Remembering Jon Lord

Deep Purple co-founder and keyboardist Jon Lord has passed away at 71 years of age after losing his battle with pancreatic cancer. I discovered Deep Purple on their second album,"Book of Taliesyn" on Bill Cosby's label Tetragrammaton Records. At this stage they were still doing a lot of covers and Jon's arrangements of "Kentucky Woman", "River Deep, Mountain High" and the iconic "Exposition/We Can Work It Out" medley really got me hooked. My parents even liked Deep Purple, especially on the later albums "In Rock" and "Fireball" when Jon and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore would exchange modal lead breaks. My mom, who was schooled at Longy in Cambridge MA under Nadia Boulanger and E Power Biggs, loved how Jon would go out of key during his breaks and his aggressive guitar-like fuzzed out sound. It was his open mindedness and "follow the muse" approach to arranging that made Deep Purple stand out from the crowd. Just take the mid-section of "Fools" from "Fireball" for example. Even earlier he composed the first "Concerto for Group and Orchestra" and in later years became a prolific composer of classically oriented works. His contributions to the canon of Rock are undeniable and he is deserved of mega tributes. Thank you for all the excellent work Jon!