock ?
I thought of them yesterday on my way to a hike, just a few minutes after I had posted the thread. They qualify.
I had had an ex who was a huge fan and I discovered their music thanks to her. But that was 25 years ago and I can’t say that that I really listen to their music much (or at all) after that, which is why I didn’t think of them immediately.
They’re not popular at all where I live. I’m very familiar with the name since I spend a lot of time on American forums and websites, but I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard their music here.
If we lower the bar just a bit, can we include The Buggles? Geoff Downes played keyboards and drums, while Trevor Horne played bass and guitar. (Both actually moved around quite a bit while recording, playing several other instruments as well.) When they played live, they usually added a drummer, and sometimes a guitarist.
Later versions of the group varied a bit more.
The prog supergroup UK started out with Allan Holdsworth (guitar), Eddie Jobson (keyboards/violin), John Wetton (bass/vocals), and Bill Bruford (drums). When Holdsworth and Bruford left after their first album, only Bruford was replaced (with Terry Bozzio). They recorded one more album with this lineup.
Though listed as a jazz fusion by wikipedia, Medeski, Martin and Wood should qualify.
I play bass in a keyboard/bass/drums trio. We don’t exactly play rock, more like New Orleans R&B and Ray Charles type stuff.
I suppose I can’t blame you all for never having heard of us. Maybe it would help if we came up with a name for the band …
Emerson, Lake, and Palmer
(although Keith played organ, etc… but I wish he played more piano)
“Take a Pebble”