1939 Denise LaSalle*
1955 Paul Urban*
2008 Maynard Silva+
2012 Jon Lord+
1955 Paul Urban*
2008 Maynard Silva+
2012 Jon Lord+
2013 T-Model Ford+
2014 Johnny Winter+
Happy Birthday
Denise LaSalle *16.07.1939
Ora Denise Allen (* 16. Juli 1939 nahe Sidon, Mississippi), besser bekannt unter ihrem Künstlernamen Denise LaSalle, ist eine amerikanische Blues-, Soul- und Rhythm-and-Blues-Sängerin sowie Musikproduzentin. 2011 wurde sie in die Blues Hall of Fame der Blues Foundation aufgenommen.Ora Denise Allan wurde am 16. Juli 1939 nahe Sidon im Leflore County in Mississippi als jüngste von acht Kindern von Nathaniel und Nancy Allen geboren.[1] Ab einem Alter von sieben Jahren in Belzoni auf. Sie sang als Baptistin im Kirchenchor[1] und mit etwa 15 schrieb sie Geschichten, die sie an das Magazin Tan and True Confessions verkaufen konnte. Als Heranwachsende zog sie nach Chicago und begann, Lieder zu schreiben; zugleich sang sie in einem Gospel-Chor namens The Sacred Five. Sie gab sich den Künstlernamen LaSalle, weil dieser französisch klang.[2]
Im Jahr 1967 veröffentlichte Denise LaSalle ihre erste Aufnahme A Love Reputation bei dem Label von Billy Emerson. In den Folgejahren hatte sie Erfolg als Sängerin sowie als Songwriterin und Produzentin sowie als Label- und Nachtclub-Besitzerin. 1969 gründete sie mit Bill Jones, den sie im selben Jahr heiratete und von dem sie sich 1974 wieder trennte,[1] das Label Crajon Enterprises und schrieb mit Get Your Lie Straight einen Hit für Bill Coday, der auf ihrem Label veröffentlicht wurde. 1971/72 hatte sie ihren ersten eigenen größeren Hit mit dem Song Trapped By A Thing Called Love und mit Now Run and Tell That und Man Sized Job folgten zwei weitere Toip-10-Titel der R&B-Charts. Sie produzierte weitere Singles, war jedoch aufgrund ihres untypischen Auftretens auf der Bühne berüchtigt. Zugleich widmete sie sich zunehmend der Country-Musik und ihr Song Married But Not To Each Other von 1976 wurde erfolgreich von der Country-Sängerin Barbara Mandrell gecovert.[2]
1977 heiratete Denise LaSalle James Wolfe, Jr., mit dem sie zwei Kinder hat.[1] Ab 1984 nahm Denise LaSalle mehrere Alben und Singles für die Malaco Records in Jackson auf, mit denen sie sehr erfolgreich war. Neun der bei Malaco aufgenommenen Alben erreichten die nationalen Chart und die Single My Toot Toot 1985 konnte sich international platzieren. 1986 gründete sie die National Association for the Preservation of the Blues, um dem Soul/Blues-Stil mehr Aufmerksamkeit zu bringen. Zugleich schrieb sie Songs für andere Musiker und das für Z. Z. Hill geschriebene Someone Else Is Steppin’ In wurde für diesen ein großer Erfolg. Für Ann Peebles und Little Milton schrieb sie gemeinsam mit Mack Rice den Song Packed Up and Took My Man, das später von dem Rapper Ghostface Killah für seinen Hit Walk Around gesampelt wurde. 1997 verließ LaSalle das Label Malaco und nahm auf ihrem eigenen Label Angel In the Midst ein Gospel-Album auf, danach folgten weitere Alben und 2008 kehrte sie zu Malaco Records zurück.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denise_LaSalle
Ora Denise Allen (born July 16, 1939),[1] known by the stage name Denise LaSalle, is an American blues and R&B/soul singer, songwriter, and record producer who, since the death of Koko Taylor, has been recognized as the "Queen of the Blues".[2]
Career
Born near Sidon, Mississippi[3] and raised in Belzoni, she sang in church choirs before moving to Chicago in the early 1960s. She sat in with R&B musicians and wrote songs, influenced by country music as well as the blues, before winning a recording contract with Chess Records in 1967. Her first single, "A Love Reputation" was a modest regional hit.[4]
She established an independent production company, Crajon, with her then husband Bill Jones.[4] Her song "Trapped By A Thing Called Love" (1971) was released on Detroit-based Westbound Records. This reached #1 on the national R&B chart and #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song ranked at #85 on the 1971 year-end chart. The RIAA gold disc award was made on November 30, 1971 for a million sales.[5]
She also wrote successful follow-ups, "Now Run And Tell That" and "Man Sized Job" which made #3 and #4 in the R&B Top Ten and also charted in the Hot 100. Her early hits were recorded at the Hi recording studios in Memphis, operated by Willie Mitchell, using the cream of southern session players. She continued to have hits on Westbound and then on ABC Records through the mid-1970s, including "Love Me Right" (#10 R&B, #80 pop) She continued to produce and perform live. Her co-penned song, "Married, But Not to Each Other" (#16 R&B) was included in the 1979 The Best of Barbara Mandrell, compilation album.
In the early 1980s, she signed as a singer and songwriter with Malaco Records, for whom she released a string of critically acclaimed albums over more than 20 years, starting with Lady in the Street (1983) and Right Place, Right Time (1984). Both albums became major successes among soul blues, R&B and soul fans and on urban radio stations. In 1985, she enjoyed her only recognition in the UK Singles Chart, when her cover version of Rockin' Sidney's, "My Toot Toot", reached #6.[6]
LaSalle appeared at the 1984 and 1993 versions of the Long Beach Blues Festival, and also in 1993, she performed at the San Francisco Blues Festival. Her album Smokin' In Bed (1997) sold well.[4] After more than a decade away, when she recorded three albums with small Memphis-based soul-blues label, Ecko, she returned to Malaco for her 2010 outing called "24 Hour Woman". She continues to work as a live performer, particularly at festivals, and more recently has branched out into the gospel genre. In 2011, she was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.[7]
LaSalle now lives with her husband, James E. Wolfe, in Jackson, Tennessee, where she opened a restaurant called Blues Legend Café.[8] The restaurant was located at 436 E. Main Street[9] and has since closed.[10]
In 2013 and 2014, LaSalle was nominated for a Blues Music Award in the 'Soul Blues Female Artist' category.[11][12] On June 6, 2015 LaSalle was inducted into the Official Rhythm & Blues Music Hall of Fame in Clarksdale, MS.
Career
Born near Sidon, Mississippi[3] and raised in Belzoni, she sang in church choirs before moving to Chicago in the early 1960s. She sat in with R&B musicians and wrote songs, influenced by country music as well as the blues, before winning a recording contract with Chess Records in 1967. Her first single, "A Love Reputation" was a modest regional hit.[4]
She established an independent production company, Crajon, with her then husband Bill Jones.[4] Her song "Trapped By A Thing Called Love" (1971) was released on Detroit-based Westbound Records. This reached #1 on the national R&B chart and #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song ranked at #85 on the 1971 year-end chart. The RIAA gold disc award was made on November 30, 1971 for a million sales.[5]
She also wrote successful follow-ups, "Now Run And Tell That" and "Man Sized Job" which made #3 and #4 in the R&B Top Ten and also charted in the Hot 100. Her early hits were recorded at the Hi recording studios in Memphis, operated by Willie Mitchell, using the cream of southern session players. She continued to have hits on Westbound and then on ABC Records through the mid-1970s, including "Love Me Right" (#10 R&B, #80 pop) She continued to produce and perform live. Her co-penned song, "Married, But Not to Each Other" (#16 R&B) was included in the 1979 The Best of Barbara Mandrell, compilation album.
In the early 1980s, she signed as a singer and songwriter with Malaco Records, for whom she released a string of critically acclaimed albums over more than 20 years, starting with Lady in the Street (1983) and Right Place, Right Time (1984). Both albums became major successes among soul blues, R&B and soul fans and on urban radio stations. In 1985, she enjoyed her only recognition in the UK Singles Chart, when her cover version of Rockin' Sidney's, "My Toot Toot", reached #6.[6]
LaSalle appeared at the 1984 and 1993 versions of the Long Beach Blues Festival, and also in 1993, she performed at the San Francisco Blues Festival. Her album Smokin' In Bed (1997) sold well.[4] After more than a decade away, when she recorded three albums with small Memphis-based soul-blues label, Ecko, she returned to Malaco for her 2010 outing called "24 Hour Woman". She continues to work as a live performer, particularly at festivals, and more recently has branched out into the gospel genre. In 2011, she was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.[7]
LaSalle now lives with her husband, James E. Wolfe, in Jackson, Tennessee, where she opened a restaurant called Blues Legend Café.[8] The restaurant was located at 436 E. Main Street[9] and has since closed.[10]
In 2013 and 2014, LaSalle was nominated for a Blues Music Award in the 'Soul Blues Female Artist' category.[11][12] On June 6, 2015 LaSalle was inducted into the Official Rhythm & Blues Music Hall of Fame in Clarksdale, MS.
Paul Urban *16.07.1955
Paul Urban Blues is a contemporary blues group whose music also contains elements of rock,jazz and funk.Founding member Paul Urban is the band's chief songwriter as well as lead vocalist and lead guitarist.Check Paul out at www.paulurbanmusic.com ,Paul Urban Blues on FaceBook and paul urban on YouTube.Paul Urban Blues is a contemporary blues group whose music also contains elements of rock,jazz and funk.Founding member Paul Urban is the band's chief songwriter as well as lead vocalist and lead guitarist.Check Paul out at www.paulurbanmusic.com ,Paul Urban Blues on FaceBook and paul urban on YouTube.
Paul Urban with Lenny and the Soul Senders YouTube
R.I.P.
Jon Lord +16.07.2012
Jonathan[1][2][3] Douglas „Jon“ Lord (* 9. Juni 1941 in Leicester, England; † 16. Juli 2012 in London) war ein britischer Musiker, der in erster Linie als Mitglied der Hardrock-Band Deep Purple bekannt wurde. Lord gilt als einer der Wegbereiter der Kombination von Rock mit Klassik.
Leben
1950er und 1960er Jahre
Sowohl sein Vater als auch seine Tante waren Performance-Künstler, die ihr Talent als Duo mit einer lokalen Tanzgruppe zur Aufführung brachten. Erste musikalische Aktivitäten entwickelte Lord am Klavier der Familie, an dem er ab dem Alter von fünf Jahren klassischen Unterricht bekam. Als Teenager beeindruckte ihn die musikalische Performance von Jazz-Organisten, wie Jimmy Smith, und die von Pionieren des Rock-’n’-Roll-Pianos, wie Jerry Lee Lewis.
