Jon Lord

John Douglas Lord (9 June 194116 July 2012) was an English orchestral and rock composer, pianist, and Hammond organ player known for his pioneering work in fusing rock with classical or baroque forms, especially with the British rock band Deep Purple. He also spent time in the bands Whitesnake, Paice Ashton Lord, The Artwoods, The Flower Pot Men and Santa Barbara Machine Head. In 1968, Lord co-founded Deep Purple, a hard rock band of which he was regarded as the leader in its early years. Together with the other members, he collaborated on most of his band's most popular songs. Lord's distinctive organ playing during Deep Purple's hard rock period was essential to the band's signature heavy sound and contributed to the early development of heavy metal. He and drummer Ian Paice were the only continuous presence in the band between 1968 and 1976, and also from when it was re-established, in 1984, until Lord's retirement in 2002. On 11 November 2010, he was inducted as an Honorary Fellow of Stevenson College in Edinburgh, Scotland. On 15 July 2011, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree at De Montfort Hall by the University of Leicester. Lord was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 8 April 2016 as a member of Deep Purple.

Early life

Growing up in Leicester

Lord was born in Leicester on 9 June 1941 to Miriam (1909–1995; née Hudson) and Reginald Lord, growing up at 120 Averil Road and retaining a strong bond with the city throughout his life. His father was an amateur saxophonist and encouraged Lord from an early age. He studied classical piano from the age of five, with a local teacher, Frederick Allt, and this focus on a classical grounding to his material was a recurring trademark in his work, both in composition, arranging and his instrumental solos on piano, organ and electronic keyboards. In particular his influences ranged from Johann Sebastian Bach (a constant reference in his music and in his keyboard improvisation) to Medieval popular music and the English tradition of Edward Elgar. He attended Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys between 1952 and 1958 where he gained O Level passes in French, music and mathematics, participated in amateur dramatics and the school choir alongside his organ and piano studies and then worked as a clerk in a solicitor's office for two years.

Lord absorbed the blues sounds that played a key part in his rock career, principally the raw sounds of the great American jazz and blues organists, such as Wild Bill Davis, Jimmy Smith, Jimmy McGriff and "Brother" Jack McDuff ("Rock Candy"), as well as the stage showmanship of Jerry Lee Lewis and performers like Buddy Holly, whom he saw perform at the De Montfort Hall in Leicester in March 1958. The jazz-blues organ style of black R&B organ players in the 1950s and 1960s, using the trademark blues-organ sound of the Hammond organ (B3 and C3 models) and combining it with the Leslie speaker system (the well-known Hammond-Leslie speaker combination), were seminal influences on Lord. Lord also stated that he was heavily influenced by the organ-based progressive rock played by Vanilla Fudge after seeing that band perform in Great Britain in 1967, and earlier by the personal direction he received from British organ pioneer Graham Bond.

Move to London

Lord moved to London in 1959–60, intent on an acting career and enrolling at the Central School of Speech and Drama, in London's Swiss Cottage. Following a celebrated student rebellion he became a founder of Drama Centre London, from where he graduated in 1964. Small acting parts followed, including in the British TV series, Emergency - Ward 10, and Lord continued playing the piano and the organ in nightclubs and as a session musician to earn a living. He started his band career in London in 1960 with the jazz ensemble The Bill Ashton Combo. Ashton became a key figure in jazz education in Britain, creating what later became the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. Between 1960 and 1963, Lord and Ashton both moved on to Red Bludd's Bluesicians (also known as The Don Wilson Quartet), the latter of which featured the singer Arthur "Art" Wood, brother of guitarist Ronnie Wood. Wood had previously sung with Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated and was a junior figure in the British blues movement. In this period, Lord altered the spelling of his name from his birth name "John" to "Jon" and his session credits included playing the keyboards in "You Really Got Me", The Kinks number one hit of 1964 however in a ''Guitar World'' interview Ray Davies of The Kinks stated it was actually Arthur Greenslade playing piano on that particular track.

Following the break-up of Redd Bludd's Bluesicians in late 1963, Wood, Lord, and the drummer Red Dunnage put together a new band, The Art Wood Combo. This also included Derek Griffiths (guitar) and Malcolm Pool (bass guitar). Dunnage left in December 1964 to be replaced by Keef Hartley, who had previously replaced Ringo Starr in Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. This band, later known as "The Artwoods", focused on the organ as the bluesy, rhythmic core of their sound, in common with the contemporary bands The Spencer Davis Group (Steve Winwood on organ) and The Animals (with Alan Price). They made appearances on the BBC's '' Saturday Club'' radio show and on such TV programs as ''Ready Steady Go!''. It also performed abroad, and it appeared on the first ''Ready Steady Goes Live'', promoting its first single the Lead Belly song "Sweet Mary" — but significant commercial success eluded it. Its only charting single was "I Take What I Want", which reached number 28 on 8 May 1966.

