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The little bits that are really important
Jeb Wright from Classic Rock Revisited recently spoke to Ian Paice about Jon Lord, the celebration concert this April, and the recording of it that came out last month.
Jeb: I have always separated classical Jon from rock Jon, but I have to ask did he bring that influence into Deep Purple? Not so much the music, but rather the knowledge of how music works?
Ian: Exactly, that is it. Most of the guys who play rock and roll and popular music, from jazz to pop music, from my generation, from my country, were self-taught. The knowledge for what we need is limited. For those who play piano, it is different. The nature of the instrument means they have to learn it properly and they have to learn the unorthodox classical fashion. Their knowledge about the infrastructure of music and the way it works is far superior.
What Jon would quite often do, back in the early days, when Ritchie [Blackmore] and Roger [Glover] would be jamming riffs, would be to say, “I think if we changed the inversion of that chord then I think it would work much better.” He would then demonstrate what he meant and, nine times out of ten, he was right. He would take something that was sort of obvious and make it into something that was not quite so obvious.
The difference between us and chimpanzees is two percent. It is just a little tiny bit, but that two percent is really important. Jon didn’t do that all the time, as sometimes things were perfect as they were. Sometimes there was something missing. You could see his brain kick into gear and he would go into his database of knowledge and come up with something to try and that was sometimes very important to us.
Jeb: You have done a wonderful job with different packages of his concert. There are many levels fans can purchase.
Ian: Some people are in love with Jon’s classical side, and if that is all they want, they just can buy that CD… and if they want just the rock portion, then they can buy that CD. If they want the whole kit and caboodle then they can buy the box set and experience the whole wonderful night. Whoever buys whatever, let them be assured that the deal that Jacky struck with the record company is very generous towards the charity. Every dollar, every pound, every Swiss franc, every Yen we get goes straight into Jacky’s fund and this time it is going to try to help beat the cancer that took Jon from us.
We don’t have a big organization here. It is Jacky, a secretary, my kids and occasionally one other helper and we run it from a room in my house. There is no big overhead and nobody is driving a car, staying in hotels or flying first class… it is our homegrown thing. Every dollar that people want to put in our coffers we thank them greatly.
Read more in Classic Rock Revisited.
Thanks to BraveWords for the info.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Thanks for posting.
October 20th, 2014 at 23:02As a guitarist of limits as explained by Ian, he is absolutely correct in describing what the trained pianist brings to a band. The subtle changes away from the obvious make all the difference. I still listen to some of Jon’s unusual chord plays with amazement and delight… Most recently on the amazing Graz show recording of Mk III. Very well articulated, Mr. Paice.
October 21st, 2014 at 01:24Deep Purple was not only a classic hard and heyvi band, but also a lot of layered
just because classical education Jon Lord Hammond organ and his blues-rock sound, plugging rock, classical forms. As Ritchie …. or play drums Ian Paice
Ian is one of the few hard rock drummers who used elements of jazz in his playing style
DP is not Heyi metal such as Black Sabbath, DP have great influence on the HM
Top songs and did not even HM or hard rock, for example: “Child In Time”, “Lazy”, “Hush”, “Soldier of Fortune,” “Strange Kind of Woman,”Pictures Of Home” “Woman from Tokyo”,”Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming” ..itd etc.
DP is layered and wider band, and also because of Jon Lord and his way of playing
not only in the DP, Whitesnake also
Whitesnake / 1978-1984 / with or without ..Whitesnake different band
Although he was a leading author in earlier WS, its impact on the sound of the band is great, influential.
I love the classical side of Jon Lord, his authorship,
Jon is a large and influential musician, a great talent
your instrument played with so much emotion and passion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvA2JB52LKA
October 21st, 2014 at 08:17I was there that night at the royal alber all.
ticket took six months before.
plane from Italy forward & back in 24 hours.
and I can truthfully say that no fan has the courage to say?
DEEP PURPLE = DISAPPOINTMENT !!
As the first part of the concert was a real tribute, so the second part (with the purple guys) was a disappointment!
where were the four movements of the concert for group & horchestra with the band?
why the band played their usual rock songs,
and they have not played the dutiful/true praise of MAESTRO Jon with his album -the concert- more representative?
I’m sure the educated public of the royal albert hall would have expected this,
in fact a lot of people have gone out before the end of the concert with our 5 heroes.
because?
because for them it was a wasted opportunity to meet rock(&classic) HISTORY.
really we needed to hear once more time the piece of rock, in a place like the royal alber all in one day so special?
the answer is NO.
No no no.
Deep purple they know this awful truth.
that they have lost an important opportunity to celebrate Jon Lord (as did Pete York & Steve Balsamo), and even after all their own, in what would have been a great event, and that instead it passed almost unnoticed …
I saw the orchestra of classical musicians who were involved in the first part of the concert, and then they looked bored our Deep purple while they played their songs, totally out of context.
and I write this with the pain in my heart because I’m a big fan of deep purple, but really they have wasted their greatest opportunity ever to become LA legend, choosing a set list out all logic celebration of Jon Lord.
P.S. I apologize for my English, anything but flawless
October 23rd, 2014 at 23:00You don’t think the Concerto had been played enough?
October 24th, 2014 at 16:16Max is a newbie perhaps?
October 24th, 2014 at 18:55I’m glad the Concerto wasn’t played. It’s been recorded enough. Much better to hear tracks played off Sarabande and Jon’s other classical works. As for as the rock part of the show, It was great to hear songs by the Artwoods, PAL and MKIII and IV. Glenn did a great job!! As far as DP, it seems they were a little nervous through the first song but got better throughout. A lot of people put a lot of hard work in putting this show together. Why complain? They deserve out thanks, not our whining!!
October 28th, 2014 at 12:19@purplepriest:
I’m not a beginner as you think through your arrogance.
the only video I put on youtube is in fact Pictured Within ..
I was writing the first Italian fan club of Deep Purple since 1987.
I say to you that the concert at the Royal Albert Hall was a wasted opportunity to celebrate worthily (with HIS discography) MAESTRO Lord.
This is by no means a newbie to talk, and you know it.
I do not necessarily have to flatter all they do Deep Purple even when they do something wrong.
Now What is an incredible album, and -for example- the DP at Wacken was a HISTORIC EVENT for the festival, and has done very well to the band,
but the Royal albert hall had to be EPOCHAL, and instead it was the usual set-list of the band …
listen to all the solo albums of Jon Lord first, then watch the show in 1969, then the show in 1999 and then this last dvd … and if you see the atmosphere of the last-unfortunately is far less magical …
November 15th, 2014 at 01:19@Les Hedger:
November 15th, 2014 at 01:26moreover the songs were played about the Lord-solo period were insufficient to cover his entire discography.
Do not ever happen again to hear pieces of Gemini suite or Before I Forget (with the orchestra in THE HALL), while we hear more “hush” & “burn” for the umpteenth time ..
max @ 9 – Before I Forget is my favourite Lord album by the proverbial mile! It has everything, superb melodies which is the most important thing, brilliant playing from all the ‘guests’ & great songs & instrumentals & of course Lord at his peak perhaps in many ways!
November 16th, 2014 at 00:54I am not sure how any of that would be able to be covered at the concert though, it is such a diverse album with so many special performances by the guests involved. Simon Phillips drumming on ‘Bach Onto This’ is stunning, not to mention the maestro’s keyboard playing. Brilliant album indeed! RIP Jon Lord, Vicky Brown, Tony Ashton, Boz Burrell & Cozy Powell! Cheers.