Mit neunzehn Jahren zog Lord 1960 nach London, wo er an der Central School of Speech and Drama Schauspiel studierte. Als sich 1963 davon das Drama Centre London abspaltete, wechselte Lord mit anderen Lehrern und Schülern dorthin und schloss dort 1964 sein Studium ab.
Von der Musik des Swinging London angezogen, begann Lord in diversen Jazz- und Rhythm-and-Blues-Combos zu spielen, die überwiegend in kleineren Kneipen und als Clubgigs in der Region London auftraten. Erste Erfolge konnte er mit der Bill Ashton Combo feiern, einer Jazzgruppe, die sich nach dem Saxofonspieler benannte.
1963 wechselte Jon Lord zu der von Derek Griffiths geleiteten Band Red Blood and his Bluesicians, was ihm ermöglichte, an seine erste elektrische Orgel zu kommen.
Nach eigener Aussage ist er in der Aufnahme des Kinks–Hits „You Really Got Me“ als Pianist zu hören.[4]
Die nächsten Jahre erspielte sich Jon Lord die Fähigkeiten zum Profimusiker. Er trat als Organist den bluesig-rockigeren Artwoods bei, deren Bandleader Art Wood, der ältere Bruder des späteren Rolling Stone Ron Wood, war. Die Artwoods veröffentlichten mehrere Singles und EPs, darunter ein heutiges Sammlerstück, Art Gallery, traten in Fernseh- und Radiosendungen auf und hatten viele Auftritte, schafften jedoch keine Hitparadenplatzierung, so dass sie sich bald wieder auflösten, nachdem ihr letzter Versuch, die Charts unter dem Pseudonym St. Valentine’s Day Massacre zu erreichen, ebenfalls scheiterte.
Ron Wood nahm mit Jon Lord später drei Instrumentalnummern unter dem Namen Santa Barbara Machine Head auf.
Deep Purple
The Flower Pot Men, die eher ein Gesangsensemble waren und einen psychedelischen Hit hatten, waren für eine gebuchte Tournee auf Musikersuche und engagierten Jon Lord sowie Nick Simper und den Schlagzeuger Carlo Little, der bei den Screaming Lord Sutch’s Savages bereits an Ritchie Blackmores Seite spielte.
Kurz darauf gründeten Jon Lord und Ritchie Blackmore Deep Purple, auch Nick Simper wurde als Bassist engagiert. Zwischen 1968 und 1976 galt Deep Purple als eine der populärsten und kreativsten Bands, wobei Jon Lords virtuoses Hammond-Orgelspiel maßgeblichen Anteil hatte.
Zwischen den Aufnahmen diverser Hardrockalben und zahlreichen Welttourneen mit Deep Purple fand er immer wieder Zeit für Soloprojekte. Zeitweise mit Unterstützung durch Deep Purple, wie 1969 bei Concerto for Group and Orchestra oder in Form von Soloalben, wie Sarabande oder Gemini Suite, verband er Rockmusik mit klassischer Musik. Für den Film The Last Rebel (1971) schrieb er mit Tony Ashton die Musik, die von Ashton, Gardner & Dyke eingespielt wurde.
Paice Ashton Lord und Whitesnake
Nachdem sich Deep Purple 1976 das erste Mal aufgelöst hatte, gründeten Jon Lord, Ian Paice und Tony Ashton die Band Paice Ashton Lord, die 1977 das Album Malice in Wonderland veröffentlichte. Nach einer Tournee und noch während der Vorbereitungen für ein weiteres Album löste sich Paice Ashton Lord schon 1978 wieder auf.
Jon Lord wurde daraufhin Keyboarder bei David Coverdales Whitesnake, wohin ihm 1979 Ian Paice folgte. Während der erfolgreichen Jahre bei Whitesnake gastierte Jon Lord auf diversen Alben von Cozy Powell, Graham Bonnet und vielen anderen und nahm mit Before I Forget ein weiteres Soloalbum auf.
Deep-Purple-Reunion und endgültiger Ausstieg aus der Band
Jon Lord, der Whitesnake 1984 zu Gunsten eines Neubeginns mit Deep Purple verlassen hatte, nahm mit der Gruppe weitere sechs Alben auf und gastierte mit ihr weltweit.
2002 trennten sich Deep Purple und Jon Lord, der sich nun Solo-Projekten widmete. Sein letztes Konzert mit Deep Purple gab er am 19. September 2002 in Ipswich (England).
Spätere Solo-Projekte
2003, er gastierte gerade für einige Monate mit Stücken seines vorletzten Soloalbums Pictured Within in Australien, gab Lord zusammen mit der lokalen Bluesband The Hoochie Coochie Men im Sydney Opera House ein Konzert, das später auf CD sowie auf DVD erschien.
Sein 2005 erschienenes Album Beyond the Notes besteht aus genreübergreifenden eigenwilligen Kompositionen. Auf ihm ist auch das Stück „The Sun Will Shine Again“ zu finden, das Lord für die ehemalige ABBA-Sängerin Anni-Frid Lyngstad schrieb und mit dem sich die schwedische Sängerin erstmals seit acht Jahren wieder live zeigte.
Zuletzt komponierte Lord zwei weitere klassische Werke: Das Durham Concerto, das er 2007 zusammen mit dem Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in der Kathedrale von Durham gab, ist eine Auftragskomposition anlässlich des 175-jährigen Jubiläums der University of Durham.[5] Boom of the Tingling Strings wurde 2008 zusammen mit dem Queensland Orchestra in Queensland uraufgeführt.
Am 9. August 2011 – er war gerade mit dem Jon Lord Blues Project auf Tournee – teilte Lord der Öffentlichkeit mit, dass er an Bauchspeicheldrüsenkrebs leide. Weiter sagte er alle Konzerte für das folgende Jahr ab. Am 16. Juli 2012 verstarb Jon Lord im Alter von 71 Jahren an den Folgen der Krankheit in London.[6][7] Bis zum Schluss hatte er im Studio an seinem letzten Album gearbeitet und auch noch der Abmischung beigewohnt. Nur wenige Tage vor seinem Tod wurde das Projekt fertiggestellt.
Stil und Wirken
Jon Lord verkaufte zusammen mit Deep Purple 200 Millionen Alben mit den unterschiedlichsten Musikstilen, von Jazz über Blues zu R&B, Klassik bis zu Hard Rock. Er komponierte zusammen mit seinen Deep-Purple-Kollegen Songs wie „Smoke on the Water“, „Black Night“, „Highway Star“, „Child in Time“, „Lazy“, „Fireball“, „Woman From Tokyo“ und „Burn“, die zu Klassikern der Rockmusik avancierten. Lord trat wiederholt mit den verschiedensten Musikern auf, u. a. George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Luciano Pavarotti, David Gilmour, Rick Wakeman, Pete York und Eric Clapton.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Lord
John
Douglas "Jon" Lord (9 June 1941 – 16 July 2012)[1] was an English
composer, pianist, and Hammond organ player known for his pioneering
work in fusing rock with classical or baroque forms, especially with
Deep Purple, as well as Whitesnake, Paice Ashton Lord, The Artwoods, and
The Flower Pot Men. In 1968 Lord co-founded Deep Purple, a hard rock
band of which he was regarded as the leader until 1970. Together with
the other members, he collaborated on most of his band's most popular
songs. He and drummer Ian Paice were the only continuous presence in the
band during the period from 1968 to 1976, and also from when it was
reestablished in 1984 until Lord's retirement from Deep Purple 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.
Early life
Growing up in Leicester
Lord was born in Leicester on 9 June 1941 to Miriam (1912–1995; née Hudson) and Reginald Lord, growing up at 120 Averill Road[2] and retaining a strong bond with the city throughout his life. His father was an amateur saxophone musician and encouraged Lord from an early age. He studied classical piano from the age of five, with a local teacher, Frederick Alt, 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 J. S. Bach (a constant connection in his music and 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.[3]
Lord absorbed the blues sounds that played a key part in his rock career, principally the raw sounds of the great American blues organists 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, who he saw perform at the De Montfort Hall in Leicester in March 1958.[4] 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.[5]
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, 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's 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.[6]
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's Bluesbreakers. Lord next founded the "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. Simper was contacted, and Blackmore was recalled from Hamburg. Although top British player Bobby Woodman 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 helped form the band "Boz" with some of its recordings being produced by Derek Lawrence. "Boz" included Boz Burrell (later of King Crimson and Bad Company), Blackmore (guitarist), Paice (drummer), Chas Hodges (bass guitarist).
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 the Hammond organ by driving it through Marshall speakers 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, admired by fans and peers alike but rarely replicated. 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 purchased 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.)[7]
Lord pushed the Hammond-Leslie sound through Marshall amplification, creating a growling, heavy, mechanical sound which allowed Lord 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 [Lord's] style, and all failed."[8] Said Lord himself, "There's a way of playing a Hammond [that's] different. 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."[9] In early Deep Purple recordings, Lord had appeared to be the leader of the band.[10] 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 (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. Blackmore agreed to go along with Lord's experimentation, provided he was given his head on the next band album.[8]
The resulting Concerto For Group and Orchestra (in 1969) 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 and later released as an album. The Concerto gave Deep Purple its first highly publicised taste of mainstream fame and gave Lord the confidence to believe that his experiment and his compositional skill had a future, as well as giving Lord the opportunity to work with established classical figures, such as conductor Sir Malcolm Arnold, who brought his skills to bear by helping Lord realise the work and to protect him from the inevitable disdain of the older members of the orchestra.
1970–1976
Purple began work on Deep Purple in Rock, released by their new label Harvest in 1970 and now recognised as one of hard rock's key early works. Lord and Blackmore competed to out-dazzle each other, often in classical-style, midsection 'call and answer' improvisation (on tracks like "Speed King"), something they employed to great effect live. Ian Gillan said that Lord provided the idea on the main organ riff for "Child in Time" although the riff was also based on It's a Beautiful Day's 1969 psychedelic hit song "Bombay Calling".[11] Lord's experimental solo on "Hard Lovin' Man" (complete with police-siren interpolation) from this album was his personal favourite among his Deep Purple studio performances.
