Kersi Lord (14 February 1935 – 16 October 2016) was an Indian film

score composer A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to e ...

music arranger In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestr ...

and accordion player. He was particularly well known for his association with noted Indian music composers like

Naushad Naushad Ali (25 December 1919 – 5 May 2006) was an Indian music director for Hindi films. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest and foremost music directors of the Hindi film industry. He is particularly known for popularising the ...

Madan Mohan Madan Mohan is a form of the Hindu god, Krishna. Krishna is celebrated as ''Madan Mohan'', who mesmerizes everyone. His consort, Radha is glorified as Madan Mohan's ''Mohini'', who can even mesmerise Madan Mohan (her Kahn). Radha is known as th ...

, S D Burman, Laxmikant-Pyarelal,

R D Burman Rahul Dev Burman (27 June 1939 – 4 January 1994) was an Indian people, Indian music director who is considered one of the most influential composers of India. From the 1960s to the 1990s, Burman composed musical scores for 331 films. Burman d ...

, Kalyanji-Anandji and

Usha Khanna Usha Khanna (born 7 October 1941) is an Indian music director in Hindi cinema. She is the third female music director to enter the Hindi film industry, after Jaddan Bai and Saraswati Devi and is one of the most commercially successful music di ...

Biography

Kersi was born in Mumbai to Cowas and Banubai Lord. His father was a pioneering Indian percussionist who is credited with bringing the bongo and Conga to Hindi film music. His mother came from a family of musicians. His younger sister Hilla played the piano and brother Burjor (also known as Buji) is a prominent percussionist.

Early career

Lord started his career at the age of 14. He would often accompany his father to the studios. In 1949–50, Naushad ji was composing music for film Jadoo and enquired with Cowas Kaka about master Kersi who was accompanying him in the studios. On knowing that Kersi was being groomed by Cowas Kaka, Naushad ji allowed Kersi to play Bongos in recording of song Lo Pyar Ki Ho Gai Jeet. Kersi soon joined the

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

s as a

percussionist A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

, playing various

Latin-American Latin Americans ( es, Latinoamericanos; pt, Latino-americanos; ) are the citizens of Latin American countries (or people with cultural, ancestral or national origins in Latin America). Latin American countries and their diasporas are multi-ethn ...

instruments, especially the jazz drums.

Death

He died in October 2016, aged 81. He had developed age-related illnesses and had been hospitalised for nearly a week. His funeral was held at the

Parsi Parsis () or Parsees are an ethnoreligious group of the Indian subcontinent adhering to Zoroastrianism. They are descended from Persians who migrated to Medieval India during and after the Arab conquest of Iran (part of the early Muslim conq ...

Crematorium A crematorium or crematory is a venue for the cremation of the dead. Modern crematoria contain at least one cremator (also known as a crematory, retort or cremation chamber), a purpose-built furnace. In some countries a crematorium can also b ...

Worli Worli (ISO: ''Varaḷī'', �əɾ(ə)ɭiː is a locality in South Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is one of the four peninsulas of Mumbai while the other being Colaba, Bandra and Malabar Hill. The sea connects it with Bandra via the B ...

Personal life

Lord is survived by his daughters Jasmin, Perizad and Zarine.

References

1935 births 2016 deaths Musicians from Mumbai 20th-century Indian composers Indian male composers Parsi people from Mumbai 20th-century male musicians {{India-composer-stub