This band regrouped in 1967 as the "St. Valentine's Day Massacre". This was an attempt to cash in on the 1930s gangster craze set off by the American film ''Bonnie and Clyde''. Hartley left the band in 1967 to join John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. Lord next founded the blues-influenced Santa Barbara Machine Head, featuring Art's brother, Ronnie Wood, writing and recording three powerful keyboard-driven instrumental tracks, giving a preview of the future style of Deep Purple. Soon thereafter, Lord went on to cover for the keyboard player Billy Day in The Flower Pot Men, where he met the bass guitarist Nick Simper along with drummer Carlo Little and guitarist Ged Peck. Lord and Simper then toured with this band in 1967 to promote its hit single "Let's Go to San Francisco", but the two men never recorded with this band.

Formation of Deep Purple

In early 1967, through his roommate Chris Curtis of the Searchers, Lord met businessman Tony Edwards who was looking to invest in the music business alongside partners Ron Hire and John Coletta (HEC Enterprises). Session guitarist Ritchie Blackmore was called in and he met Lord for the first time, but Chris Curtis's erratic behaviour led the trio nowhere. Edwards was impressed enough by Jon Lord to ask him to form a band after Curtis faded out. Said Edwards, "I couldn't really cope with urtisbut I had a great rapport with Jon Lord; here was somebody sensible, somebody I could communicate with on my level." Simper was contacted, and Blackmore was recalled from Hamburg. Although top British player Bobbie Clarke was the first choice as drummer, during the auditions for a singer, Rod Evans of "The Maze" came in with his own drummer, Ian Paice. Blackmore, who had been impressed by Paice's drumming when he met him in 1967, set up an audition for Paice as well. The band was called the "Roundabout" at first and began rehearsals at Deeves Hall in Hertfordshire. By March 1968, this became the "Mark 1" line-up of "Deep Purple": Lord, Simper, Blackmore, Paice, and Evans.

Lord also did session work in the late 1960s with the band "Boz", along with Blackmore (guitar) and Paice (drums), given that Boz was being produced by Derek Lawrence who produced Deep Purple's first three albums. Boz was led by Boz Burrell (vocals/guitar, later bassist for King Crimson and Bad Company) and also included Chas Hodges (bass guitar).

Deep Purple

1968–1970

It was in these three years that Lord's trademark keyboard sound emerged. Ignoring the emergence of the Moog synthesizer, as pioneered in rock by such players as Keith Emerson, Lord began experimenting with a keyboard sound produced by driving the Hammond organ through Marshall amplifiers in an effort to match the attack and volume of Blackmore's guitar. Lord's version was heavier than a blues sound, and it often featured distortion and a far harder, industrial type sound that became the trademark Jon Lord organ sound. Both Emerson and Rick Wakeman publicly expressed admiration for Lord's mould-breaking work on the organ. This delivered a rhythmic foundation to complement Blackmore's speed and virtuosity on lead guitar. Lord also loved the sound of an RMI 368 Electra-Piano and Harpsichord, which he used on such songs as "Demon's Eye" and "Space Truckin'".

In 1973 Lord's original Hammond C3 gave out and he bought another from Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac. Also around this time, Lord and his keyboard technician, Mike Phillips, combined his Hammond C3 Organ with the RMI. Lord kept this particular Hammond C3 until his retirement from the band in 2002, when he passed it to successor Don Airey. That instrument was retired from stage use a few years later, as it had become "pretty knackered" according to Airey.

By pushing the Hammond-Leslie sound through Marshall amplification, Lord created a growling, heavy, mechanical sound which allowed him to compete with Blackmore as a soloist, with an organ that sounded as prominent as the lead guitar. Said one reviewer, "many have tried to imitate ord'sstyle, and all failed." Said Lord himself, "There's a way of playing a Hammond hat'sdifferent. A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that you can play a Hammond with a piano technique. Well, you can, but it ''sounds'' like you are playing a Hammond with a piano technique. Really, you have to learn how to play an organ. It's a legato technique; it's a technique to achieve legato on a non-legato instrument."

In early Deep Purple recordings, Lord had appeared to be the leader of the band. Despite the cover songs "Hush" and "Kentucky Woman" becoming hits in North America, Deep Purple never made chart success in the UK until the ''Concerto for Group and Orchestra'' album dented the UK charts in early 1970. Lord's willingness later to play many of the key rhythm parts gave Blackmore the freedom to let loose both live and on record.

On Deep Purple's second and third albums, Lord began indulging his ambition to fuse rock with classical music. An early example of this is the song "Anthem" from the album ''The Book of Taliesyn'' (1968), but a more prominent example is the song "April" from the band's self-titled third album (1969). The song is recorded in three parts: (1) Lord and Blackmore only, on keyboards and acoustic guitar, respectively; (2) an orchestral arrangement complete with strings; and (3) the full rock band with vocals. Lord's ambition enhanced his reputation among fellow musicians, but caused tension within the group. Simper later said, "The reason the music lacked direction was Jon Lord fucked everything up with his classical ideas." Blackmore agreed to go along with Lord's experimentation, provided he was given his head on the next band album.

The resulting ''Concerto For Group and Orchestra'' was one of rock's earliest attempts to fuse two distinct musical idioms. Performed live at the Royal Albert Hall on 24 September 1969 (with new band members Ian Gillan and Roger Glover, Evans and Simper having been fired), it was recorded by the BBC
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