Deep Purple released a sequence of albums between 1971's Fireball and 1975's Come Taste the Band. Gillan and Glover left in 1973 and Blackmore in 1975, and the band disintegrated in 1976. The highlights of Lord's Purple work in the period include the 1972 album Machine Head (featuring his rhythmic underpinnings on "Smoke on the Water" and "Space Truckin'", plus the organ solos on "Highway Star" and "Lazy"), the sonic bombast of the Made in Japan live album (1972), an extended, effect-laden solo on "Rat Bat Blue" from the Who Do We Think We Are album (1973), and his overall playing on the Burn album from 1974. Roger Glover would later describe Lord as a true "Zen-archer soloist", someone whose best keyboard improvisation often came at the first attempt. Lord's strict reliance on the Hammond C3 organ sound, as opposed to the synthesizer experimentation of his contemporaries, places him firmly in the jazz-blues category as a band musician and far from the progressive-rock sound of Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman. Lord rarely ventured into the synthesizer territory on Purple albums, often limiting his experimentation to the use of the ring modulator with the Hammond, to give live performances on tracks like Space Truckin' a distinctive 'spacey' sound. Instances of his Deep Purple synthesizer use (he became an endorser of the ARP Oyssey) include "'A' 200", the final track from Burn, and "Love Child" on the Come Taste the Band album.[citation needed]
In early 1973 Lord stated:
We're as valid as anything by Beethoven. (NME, March 1973[12])
As a composer
Lord continued to focus on his classical aspirations alongside his Deep Purple career. The BBC, buoyed by the success of the Concerto, commissioned him to write another piece and the resulting "Gemini Suite" was performed by Deep Purple and the Light Music Society under Malcolm Arnold at the Royal Festival Hall in September 1970, and then in Munich with the Kammerorchester conducted by Eberhard Schoener in January 1972. It then became the basis for Lord's first solo album, Gemini Suite, released in November 1972, with vocals by Yvonne Elliman and Tony Ashton and with the London Symphony Orchestra backing a band that included Albert Lee on guitar.
Lord's collaboration with the highly experimental and supportive Schoener resulted in a second live performance of the Suite in late 1973 and a new Lord album with Schoener, entitled Windows, in 1974. It proved to be Lord's most experimental work and was released to mixed reactions. However, the dalliances with Bach on Windows and the pleasure of collaborating with Schoener resulted in perhaps Lord's most confident solo work and perhaps his strongest orchestral album, Sarabande, recorded in Germany in September 1975 with the Philharmonia Hungarica conducted by Schoener.
Composed of eight pieces (from the opening sweep of Fantasia to the Finale), at least five pieces form the typical construction of a baroque dance suite. The key pieces (Sarabande, Gigue, Bouree, Pavane and Caprice) feature rich orchestration complemented sometimes by the interpolation of rock themes, played by a session band comprising Pete York, Mark Nauseef and Andy Summers, with organ and synthesizers played by Lord.
In March 1974, Lord and Paice had collaborated with friend Tony Ashton on First of the Big Bands, credited to 'Ashton & Lord' and featuring a rich array of session talent, including Carmine Appice, Ian Paice, Peter Frampton and Pink Floyd saxophonist/sessioner, Dick Parry. They performed much of the set live at the London Palladium in September 1974.
This formed the basis of Lord's first post-Deep Purple project Paice Ashton Lord, which lasted only a year and spawned a single album, Malice in Wonderland in 1977, recorded at Musicland Studios Musicland Studios at the Arabella Hotel in Munich. He created an informal group of friends and collaborators including Ashton, Paice, Bernie Marsden, Boz Burrell and later, Bad Company's Mick Ralphs, Simon Kirke and others. Over the same period, Lord guested on albums by Maggie Bell, Nazareth and even folk artist Richard Digance. Eager to pay off a huge tax bill upon his return the UK in the late-1970s (Purple's excesses included their own tour jet and a home Lord rented in Malibu from actress Ann-Margret and where he wrote the Sarabande album), Lord joined former Deep Purple band member David Coverdale's new band, Whitesnake in August 1978 (Ian Paice joined them in 1980 and stayed till 1982).
Whitesnake, 1978–1984
Lord's job in Whitesnake was largely limited to adding colour (or, in his own words, a 'halo') to round out a blues-rock sound that already accommodated two lead guitarists, Bernie Marsden and Micky Moody. He added a Yamaha CP-70 electric piano to his set-up and finally a huge bank of synthesizers onstage courtesy of Moog (MiniMoog, Opus, Polymoog) so he could play the 12-bar blues the band often required and recreate string section and other effects. Such varied work is evident on tracks like "Here I Go Again", "Wine, Women and Song", "She's a Woman" and "Till the Day I Die". A number of singles entered the UK chart, taking the now 40-something Lord onto Top of the Pops with regularity between 1980 and 1983. He later expressed frustration that he was a poorly paid hired-hand, but fans saw little of this discord and Whitesnake's commercial success kept him at the forefront of readers' polls as heavy rock's foremost keyboard maestro. His dissatisfaction (and Coverdale's eagerness to revamp the band's line-up and lower the average age to help crack the US market) smoothed the way for the reformation of Deep Purple Mk II in 1984.
Jon Lord's last Whitesnake concert took place in the Swedish TV programme Måndagsbörsen in 16 April 1984.
During his tenure in Whitesnake, Lord had the opportunity to record two distinctly different solo albums. 1982s Before I Forget featured a largely conventional eight-song line-up, no orchestra and with the bulk of the songs being either mainstream rock tracks ("Hollywood Rock And Roll", "Chance on a Feeling"), or – specifically on side two – a series of very English classical piano ballads sung by mother and daughter duo, Vicki Brown and Sam Brown (wife and daughter of entertainer Joe Brown) and vocalist Elmer Gantry as well as piano and synthesiser instrumentals such as Burntwood, named after Lord's home. The album also boasted the cream of British rock talent, including session drummer (and National Youth Jazz Orchestra alumnus) Simon Phillips, Cozy Powell, Neil Murray, Simon Kirke, Boz Burrell and Mick Ralphs.
Additionally, Lord was commissioned by producer Patrick Gamble for Central Television to write the soundtrack for their 1984 TV series, Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, based on the book by Edith Holden, with an orchestra conducted by Alfred Ralston and with a distinctly gentle, pastoral series of themes composed by Lord. Lord became firmly established as a member of UK rock's "Oxfordshire mansion aristocracy" – with a home, Burntwood Hall, set in 23.5 acres (9.5 ha) at Goring-on-Thames, complete with its own cricket pitch and a hand-painted Challen baby grand piano, previously owned by Shirley Bassey. He was asked to guest on albums by friends George Harrison (Gone Troppo from 1982) and Pink Floyd's David Gilmour (1984's About Face), Cozy Powell (Octopus in 1983) and to play on an adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's classic, Wind in the Willows. He composed and produced the score for White Fire (1984), which consisted largely of two songs performed by Limelight. In 1985 he made a brief appearance as a member of The Singing Rebel's band (which also featured Eric Clapton, George Harrison and Ringo Starr) in the Dick Clement and Ian Le Frenais scripted film Water (1985)(Handmade Films).
In the 1980s he was also a member of an all-star band called Olympic Rock & Blues Circus fronted by Pete York and featuring a rotating line-up of the likes of Miller Anderson, Tony Ashton, Brian Auger, Zoot Money, Colin Hodgkinson, Chris Farlowe and many others. Olympic Rock & Blues Circus toured primarily in Germany between 1981 and 1989. Some musicians, including Lord, took part in York's TV musical extravaganza Superdrumming between 1987 and 1989.
Later work, 1984–2006
Lord's re-emergence with Deep Purple in 1984 resulted in huge audiences for the reformed Mk II line-up, including 1985s second largest grossing tour in the US and an appearance in front of 80,000 rain-soaked fans headlining Knebworth on 22 June 1985, all to support the Perfect Strangers album. Playing with a rejuvenated Mk. II Purple line-up (including spells at a health farm to get the band including Lord into shape) and being onstage and in the studio with Blackmore, gave Lord the chance to push himself once again. His 'rubato' classical opening sequence to the album's opener, "Knocking at Your Back Door" (complete with F-Minor to G polychordal harmony sequence), gave Lord the chance to do his most powerful work for years, including the song "Perfect Strangers". Further Deep Purple albums followed, often of varying quality, and by the late-1990s, Lord was clearly keen to explore new avenues for his musical career.
In 1997, he created perhaps his most personal work to date, Pictured Within, released in 1998 with a European tour to support it. Lord's mother Miriam had died in August 1995 and the album is a deeply affecting piece, inflected at all stages by Lord's sense of grief. Recorded largely in Lord's home-away-from-home, the city of Cologne, the album's themes are Elgarian and alpine in equal measure. Lord signed to Virgin Classics to release it, and perhaps saw it as the first stage in his eventual departure from Purple to embark on a low-key and altogether more gentle solo career. One song from Pictured Within, entitled "Wait A While" was later covered by Norwegian singer Sissel Kyrkjebø on her 2003/2004 album My Heart. Lord finally retired from Deep Purple amicably in 2002, preceded by a knee injury that eventually resolved itself without surgery. He said subsequently, "Leaving Deep Purple was just as traumatic as I had always suspected it would be and more so – if you see what I mean". He even dedicated a song to it on 2004's solo effort, Beyond the Notes, called "De Profundis". The album was recorded in Bonn with producer Mario Argandoña between June and July 2004.
Pictured Within and Beyond the Notes provide the most personal work by Lord, and together, have what his earlier solo work perhaps lacks, a very clear musical voice that is quintessentially his. Together, both albums are uniquely crafted, mature pieces from a man in touch with himself and his spirituality. Lord slowly built a small, but distinct position and fan base for himself in Europe. He collaborated with former ABBA superstar and family friend, Frida (Anni-Frid Lyngstad,) on the 2004 track, "The Sun Will Shine Again" (with lyrics by Sam Brown) and performed with her across Europe. He subsequently also performed European concerts to première the 2007-scheduled Boom of the Tingling Strings orchestral piece.
In 2003 he also returned to his beloved R-n-B/blues heritage to record an album of standards in Sydney, with Australia's Jimmy Barnes, entitled Live in the Basement, by Jon Lord and the Hoochie Coochie Men, showing himself to be one of British rock music's most eclectic and talented instrumentalists. Lord was also happy to support the Sam Buxton Sunflower Jam Healing Trust and in September 2006, performed at a star-studded event to support the charity led by Ian Paice's wife, Jacky (twin sister of Lord's wife Vicky). Featured artists on stage with Lord included Paul Weller, Robert Plant, Phil Manzanera, Ian Paice and Bernie Marsden.
