POSTHUMOUS JON LORD ALBUM DUE

When John Lord, erstwhile keyboard maestro for Deep Purple died earlier this year, it was a sad day for music. However, the music lives on, and in October, the third version of his groundbreaking Concerto for Group and Orchestra is released. I heard version one when I was a schoolboy, a few years after its release in the early 1970s, and I received a copy of v2 when I was the music editor of the short-lived Planet on Sunday newspaper in 1999/2000. Now there is a third version, and in my lunchtime pootling about the internet I found an interesting article about it...

We were sent the official details for Jon Lord's "Concerto For Group And Orchestra" which will be released on October 1st by earMUSIC:

"Over these last years since leaving Deep Purple, I've played it over 30 times with different orchestras and conductors all over the world, and, of course, in 2000 I did it well over 30 times with Purple on the Concerto tour, so I've been honing the piece live on stage, and I've had the opportunity to change things in the score that weren't sounding quite right. It is therefore a marvellous and exciting prospect to have the definitive recording of the definitive version of the score." (Jon Lord May 2012)

Jon Lord recorded the marvellous rhythm section - Guy Pratt (Pink Floyd, Madonna) & Brett Morgan (Jon Anderson, Sting) and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (with whom Jon had recorded twice before) in June 2011 in Liverpool - conducted by Paul Mann. The production then moved to Abbey Road Studios in London to record Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson (on vocals with Steve Balsamo and Kasia Laska) and Joe Bonamassa, Darin Vasilev and Steve Morse on guitars.

Read on...

JON LORD 1941-2012 R.I.P

Both Corinna and I tried to write obituaries for Jon Lord last night. He was probably my favourite prog musician, and responsible for a large chunk of the soundtrack to Corinna's and my lives, together and separately. But neither of us could do him justice. So We asked the people most qualified to do so; his fellow musicians; two who knew him and one who was influenced by him.

RICK WAKEMAN

I first became aware of Jon Lord in the mid-sixties when Hush was released and I bought the album Shades of Deep Purple which was an album way ahead of its time. For obvious reasons I paid special attention to the organ style and sound as it was quite different from how other Hammond players were using the instrument. I became a genuine admirer and fan of Jon that day and remained so with everything he did

We became real friends just a few years ago although we had met on numerous occasions prior to that. We did talks together at music conservatories, we met for lunch and most importantly made music together. We wrote a piece 12 months ago for the Sunflower Jam at the Royal Albert Hall. We wrote this piece together at John Henry's rehearsal studios in London and it was so easy because we had such different styles and because Jon was concentrating heavily on the Hammond and I on synthesizers, the blend was quite magical. The piece was performed just the once and I am told was filmed. although I have never seen the footage.

We sat in the dressing room which we shared at the Royal Albert Hall and made plans to do an album together. We were both utterly convinced that we could come up with something very special as our styles blended so well together. Our love of classical music and also working that style within that of rock music also completed the bond . We arranged to meet up later that month

One week before we were due to meet Jon called me with the news he was ill. He was very positive and actually said he'd never felt better in his life and so he would beat it however long it took and so to bear with our project which went on hold.

We spoke a couple of times after that and the last message I got was that he was responding well to his treatment. The news today has hurt me like no other loss of a musician I have known. I can only thank him for the legacy he has left us all with his great music, great vision and for his kindness as he was one of the most gentle and kind persons I have ever had the pleasure of being able to call my friend. My heart goes out to Vicki his wife and all his family.

MICHAEL DES BARRES

Very saddened by the passing of the brilliant Jon Lord. In the early '70s Silverhead were signed to his label. We toured the world with Deep Purple. He was a gentle man indeed. He synthesised classicism with hard rock in an elegant and powerful way. I had, and have, the deepest respect for him, his music and his generosity.

Concertos in another dimension from a true innovator tonight.

ERIK NORLANDER

"I was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of one of the greatest rock keyboardists of all-time. R.I.P. Jon Lord. There are very few people that I would consider landmark influences on me and that paved the wave for what I do now. Jon was one of them. As a keyboardist, how many times have I heard (and used) the expression, "that Jon Lord sound." Let's raise a glass to this legendary artist, his sonic legacy and all the wonderful music he leaves behind with us! With reverence, Erik "

ROB AYLING

"Jon Lords keyboard playing was the backbone of the Deep Purple sound. As innovative as Blackmore's riffs, Lord's style, sound and much emulated but never superceded. Jon will be sadly missed.

JON LORD 1941-2012

THE WORLD IS A POORER PLACE TONIGHT.

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

My name is Jon, and its been, ummm 38 years since I first heard the sort of music I now write about every day. It was the autumn of 1973 when I spent a weekend at my friend Tim's house. His elder brother who had a moped, sideburns and a blonde girlfriend called Christine who looked a bit like a goldfishk, played us this weird record called The Dark Side of the Moon and neither me or Tim had ever heard anything like it before. But it blew me away, and I realised for the firtst time that there was life outside the top 20.

Then the next spring one of the older boys on the school bus gave me a copy of something called The New Musical Express and I read it avidly from cover to cover. The nextr week I bought my own copy, and soon I was reading all of the music papers each week. Then one day in the summer term I read in the pages of the NME that a band called Gong were selling an album for 49p. Gosh I thought, and I went and bought it.

I had no idea what it was going to sound like. I vaguely thought that it might sound a bit like a Deep Purple album that someone had taped for me, and was totally confused by it when it didn't. But it was the only LP I owned and I had spent several weeks pocket money on it, so I persevered and grew to love it. And so, my life was changed for good.

Cos it was through my love of Gong that I met Rob Ayling in 1988, and if I hadn't met him and spent the next twenty years blagging free CDs off him until he finally decided that it would be better if he gave me a job, then I wouldn't be here now, and my world at least would be an entirely different thing.

Thank you for letting me share that...