R.I.P. Jon Lord (1941-2012).

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Ian Mann on news of the death of former Deep Purple organist Jon Lord.

I was sorry to hear of the death of former Deep Purple organist Jon Lord from pancreatic cancer at the age of seventy one.

Although not a jazz artist per se Lord was something of a hero in my early teenage years and I still retain a residual affection for the “(un)holy trinity” of early 70’s hard rock-Purple, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. In any case Lord was actually a fine improviser, trading blistering solos with guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and spinning these out to almost absurd, but ultimately thrilling, effect on the 1972 live double set “Made In Japan”.

The news also came as a salutary reminder that I’m getting older and also that I lost my mother to the same disease.

R.I.P Jon, thanks for the memories and for being one of the people who turned me on to music in the first place.