Final work, after 2006
Two Lord compositions, Boom of the Tingling Strings and "Disguises (Suite for String Orchestra)", were recorded in Denmark in 2006 and released in April 2008 on EMI Classics. Both featured the Odense Symfoniorkester, conducted by Paul Mann. Additionally, a second Hoochie Coochie Men album was recorded in July 2006 in London. This album, Danger – White Men Dancing, was released in October 2007. His Durham Concerto, commissioned by Durham University for its 175th anniversary celebrations, received its world premiere on 20 October 2007 in Durham Cathedral by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and featured soloists Lord on Hammond Organ, Kathryn Tickell on Northumbrian pipes, Matthew Barley on cello and Ruth Palmer on violin.[13] It became a hit in Classic FM's "Hall of Fame", alongside his piano concerto Boom of the Tingling Strings.[14]
Lord played piano on George Harrison's posthumously released Brainwashed album (2002) and became an important member of Harrison's social circle in Oxfordshire (Lord by now living at Hill House, in Fawley, Henley-On-Thames), the two having first met at Abbey Road studios in the late 1960s.[15] He was also a close friend of John Mortimer, whom he had accompanied on many occasions during Mortimer's performances of "Mortimer Miscellany". In 2007, Lord joined Derek Griffiths, Colin Martin and Malcolm Pool at an Artwoods reunion at the ART Tribute night, at York House in Twickenham. Ali Mackenzie took over Art Wood's role on vocals, and Chris Hunt played drums. They were joined on stage by guitarist Ronnie Wood and vocalist Geno Washington. Lord released his solo album To Notice Such Things on 29 March 2010.[16] Titled after the main work—a six movement suite for solo flute, piano and string orchestra—the album was inspired by, and was dedicated to, the memory of Jon's dear friend Sir John Mortimer, the English barrister, dramatist, screenwriter, author and creator of British television series Rumpole of the Bailey, who died in January 2009. On its first day of release, the album entered Amazon's Movers And Shakers index, nestling at No. 12 at the end of the day.[17] Six days later it entered the UK's official classical chart at No. 4.[18] Lord had been commissioned to compose a concerto for Hammond organ and orchestra with special parts for tympani. The piece was to be premiered with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra with Tom Vissgren on tympani in Oslo, Norway in the Spring of 2012. With Vladimir Ashkenazy and Josef Suk, Lord was one of three artistic sponsors of Toccata Classics.
In July 2011, Lord performed his final live concert appearance, the Sunflower Jam at the Royal Albert Hall, where he premiered his joint composition with Rick Wakeman.[19] At that point, they had begun informal discussion on recording an album together. Up until 2011, Lord had also been working on material with recently formed rock supergroup WhoCares, also featuring singer Ian Gillan from Deep Purple, guitarist Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath, second guitarist Mikko Lindström from HIM, bassist Jason Newsted formerly from Metallica and drummer Nicko McBrain from Iron Maiden, specifically the composition "Out of My Mind", in addition to new compositions with Steve Balsamo and a Hammond Organ Concerto.[20][21] Lord subsequently cancelled a performance of his Durham Concerto in Hagen, Germany,[22] for what his website said was a continuation of his medical treatment (the concert, scheduled for 6 July 2012, would have been his return to live performance after treatment).[23]
Lord's Concerto for Group and Orchestra was effectively recommissioned by him, recorded in Liverpool and at Abbey Road Studios across 2011 and under post-production in 2012 with the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra performing, conducted by long-time collaborator, conductor Paul Mann. The recording was at completion at the time of Lord's death, with Lord having been able to review the final master recordings. The album and DVD were subsequently released in 2012.
Personal life
Lord's first marriage, from 1969 to 1981, was to Judith Feldman, with whom he had one daughter, Sara. Lord's second wife, Vickie Gibbs was a former girlfriend of Purple band-mate Glenn Hughes and twin sister of Ian Paice's wife, Jacky Paice (founder of the charity Sunflower Jam). The sisters' father was Frank Gibbs, owner of the Oakley House Country Club in Brewood, South Staffordshire. Jon and Vickie also had one daughter, Amy.[24]
In July 2011, Lord was found to be suffering from pancreatic cancer. After treatment in both England and in Israel,[25] he died on 16 July 2012 at the London Clinic after suffering from a pulmonary embolism.[26][27][28][29] His interment was at Saint Mary the Virgin Church in Hambleden.
Influence and legacy
Lars Ulrich, founding member and drummer in Metallica commented, "Ever since my father took me to see them in 1973 in Copenhagen, at the impressionable age of 9, Deep Purple has been the most constant, continuous and inspiring musical presence in my life. They have meant more to me than any other band in existence, and have had an enormous part in shaping who I am. We can all be guilty of lightly throwing adjectives like 'unique,' 'one-of-a-kind' and 'pioneering' around when we want to describe our heroes and the people who've moved us, but there are no more fitting words than those right now and there simply was no musician like Jon Lord in the history of hard rock. Nobody. Period.There was nobody that played like him. There was nobody that sounded like him. There was nobody that wrote like him. There was nobody that looked like him. There was nobody more articulate, gentlemanly, warm, or fucking cooler that ever played keyboards or got anywhere near a keyboard. What he did was all his own".[30]
Former keyboard player of rock band Yes, Rick Wakeman, who was a friend of Lord's, said he was "a great fan" and added "We were going to write and record an album before he became ill. His contribution to music and to classic rock was immeasurable and I will miss him terribly." In mid-2013, Wakeman presented a BBC One East Midlands-produced TV programme about Lord and his connection to the town of his birth.[31]
Singer Anni-Frid Lyngstad (ABBA), who described Jon Lord as her "dearest friend", paid him tribute at the 2013 edition of Zermatt Unplugged, the annual music festival which both he and she served as patrons. "He was graceful, intelligent, polite, with a strong integrity," she said. "(He) had a strong empathy and a great deal of humour for his own and other people's weaknesses."[32]
Keyboardist Keith Emerson said of Lord's death, "Jon left us now but his music and inspiration will live forever. I am deeply saddend by his departure".[33] In a later interview in November 2013, he added, "In the early years I remember being quite jealous of Jon Lord – may he rest in peace. In September 1969 I heard he was debuting his "Concerto For Group & Orchestra" at the Royal Albert Hall, with none other than Malcolm Arnold conducting. Wow! I had to go along and see that. Jon and I ribbed each other, we were pretty much pals, but I walked away and thought: 'Shit, in a couple of weeks' time I'm going to be recording The Nice's Five Bridges Suite ... not at the Albert Hall but at the Fairfield Halls, Croydon!' A much more prosaic venue. Later, Jon wanted me to play on his solo album, Gemini Suite, but that was around the time ELP were breaking big and we were touring. He was a lovely guy, a real gentleman." [34]
A concert tribute to Lord took place on 4 April 2014 at the Royal Albert Hall. Performers and presenters included Deep Purple, Bruce Dickinson, Alfie Boe, Jeremy Irons, Joe Brown, Glenn Hughes, Miller Anderson and Steve Balsamo.[citation needed]
In December 2012 the Mayor of Leicester, Sir Peter Soulsby, joined the campaign to honour Lord with a blue plaque at his childhood home at 120 Averill Road, where he lived until he was twenty, saying it would be "an important reminder of the city's contribution to the world of contemporary music".
Early life
Growing up in Leicester
Lord was born in Leicester on 9 June 1941 to Miriam (1912–1995; née Hudson) and Reginald Lord, growing up at 120 Averill Road[2] and retaining a strong bond with the city throughout his life. His father was an amateur saxophone musician and encouraged Lord from an early age. He studied classical piano from the age of five, with a local teacher, Frederick Alt, 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 J. S. Bach (a constant connection in his music and 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.[3]
Lord absorbed the blues sounds that played a key part in his rock career, principally the raw sounds of the great American blues organists 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, who he saw perform at the De Montfort Hall in Leicester in March 1958.[4] 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.[5]
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, 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's 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.[6]
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's Bluesbreakers. Lord next founded the "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. Simper was contacted, and Blackmore was recalled from Hamburg. Although top British player Bobby Woodman 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 helped form the band "Boz" with some of its recordings being produced by Derek Lawrence. "Boz" included Boz Burrell (later of King Crimson and Bad Company), Blackmore (guitarist), Paice (drummer), Chas Hodges (bass guitarist).
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 the Hammond organ by driving it through Marshall speakers 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, admired by fans and peers alike but rarely replicated. 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 purchased 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.)[7]
Lord pushed the Hammond-Leslie sound through Marshall amplification, creating a growling, heavy, mechanical sound which allowed Lord 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 [Lord's] style, and all failed."[8] Said Lord himself, "There's a way of playing a Hammond [that's] different. 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."[9] In early Deep Purple recordings, Lord had appeared to be the leader of the band.[10] 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 (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. Blackmore agreed to go along with Lord's experimentation, provided he was given his head on the next band album.[8]
The resulting Concerto For Group and Orchestra (in 1969) 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 and later released as an album. The Concerto gave Deep Purple its first highly publicised taste of mainstream fame and gave Lord the confidence to believe that his experiment and his compositional skill had a future, as well as giving Lord the opportunity to work with established classical figures, such as conductor Sir Malcolm Arnold, who brought his skills to bear by helping Lord realise the work and to protect him from the inevitable disdain of the older members of the orchestra.
1970–1976
Purple began work on Deep Purple in Rock, released by their new label Harvest in 1970 and now recognised as one of hard rock's key early works. Lord and Blackmore competed to out-dazzle each other, often in classical-style, midsection 'call and answer' improvisation (on tracks like "Speed King"), something they employed to great effect live. Ian Gillan said that Lord provided the idea on the main organ riff for "Child in Time" although the riff was also based on It's a Beautiful Day's 1969 psychedelic hit song "Bombay Calling".[11] Lord's experimental solo on "Hard Lovin' Man" (complete with police-siren interpolation) from this album was his personal favourite among his Deep Purple studio performances.
