Jon Lord at the grand piano with Martin Mendez and Martin Axenrot visible in the background.

Jon Lord with his eyes fixed on the score during the song “Bourée” – a number from Jon Lord’s 1976 solo album “Sarabande“, an album which is held in very high regard among his fans. There were two songs from the album played during this concert.

Martin Mendez – who is closely watching Jon – and Martin Axenrot from Opeth are visible in the background.

“Sarabande” was a fusion of orchestral music with the added “oomph” of rock musicians – including Andy Summers, later in The Police, on lead guitar, Mark Nauseef on percussion and Pete York on drums. Inspired amongst others by Bartók’s “Romanian Dances” and by Bach’s keyboard suites, the music is a playful mix of symphonic melody lines, often heavily saturated by Eastern European influences, and the rhythmic gusto of the electrically amplified musicians. In many ways, the album can be seen as the culmination of Jon’s attempts at joining the orchestra and the rock band starting with the “Concerto for Group and Orchestra” in 1969.

I was very pleased to get the chance to hear this song played live two times that day, both in rehearsal and during the concert – where there were very audible excited shouting from some of the audience after this performance.

(This photo didn’t make it to the printed book, but is shared here for the enjoyment of the blog’s readers and viewers.)

Further reading:

• “Bourée” from the concert
• Conductor and longtime collaborator Paul Mann’s insightful comments on “Sarabande”

All Material: © Copyright Trond J. Strøm. All Rights Reserved.

No usage without my written consent. Links to the blog and blogs posts on social media etc are of course OK, but stealing the photos without permission is not.