Deep Purple released a sequence of albums between 1971's Fireball and 1975's Come Taste the Band. Gillan and Glover left in 1973 and Blackmore in 1975, and the band disintegrated in 1976. The highlights of Lord's Purple work in the period include the 1972 album Machine Head (featuring his rhythmic underpinnings on "Smoke on the Water" and "Space Truckin'", plus the organ solos on "Highway Star" and "Lazy"), the sonic bombast of the Made in Japan live album (1972), an extended, effect-laden solo on "Rat Bat Blue" from the Who Do We Think We Are album (1973), and his overall playing on the Burn album from 1974. Roger Glover would later describe Lord as a true "Zen-archer soloist", someone whose best keyboard improvisation often came at the first attempt. Lord's strict reliance on the Hammond C3 organ sound, as opposed to the synthesizer experimentation of his contemporaries, places him firmly in the jazz-blues category as a band musician and far from the progressive-rock sound of Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman. Lord rarely ventured into the synthesizer territory on Purple albums, often limiting his experimentation to the use of the ring modulator with the Hammond, to give live performances on tracks like Space Truckin' a distinctive 'spacey' sound. Instances of his Deep Purple synthesizer use (he became an endorser of the ARP Oyssey) include "'A' 200", the final track from Burn, and "Love Child" on the Come Taste the Band album.[citation needed]
In early 1973 Lord stated:
We're as valid as anything by Beethoven. (NME, March 1973[12])
As a composer
Lord continued to focus on his classical aspirations alongside his Deep Purple career. The BBC, buoyed by the success of the Concerto, commissioned him to write another piece and the resulting "Gemini Suite" was performed by Deep Purple and the Light Music Society under Malcolm Arnold at the Royal Festival Hall in September 1970, and then in Munich with the Kammerorchester conducted by Eberhard Schoener in January 1972. It then became the basis for Lord's first solo album, Gemini Suite, released in November 1972, with vocals by Yvonne Elliman and Tony Ashton and with the London Symphony Orchestra backing a band that included Albert Lee on guitar.
Lord's collaboration with the highly experimental and supportive Schoener resulted in a second live performance of the Suite in late 1973 and a new Lord album with Schoener, entitled Windows, in 1974. It proved to be Lord's most experimental work and was released to mixed reactions. However, the dalliances with Bach on Windows and the pleasure of collaborating with Schoener resulted in perhaps Lord's most confident solo work and perhaps his strongest orchestral album, Sarabande, recorded in Germany in September 1975 with the Philharmonia Hungarica conducted by Schoener.
Composed of eight pieces (from the opening sweep of Fantasia to the Finale), at least five pieces form the typical construction of a baroque dance suite. The key pieces (Sarabande, Gigue, Bouree, Pavane and Caprice) feature rich orchestration complemented sometimes by the interpolation of rock themes, played by a session band comprising Pete York, Mark Nauseef and Andy Summers, with organ and synthesizers played by Lord.
In March 1974, Lord and Paice had collaborated with friend Tony Ashton on First of the Big Bands, credited to 'Ashton & Lord' and featuring a rich array of session talent, including Carmine Appice, Ian Paice, Peter Frampton and Pink Floyd saxophonist/sessioner, Dick Parry. They performed much of the set live at the London Palladium in September 1974.
This formed the basis of Lord's first post-Deep Purple project Paice Ashton Lord, which lasted only a year and spawned a single album, Malice in Wonderland in 1977, recorded at Musicland Studios Musicland Studios at the Arabella Hotel in Munich. He created an informal group of friends and collaborators including Ashton, Paice, Bernie Marsden, Boz Burrell and later, Bad Company's Mick Ralphs, Simon Kirke and others. Over the same period, Lord guested on albums by Maggie Bell, Nazareth and even folk artist Richard Digance. Eager to pay off a huge tax bill upon his return the UK in the late-1970s (Purple's excesses included their own tour jet and a home Lord rented in Malibu from actress Ann-Margret and where he wrote the Sarabande album), Lord joined former Deep Purple band member David Coverdale's new band, Whitesnake in August 1978 (Ian Paice joined them in 1980 and stayed till 1982).
Whitesnake, 1978–1984
Lord's job in Whitesnake was largely limited to adding colour (or, in his own words, a 'halo') to round out a blues-rock sound that already accommodated two lead guitarists, Bernie Marsden and Micky Moody. He added a Yamaha CP-70 electric piano to his set-up and finally a huge bank of synthesizers onstage courtesy of Moog (MiniMoog, Opus, Polymoog) so he could play the 12-bar blues the band often required and recreate string section and other effects. Such varied work is evident on tracks like "Here I Go Again", "Wine, Women and Song", "She's a Woman" and "Till the Day I Die". A number of singles entered the UK chart, taking the now 40-something Lord onto Top of the Pops with regularity between 1980 and 1983. He later expressed frustration that he was a poorly paid hired-hand, but fans saw little of this discord and Whitesnake's commercial success kept him at the forefront of readers' polls as heavy rock's foremost keyboard maestro. His dissatisfaction (and Coverdale's eagerness to revamp the band's line-up and lower the average age to help crack the US market) smoothed the way for the reformation of Deep Purple Mk II in 1984.
Jon Lord's last Whitesnake concert took place in the Swedish TV programme Måndagsbörsen in 16 April 1984.
During his tenure in Whitesnake, Lord had the opportunity to record two distinctly different solo albums. 1982s Before I Forget featured a largely conventional eight-song line-up, no orchestra and with the bulk of the songs being either mainstream rock tracks ("Hollywood Rock And Roll", "Chance on a Feeling"), or – specifically on side two – a series of very English classical piano ballads sung by mother and daughter duo, Vicki Brown and Sam Brown (wife and daughter of entertainer Joe Brown) and vocalist Elmer Gantry as well as piano and synthesiser instrumentals such as Burntwood, named after Lord's home. The album also boasted the cream of British rock talent, including session drummer (and National Youth Jazz Orchestra alumnus) Simon Phillips, Cozy Powell, Neil Murray, Simon Kirke, Boz Burrell and Mick Ralphs.
Additionally, Lord was commissioned by producer Patrick Gamble for Central Television to write the soundtrack for their 1984 TV series, Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, based on the book by Edith Holden, with an orchestra conducted by Alfred Ralston and with a distinctly gentle, pastoral series of themes composed by Lord. Lord became firmly established as a member of UK rock's "Oxfordshire mansion aristocracy" – with a home, Burntwood Hall, set in 23.5 acres (9.5 ha) at Goring-on-Thames, complete with its own cricket pitch and a hand-painted Challen baby grand piano, previously owned by Shirley Bassey. He was asked to guest on albums by friends George Harrison (Gone Troppo from 1982) and Pink Floyd's David Gilmour (1984's About Face), Cozy Powell (Octopus in 1983) and to play on an adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's classic, Wind in the Willows. He composed and produced the score for White Fire (1984), which consisted largely of two songs performed by Limelight. In 1985 he made a brief appearance as a member of The Singing Rebel's band (which also featured Eric Clapton, George Harrison and Ringo Starr) in the Dick Clement and Ian Le Frenais scripted film Water (1985)(Handmade Films).
In the 1980s he was also a member of an all-star band called Olympic Rock & Blues Circus fronted by Pete York and featuring a rotating line-up of the likes of Miller Anderson, Tony Ashton, Brian Auger, Zoot Money, Colin Hodgkinson, Chris Farlowe and many others. Olympic Rock & Blues Circus toured primarily in Germany between 1981 and 1989. Some musicians, including Lord, took part in York's TV musical extravaganza Superdrumming between 1987 and 1989.
Later work, 1984–2006
Lord's re-emergence with Deep Purple in 1984 resulted in huge audiences for the reformed Mk II line-up, including 1985s second largest grossing tour in the US and an appearance in front of 80,000 rain-soaked fans headlining Knebworth on 22 June 1985, all to support the Perfect Strangers album. Playing with a rejuvenated Mk. II Purple line-up (including spells at a health farm to get the band including Lord into shape) and being onstage and in the studio with Blackmore, gave Lord the chance to push himself once again. His 'rubato' classical opening sequence to the album's opener, "Knocking at Your Back Door" (complete with F-Minor to G polychordal harmony sequence), gave Lord the chance to do his most powerful work for years, including the song "Perfect Strangers". Further Deep Purple albums followed, often of varying quality, and by the late-1990s, Lord was clearly keen to explore new avenues for his musical career.
In 1997, he created perhaps his most personal work to date, Pictured Within, released in 1998 with a European tour to support it. Lord's mother Miriam had died in August 1995 and the album is a deeply affecting piece, inflected at all stages by Lord's sense of grief. Recorded largely in Lord's home-away-from-home, the city of Cologne, the album's themes are Elgarian and alpine in equal measure. Lord signed to Virgin Classics to release it, and perhaps saw it as the first stage in his eventual departure from Purple to embark on a low-key and altogether more gentle solo career. One song from Pictured Within, entitled "Wait A While" was later covered by Norwegian singer Sissel Kyrkjebø on her 2003/2004 album My Heart. Lord finally retired from Deep Purple amicably in 2002, preceded by a knee injury that eventually resolved itself without surgery. He said subsequently, "Leaving Deep Purple was just as traumatic as I had always suspected it would be and more so – if you see what I mean". He even dedicated a song to it on 2004's solo effort, Beyond the Notes, called "De Profundis". The album was recorded in Bonn with producer Mario Argandoña between June and July 2004.
Pictured Within and Beyond the Notes provide the most personal work by Lord, and together, have what his earlier solo work perhaps lacks, a very clear musical voice that is quintessentially his. Together, both albums are uniquely crafted, mature pieces from a man in touch with himself and his spirituality. Lord slowly built a small, but distinct position and fan base for himself in Europe. He collaborated with former ABBA superstar and family friend, Frida (Anni-Frid Lyngstad,) on the 2004 track, "The Sun Will Shine Again" (with lyrics by Sam Brown) and performed with her across Europe. He subsequently also performed European concerts to première the 2007-scheduled Boom of the Tingling Strings orchestral piece.
In 2003 he also returned to his beloved R-n-B/blues heritage to record an album of standards in Sydney, with Australia's Jimmy Barnes, entitled Live in the Basement, by Jon Lord and the Hoochie Coochie Men, showing himself to be one of British rock music's most eclectic and talented instrumentalists. Lord was also happy to support the Sam Buxton Sunflower Jam Healing Trust and in September 2006, performed at a star-studded event to support the charity led by Ian Paice's wife, Jacky (twin sister of Lord's wife Vicky). Featured artists on stage with Lord included Paul Weller, Robert Plant, Phil Manzanera, Ian Paice and Bernie Marsden.
Final work, after 2006
Two Lord compositions, Boom of the Tingling Strings and "Disguises (Suite for String Orchestra)", were recorded in Denmark in 2006 and released in April 2008 on EMI Classics. Both featured the Odense Symfoniorkester, conducted by Paul Mann. Additionally, a second Hoochie Coochie Men album was recorded in July 2006 in London. This album, Danger – White Men Dancing, was released in October 2007. His Durham Concerto, commissioned by Durham University for its 175th anniversary celebrations, received its world premiere on 20 October 2007 in Durham Cathedral by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and featured soloists Lord on Hammond Organ, Kathryn Tickell on Northumbrian pipes, Matthew Barley on cello and Ruth Palmer on violin.[13] It became a hit in Classic FM's "Hall of Fame", alongside his piano concerto Boom of the Tingling Strings.[14]
Lord played piano on George Harrison's posthumously released Brainwashed album (2002) and became an important member of Harrison's social circle in Oxfordshire (Lord by now living at Hill House, in Fawley, Henley-On-Thames), the two having first met at Abbey Road studios in the late 1960s.[15] He was also a close friend of John Mortimer, whom he had accompanied on many occasions during Mortimer's performances of "Mortimer Miscellany". In 2007, Lord joined Derek Griffiths, Colin Martin and Malcolm Pool at an Artwoods reunion at the ART Tribute night, at York House in Twickenham. Ali Mackenzie took over Art Wood's role on vocals, and Chris Hunt played drums. They were joined on stage by guitarist Ronnie Wood and vocalist Geno Washington. Lord released his solo album To Notice Such Things on 29 March 2010.[16] Titled after the main work—a six movement suite for solo flute, piano and string orchestra—the album was inspired by, and was dedicated to, the memory of Jon's dear friend Sir John Mortimer, the English barrister, dramatist, screenwriter, author and creator of British television series Rumpole of the Bailey, who died in January 2009. On its first day of release, the album entered Amazon's Movers And Shakers index, nestling at No. 12 at the end of the day.[17] Six days later it entered the UK's official classical chart at No. 4.[18] Lord had been commissioned to compose a concerto for Hammond organ and orchestra with special parts for tympani. The piece was to be premiered with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra with Tom Vissgren on tympani in Oslo, Norway in the Spring of 2012. With Vladimir Ashkenazy and Josef Suk, Lord was one of three artistic sponsors of Toccata Classics.
In July 2011, Lord performed his final live concert appearance, the Sunflower Jam at the Royal Albert Hall, where he premiered his joint composition with Rick Wakeman.[19] At that point, they had begun informal discussion on recording an album together. Up until 2011, Lord had also been working on material with recently formed rock supergroup WhoCares, also featuring singer Ian Gillan from Deep Purple, guitarist Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath, second guitarist Mikko Lindström from HIM, bassist Jason Newsted formerly from Metallica and drummer Nicko McBrain from Iron Maiden, specifically the composition "Out of My Mind", in addition to new compositions with Steve Balsamo and a Hammond Organ Concerto.[20][21] Lord subsequently cancelled a performance of his Durham Concerto in Hagen, Germany,[22] for what his website said was a continuation of his medical treatment (the concert, scheduled for 6 July 2012, would have been his return to live performance after treatment).[23]
Lord's Concerto for Group and Orchestra was effectively recommissioned by him, recorded in Liverpool and at Abbey Road Studios across 2011 and under post-production in 2012 with the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra performing, conducted by long-time collaborator, conductor Paul Mann. The recording was at completion at the time of Lord's death, with Lord having been able to review the final master recordings. The album and DVD were subsequently released in 2012.
Personal life
Lord's first marriage, from 1969 to 1981, was to Judith Feldman, with whom he had one daughter, Sara. Lord's second wife, Vickie Gibbs was a former girlfriend of Purple band-mate Glenn Hughes and twin sister of Ian Paice's wife, Jacky Paice (founder of the charity Sunflower Jam). The sisters' father was Frank Gibbs, owner of the Oakley House Country Club in Brewood, South Staffordshire. Jon and Vickie also had one daughter, Amy.[24]
In July 2011, Lord was found to be suffering from pancreatic cancer. After treatment in both England and in Israel,[25] he died on 16 July 2012 at the London Clinic after suffering from a pulmonary embolism.[26][27][28][29] His interment was at Saint Mary the Virgin Church in Hambleden.
Influence and legacy
Lars Ulrich, founding member and drummer in Metallica commented, "Ever since my father took me to see them in 1973 in Copenhagen, at the impressionable age of 9, Deep Purple has been the most constant, continuous and inspiring musical presence in my life. They have meant more to me than any other band in existence, and have had an enormous part in shaping who I am. We can all be guilty of lightly throwing adjectives like 'unique,' 'one-of-a-kind' and 'pioneering' around when we want to describe our heroes and the people who've moved us, but there are no more fitting words than those right now and there simply was no musician like Jon Lord in the history of hard rock. Nobody. Period.There was nobody that played like him. There was nobody that sounded like him. There was nobody that wrote like him. There was nobody that looked like him. There was nobody more articulate, gentlemanly, warm, or fucking cooler that ever played keyboards or got anywhere near a keyboard. What he did was all his own".[30]
Former keyboard player of rock band Yes, Rick Wakeman, who was a friend of Lord's, said he was "a great fan" and added "We were going to write and record an album before he became ill. His contribution to music and to classic rock was immeasurable and I will miss him terribly." In mid-2013, Wakeman presented a BBC One East Midlands-produced TV programme about Lord and his connection to the town of his birth.[31]
Singer Anni-Frid Lyngstad (ABBA), who described Jon Lord as her "dearest friend", paid him tribute at the 2013 edition of Zermatt Unplugged, the annual music festival which both he and she served as patrons. "He was graceful, intelligent, polite, with a strong integrity," she said. "(He) had a strong empathy and a great deal of humour for his own and other people's weaknesses."[32]
Keyboardist Keith Emerson said of Lord's death, "Jon left us now but his music and inspiration will live forever. I am deeply saddend by his departure".[33] In a later interview in November 2013, he added, "In the early years I remember being quite jealous of Jon Lord – may he rest in peace. In September 1969 I heard he was debuting his "Concerto For Group & Orchestra" at the Royal Albert Hall, with none other than Malcolm Arnold conducting. Wow! I had to go along and see that. Jon and I ribbed each other, we were pretty much pals, but I walked away and thought: 'Shit, in a couple of weeks' time I'm going to be recording The Nice's Five Bridges Suite ... not at the Albert Hall but at the Fairfield Halls, Croydon!' A much more prosaic venue. Later, Jon wanted me to play on his solo album, Gemini Suite, but that was around the time ELP were breaking big and we were touring. He was a lovely guy, a real gentleman." [34]
A concert tribute to Lord took place on 4 April 2014 at the Royal Albert Hall. Performers and presenters included Deep Purple, Bruce Dickinson, Alfie Boe, Jeremy Irons, Joe Brown, Glenn Hughes, Miller Anderson and Steve Balsamo.[citation needed]
In December 2012 the Mayor of Leicester, Sir Peter Soulsby, joined the campaign to honour Lord with a blue plaque at his childhood home at 120 Averill Road, where he lived until he was twenty, saying it would be "an important reminder of the city's contribution to the world of contemporary music".
JON LORD & HOOCHIE COOCHIE MAN Back at the Chicken Shack & You Need Love
T-Model Ford +16.07.2013
T-Model Ford (eigentlich James Lewis Carter Ford, * zwischen 1920 und 1925, wahrscheinlich 1924[1] in Forest Mississippi[2][3]; † 16. Juli 2013 in Greenville, Mississippi[4]) war ein US-amerikanischer Blues-Gitarrist, Sänger und Songwriter.
Gemäß seinen eignen Angaben wuchs Ford als Sohn eines Pächters auf, der ihn bis zu seinem 17. Lebensjahr weder habe ausgehen, noch zur Schule gehen lassen. Er verbrachte den ersten Teil seines Lebens als Arbeiter in verschiedenen Jobs, wie z.B. Feldarbeiter, Arbeiter in einem Sägewerk und später als Vorarbeiter. Zwei Jahre seines Lebens soll er im Gefängnis verbracht haben, weil er einen Mann getötet habe, laut eigener Aussage sei es Selbstverteidigung gewesen. Bis zu seinem 58. Geburtstag hatte er mit Musik nur als Zuhörer zu tun, erst dann schenkte ihm seine fünfte Frau eine Gitarre und er begann sich selbst das Gitarrenspiel beizubringen. Seine Plattenkarriere begann erst, als er ca. 75 Jahre alt war.[5]
Außerhalb des Mississippideltas begann er in den 1990er-Jahren zu touren. Sein nationaler Durchbruch gelang ihm, als er im Vorprogramm von Buddy Guy auftrat. Wenn er nicht auf Tournee durch die Bluesklubs war, trat er gemeinsam mit seinem Drummer Spam (Tommy Lee Miles) auf der Nelson Street in Greenville, Mississippi, auf, wo sie bis zu acht Stunden spielten.[6] T-Model Ford starb nach einer Serie von Schlaganfällen, wie unter anderem eines seiner Plattenlabels, Fat Possum Records, bekannt gab. Laut offizieller Akten starb er im Alter von 94 Jahren.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Model_Ford
James Lewis Carter Ford (c. early 1920s – July 16, 2013) was an American blues musician, using the name T-Model Ford.[1] Unable to remember his exact date of birth, he began his musical career in his early 70s, and continuously recorded for the Fat Possum label, then switched to Alive Naturalsound Records. His musical style combined the rawness of Delta blues[1] with Chicago blues and juke joint blues styles.[2][3][4]
Biography
According to records, Ford's year of birth was between 1921 and 1925,[5] though at the time of his death his record company gave his age as 94, suggesting a birth in 1918 or 1919.[6] Starting with an abusive father who had permanently injured him at eleven, Ford lived his entire life in a distressed and violent environment, towards which he was quite indifferent.[7]
Ford, an illiterate, worked in various blue collar jobs as early as his preteen years, such as plowing fields, working at a sawmill, and later in life becoming a lumber company foreman and then a truck driver. At this time, Ford was sentenced to ten years on a chain gang for murder. Allegedly, Ford was able to reduce his sentence to two years.[5] He spent many of his years following his release in conflicts with law enforcement.
Ford lived in Greenville, Mississippi and for a time wrote an advice column for Arthur magazine. Reportedly, he had twenty six children.[7][8]
According to music writer Will Hodgkinson, who met and interviewed Ford for his book Guitar Man, Ford took up the guitar when his fifth wife left him and gave him a guitar as a leaving present. Ford trained himself without being able to read music or guitar tabs. Hodgkinson observed that Ford could not explain his technique. He simply worked out a way of playing that sounded like the guitarists he admired — Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf.
Ford toured juke joints and other venues, for a while opening for Buddy Guy.[1] In 1995, he was discovered by Matthew Johnson of Fat Possum Records,[8] under which he released five albums from 1997 to 2008.
Since 2008, Ford worked with the Seattle-based band, GravelRoad. The project began as a single event, with Ford needing assistance to play the Deep Blues Festival in Minnesota in July 2008. GravelRoad, longtime fans of Ford and performers already scheduled for the festival, agreed to provide support for a ten-show United States tour for Ford through July.
Ford had a pacemaker inserted at the end of that tour, but appeared on stage again with GravelRoad in 2008, 2009 and 2010. He suffered a stroke in early 2010, but despite difficulty with right-hand mobility, managed to complete a successful tour with GravelRoad. This tour concluded with an appearance at Pickathon Festival. Ford and GravelRoad opened the third day of the All Tomorrow's Parties Festival, in New York over Labor Day weekend, 2010, curated by American independent film-maker Jim Jarmusch.
GravelRoad backed Ford on his 2010 and 2011 albums, The Ladies Man and Taledragger, both released by Alive Naturalsound Records.
Ford suffered a second stroke in the summer of 2012 that limited his public appearances.[9] However, he was able to perform at that year's King Biscuit Blues Festival in October.
On July 16, 2013, Fat Possum announced that Ford died at home in Greenville of respiratory failure after a prolonged illness.
Biography
According to records, Ford's year of birth was between 1921 and 1925,[5] though at the time of his death his record company gave his age as 94, suggesting a birth in 1918 or 1919.[6] Starting with an abusive father who had permanently injured him at eleven, Ford lived his entire life in a distressed and violent environment, towards which he was quite indifferent.[7]
Ford, an illiterate, worked in various blue collar jobs as early as his preteen years, such as plowing fields, working at a sawmill, and later in life becoming a lumber company foreman and then a truck driver. At this time, Ford was sentenced to ten years on a chain gang for murder. Allegedly, Ford was able to reduce his sentence to two years.[5] He spent many of his years following his release in conflicts with law enforcement.
Ford lived in Greenville, Mississippi and for a time wrote an advice column for Arthur magazine. Reportedly, he had twenty six children.[7][8]
According to music writer Will Hodgkinson, who met and interviewed Ford for his book Guitar Man, Ford took up the guitar when his fifth wife left him and gave him a guitar as a leaving present. Ford trained himself without being able to read music or guitar tabs. Hodgkinson observed that Ford could not explain his technique. He simply worked out a way of playing that sounded like the guitarists he admired — Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf.
Ford toured juke joints and other venues, for a while opening for Buddy Guy.[1] In 1995, he was discovered by Matthew Johnson of Fat Possum Records,[8] under which he released five albums from 1997 to 2008.
Since 2008, Ford worked with the Seattle-based band, GravelRoad. The project began as a single event, with Ford needing assistance to play the Deep Blues Festival in Minnesota in July 2008. GravelRoad, longtime fans of Ford and performers already scheduled for the festival, agreed to provide support for a ten-show United States tour for Ford through July.
Ford had a pacemaker inserted at the end of that tour, but appeared on stage again with GravelRoad in 2008, 2009 and 2010. He suffered a stroke in early 2010, but despite difficulty with right-hand mobility, managed to complete a successful tour with GravelRoad. This tour concluded with an appearance at Pickathon Festival. Ford and GravelRoad opened the third day of the All Tomorrow's Parties Festival, in New York over Labor Day weekend, 2010, curated by American independent film-maker Jim Jarmusch.
GravelRoad backed Ford on his 2010 and 2011 albums, The Ladies Man and Taledragger, both released by Alive Naturalsound Records.
Ford suffered a second stroke in the summer of 2012 that limited his public appearances.[9] However, he was able to perform at that year's King Biscuit Blues Festival in October.
On July 16, 2013, Fat Possum announced that Ford died at home in Greenville of respiratory failure after a prolonged illness.
Maynard Silva +16.07.2008
Maynard Silva, the Vineyard’s homegrown, authentic American roots bluesman who was known and admired from Gay Head to Chappaquiddick with his National guitar, reedy harmonica, red high-top sneakers and growl of a voice, died Wednesday at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital after a three-year battle with cancer. He was 57. His wife Basia Jaworska Silva and son Milo Silva were with him at the time of his death.
A native Island son, Maynard had played with many of the blues greats, including J.B. Hutto, Bukka White, Buddy Guy and Rick Danko. He came of age as a musician in the early 1970s in St. Louis. “I played in this place called Alice’s Moonlight Lounge,” he told the Gazette in an interview in 1994. “I played for guys who were off their shift, they were factory guys who had been up all night. They would be in there, drinking their lunch, and it was a black bar. I’d play Jimmy Reed songs and Elmore James, ’cause that’s what they loved. They’d sit there and sing along with it.”
He bought his first harmonica at the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore.
“This was 1971. Maynard Silva was a Vineyard kid in St. Louis, learning the blues the hard way — the right way, the only way,” wrote Gazette reporter Jason Gay in the 1994 interview.
“He was a wolf in every sense of the word at one time or another. He is about this world experience, raw, on-the-toes reaching-for-the-heavens kind of music,” said radio disc jockey and friend Laurel Reddington during a rich musical tribute to Maynard that aired on Vineyard radio station WMVY on Wednesday night.
“Yes, it’s a sad thing that we don’t live forever,” Maynard told the Gazette in 1994. “We don’t get to be with the people we love all the time. Bad things happen to people. How do you accept that? That’s a question I’m not equipped to answer. I’m not a philosopher, I’m a guitar player.”
Maynard Silva was born Feb. 20, 1951 in Oak Bluffs, the son of Frank and Mabel Porter Silva of Vineyard Haven. His father worked in a gas station and managed the town cemetery; his mother worked at Vineyard Dry Goods. His older brother Thomas died in the Korean War when Maynard was still a baby. (The album Exorcism and Guardian Angels is dedicated to the brother he never knew.)
He graduated from the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School in 1969. His first introduction to the blues came from his high school English teacher Leroy Hazelton. “He played a Howlin‘ Wolf record for me. All I’d heard before was rock and roll and Wolf’s blues was so intense it scared me!” he said in a Gazette interview in 1987. Two other early Island influences were Gene Baer, an art teacher at the high school who was a boogie-woogie piano player and took the time to explain music theory to him, and Peter Ortiz, a professional sign painter on the Island. As a teenager, Maynard apprenticed to Mr. Ortiz.
“‘Don’t be afraid to improvise. If you can do that you can always get by.’ He used that word improvise a lot in sign painting just like people do in music,” Maynard once recalled.
He would later take up sign painting and music as dual careers.
After graduating from high school he entered Lindenwood College near St. Louis.
“I thought I’d be able to hear a lot of blues in St. Louis. I was wrong. So I started going down river to Memphis on weekends and hanging around the clubs on Beale street,” he told the Gazette in 1987.
He left college to study the blues and soon was getting work as a guitarist in Memphis. Of all the musicians he played with, he was most proud of his association with Bukka White, which began on Beale street in 1972. It ended four years later in Boston when he was supposed to play a gig with Bukka at a Boston nightclub, but the musician had a stroke as he was getting off the airplane and never played again.
Another early influence was Paul Butterfield.
“He was doing these slow blues. I just related to the whole thing . . . blues songs made me look at what I saw in my own life,” he said in a Martha’s Vineyard magazine interview in 2002.
He started his own band, the Maynard Silva Band, which cut a record in 1982 and was the subject of a television documentary.
“Fame and fortune, however, are not what Maynard considers the measure of his success in music,” the Gazette reported five years later. “He is proud of keeping the pure American blues sound alive, and of being able to hold his own on stage with people like Buddy Guy.”
In the late 1980s, tired of life on the road, Mr. Silva returned home to the Vineyard where he married and began to raise a family.
“I love the music but I hate show business,” he told the Gazette. “I played professionally for 10 years without taking a week off. Now I want to spend holidays with my family. It’s depressing to be on stage in a bar at Christmastime. Tragic heroes are great to watch but it’s not fun to be one. I’m lucky I’m still a sign painter.”
Maynard Silva
Over the next two decades he continued to play slide guitar, electric and acoustic, alone and in various bands. He played gigs in all the places where emerging musicians of the day were turning up to jam and perform, from Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel in Providence, R.I., to the Agricultural Fair in West Tisbury.
He also navigated many rough spots in his life, including addiction. His first marriage ended in divorce. And in his music, he deliberately turned his back on what he called corporate blues.
“It’s hard to see this big explosion of BMW blues, you know? I mean Eric Clapton, a multimillionaire singing about five long years working in a steel mill?” he said in the 1994 Gazette interview.
In 1998 he met Basia Jaworska, an Island artist. Yesterday she recalled their first encounter: “I had been on a trip to Portugal and I met Silvas there and I thought, there’s that guy Maynard Silva on the Island, I wonder if he knows anything about his roots? He happened to be playing a rain date for the harbor fest. I went down there with my sketch book. I was being like a sniper artist and sketching him.”
Later she saw him at the post office and offered to send him the sketch. “He was so flustered he didn’t know his post office box number. But then he gave it to me and I sent him the sketch. We ran into each other again later at the bank — the Island is like that — and he said, can I call you. And that was it,” she said.
They were married in January of 2007.
“I’ve played with many blues players and Maynard was a true bluesman in the truest tradition,” said Al Shackman yesterday, a close friend and former session guitarist with Atlantic Records who lives on the Vineyard. “It was quite unexpected — one doesn’t come across true steeped-in-the tradition blues players anymore. He was like a throwback. I came to have the highest respect for him and put him on the same platform as those other bluesmen from the Four Corners to Chicago to Kansas City. He had it and there won’t be another one coming along very soon, if ever,” he said. They had planned to make a CD together. “Guess we will have to look forward to the flip side of life for that,” Mr. Shackman said.
“What kind of blues guitarist was he? The one I always wanted to be,” said Don Groover, an Oak Bluffs resident who was trained at Berklee College of Music and is widely regarded as one of the best professional guitarists on the Island. “What Maynard did for me was he made me realize that you really have to play from the gut. I’ve been trying to do what he does ever since — just play from the heart,” he said.
His solo albums were Maynard Silva, Dancing with El Distorto, Exorcism and Guardian Angels, Rocket Science and Blues Verite. With his band the New Hawks he recorded Wall of Tin and Howl at the Moon. He was also included in several anthologies, most notably Best of Slide Guitar (Wolf Records), A Beanpot of Songs (Blues Trust) and Best of Vineyard Sound (Rhino Records). His music was used for this summer’s performance of the play Rising Water at the Vineyard Playhouse. He loved war movies and the Boston Celtics. Bill Russell was one of his heroes. Fatherhood affected him profoundly and after his divorce he raised his son Milo alone. And he hewed to the simple Vineyard life. “I don’t own a cell phone because I lose things that are smaller than a guitar. I used to play a harmonica but I kept losing it,” he told WMVY in an interview that aired again as part of the radio tribute on Wednesday night.
Three years ago Maynard developed cancer and the Vineyard music community rallied around him, although he refused to allow any benefit concerts, continuing to play his own benefit gigs for others. Then in May this year Island musicians organized a special tribute and benefit for him at Outerland. Following the event, Maynard wrote in a letter to the Gazette: “For me the best thing was still the music. Hearing people who I’ve watched study roots music for decades cut loose and play it real not only packed the dance floor but warmed my heart. Thanks for the hard work, the love, the money, and most of all for the spirit.”
In addition to his wife and his son he is survived by an aunt, Barbara Dugan of Oak Bluffs; two cousins, Glenn Andrews of West Tisbury and Tom Anzer of Concord and their families; his mother in law Teresa Jaworski of Vineyard Haven, and two brothers in law and one sister in law and their families.
He was cremated. A memorial celebration of his life will be held at a future date to be announced.
A native Island son, Maynard had played with many of the blues greats, including J.B. Hutto, Bukka White, Buddy Guy and Rick Danko. He came of age as a musician in the early 1970s in St. Louis. “I played in this place called Alice’s Moonlight Lounge,” he told the Gazette in an interview in 1994. “I played for guys who were off their shift, they were factory guys who had been up all night. They would be in there, drinking their lunch, and it was a black bar. I’d play Jimmy Reed songs and Elmore James, ’cause that’s what they loved. They’d sit there and sing along with it.”
He bought his first harmonica at the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore.
“This was 1971. Maynard Silva was a Vineyard kid in St. Louis, learning the blues the hard way — the right way, the only way,” wrote Gazette reporter Jason Gay in the 1994 interview.
“He was a wolf in every sense of the word at one time or another. He is about this world experience, raw, on-the-toes reaching-for-the-heavens kind of music,” said radio disc jockey and friend Laurel Reddington during a rich musical tribute to Maynard that aired on Vineyard radio station WMVY on Wednesday night.
“Yes, it’s a sad thing that we don’t live forever,” Maynard told the Gazette in 1994. “We don’t get to be with the people we love all the time. Bad things happen to people. How do you accept that? That’s a question I’m not equipped to answer. I’m not a philosopher, I’m a guitar player.”
Maynard Silva was born Feb. 20, 1951 in Oak Bluffs, the son of Frank and Mabel Porter Silva of Vineyard Haven. His father worked in a gas station and managed the town cemetery; his mother worked at Vineyard Dry Goods. His older brother Thomas died in the Korean War when Maynard was still a baby. (The album Exorcism and Guardian Angels is dedicated to the brother he never knew.)
He graduated from the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School in 1969. His first introduction to the blues came from his high school English teacher Leroy Hazelton. “He played a Howlin‘ Wolf record for me. All I’d heard before was rock and roll and Wolf’s blues was so intense it scared me!” he said in a Gazette interview in 1987. Two other early Island influences were Gene Baer, an art teacher at the high school who was a boogie-woogie piano player and took the time to explain music theory to him, and Peter Ortiz, a professional sign painter on the Island. As a teenager, Maynard apprenticed to Mr. Ortiz.
“‘Don’t be afraid to improvise. If you can do that you can always get by.’ He used that word improvise a lot in sign painting just like people do in music,” Maynard once recalled.
He would later take up sign painting and music as dual careers.
After graduating from high school he entered Lindenwood College near St. Louis.
“I thought I’d be able to hear a lot of blues in St. Louis. I was wrong. So I started going down river to Memphis on weekends and hanging around the clubs on Beale street,” he told the Gazette in 1987.
He left college to study the blues and soon was getting work as a guitarist in Memphis. Of all the musicians he played with, he was most proud of his association with Bukka White, which began on Beale street in 1972. It ended four years later in Boston when he was supposed to play a gig with Bukka at a Boston nightclub, but the musician had a stroke as he was getting off the airplane and never played again.
Another early influence was Paul Butterfield.
“He was doing these slow blues. I just related to the whole thing . . . blues songs made me look at what I saw in my own life,” he said in a Martha’s Vineyard magazine interview in 2002.
He started his own band, the Maynard Silva Band, which cut a record in 1982 and was the subject of a television documentary.
“Fame and fortune, however, are not what Maynard considers the measure of his success in music,” the Gazette reported five years later. “He is proud of keeping the pure American blues sound alive, and of being able to hold his own on stage with people like Buddy Guy.”
In the late 1980s, tired of life on the road, Mr. Silva returned home to the Vineyard where he married and began to raise a family.
“I love the music but I hate show business,” he told the Gazette. “I played professionally for 10 years without taking a week off. Now I want to spend holidays with my family. It’s depressing to be on stage in a bar at Christmastime. Tragic heroes are great to watch but it’s not fun to be one. I’m lucky I’m still a sign painter.”
Maynard Silva
Over the next two decades he continued to play slide guitar, electric and acoustic, alone and in various bands. He played gigs in all the places where emerging musicians of the day were turning up to jam and perform, from Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel in Providence, R.I., to the Agricultural Fair in West Tisbury.
He also navigated many rough spots in his life, including addiction. His first marriage ended in divorce. And in his music, he deliberately turned his back on what he called corporate blues.
“It’s hard to see this big explosion of BMW blues, you know? I mean Eric Clapton, a multimillionaire singing about five long years working in a steel mill?” he said in the 1994 Gazette interview.
In 1998 he met Basia Jaworska, an Island artist. Yesterday she recalled their first encounter: “I had been on a trip to Portugal and I met Silvas there and I thought, there’s that guy Maynard Silva on the Island, I wonder if he knows anything about his roots? He happened to be playing a rain date for the harbor fest. I went down there with my sketch book. I was being like a sniper artist and sketching him.”
Later she saw him at the post office and offered to send him the sketch. “He was so flustered he didn’t know his post office box number. But then he gave it to me and I sent him the sketch. We ran into each other again later at the bank — the Island is like that — and he said, can I call you. And that was it,” she said.
They were married in January of 2007.
“I’ve played with many blues players and Maynard was a true bluesman in the truest tradition,” said Al Shackman yesterday, a close friend and former session guitarist with Atlantic Records who lives on the Vineyard. “It was quite unexpected — one doesn’t come across true steeped-in-the tradition blues players anymore. He was like a throwback. I came to have the highest respect for him and put him on the same platform as those other bluesmen from the Four Corners to Chicago to Kansas City. He had it and there won’t be another one coming along very soon, if ever,” he said. They had planned to make a CD together. “Guess we will have to look forward to the flip side of life for that,” Mr. Shackman said.
“What kind of blues guitarist was he? The one I always wanted to be,” said Don Groover, an Oak Bluffs resident who was trained at Berklee College of Music and is widely regarded as one of the best professional guitarists on the Island. “What Maynard did for me was he made me realize that you really have to play from the gut. I’ve been trying to do what he does ever since — just play from the heart,” he said.
His solo albums were Maynard Silva, Dancing with El Distorto, Exorcism and Guardian Angels, Rocket Science and Blues Verite. With his band the New Hawks he recorded Wall of Tin and Howl at the Moon. He was also included in several anthologies, most notably Best of Slide Guitar (Wolf Records), A Beanpot of Songs (Blues Trust) and Best of Vineyard Sound (Rhino Records). His music was used for this summer’s performance of the play Rising Water at the Vineyard Playhouse. He loved war movies and the Boston Celtics. Bill Russell was one of his heroes. Fatherhood affected him profoundly and after his divorce he raised his son Milo alone. And he hewed to the simple Vineyard life. “I don’t own a cell phone because I lose things that are smaller than a guitar. I used to play a harmonica but I kept losing it,” he told WMVY in an interview that aired again as part of the radio tribute on Wednesday night.
Three years ago Maynard developed cancer and the Vineyard music community rallied around him, although he refused to allow any benefit concerts, continuing to play his own benefit gigs for others. Then in May this year Island musicians organized a special tribute and benefit for him at Outerland. Following the event, Maynard wrote in a letter to the Gazette: “For me the best thing was still the music. Hearing people who I’ve watched study roots music for decades cut loose and play it real not only packed the dance floor but warmed my heart. Thanks for the hard work, the love, the money, and most of all for the spirit.”
In addition to his wife and his son he is survived by an aunt, Barbara Dugan of Oak Bluffs; two cousins, Glenn Andrews of West Tisbury and Tom Anzer of Concord and their families; his mother in law Teresa Jaworski of Vineyard Haven, and two brothers in law and one sister in law and their families.
He was cremated. A memorial celebration of his life will be held at a future date to be announced.
MAYNARD SILVA BLUES FEST 07
Johnny Winter +16.07.2014
Für mich immer noch eines der
besten Konzerte der letzten Jahre, Johnny Winter bei den Leverkusener
Jazztagen 2010. Ein vom unsteten Lebenswandel gezeichneter Johnny
Winter schleicht auf die Bühne. Er erinnert ein wenig an die Hexe
aus Hänsel und Gretel. Tja wenn das die Hexe ist, dann wäre ich
auch gerne Hänsel. Auf seinem Stuhl angekommen legt er los, ein
Gitarrenfestival allererster Güte. Sein virtuoses Spiel degradiert
schnell alle anderen anwesenden Gitarristen (sein Bandkollege Paul
Nelson, als Gast Eric Sardinas) zu Statisten.
Johnny Winter
(* 23. Februar 1944 als John Dawson Winter III in Beaumont, Texas; † 16.
Juli 2014 im Bezirk Bülach, Kanton Zürich, Schweiz) war ein
amerikanischer Blues-Gitarrist, Sänger und Produzent.
Leben
Johnny Winter kam mit Albinismus zur Welt. Er war der ältere Bruder des Musikers und Komponisten Edgar Winter. Bereits in jungen Jahren trat er zusammen mit ihm auf. Als er fünfzehn Jahre alt war, nahmen die beiden mit ihrer Band Johnny and the Jammers die Platte School Day Blues bei einem Plattenlabel in Houston auf. Seine Vorbilder waren Muddy Waters, B. B. King und Bobby Bland.
1968 begann Johnny Winter in einem Trio mit Bassist Tommy Shannon und Schlagzeuger Uncle John Turner zu spielen. Durch einen Artikel im Rolling Stone erhielten sie eine gewisse Aufmerksamkeit und bekamen einen Vertrag beim kleinen Label Liberty. Nach einem Auftritt im Fillmore East Anfang 1968 stieg der Bekanntheitsgrad des Musikers dermaßen an, dass sich bald RCA und Columbia um ihn stritten. Nachdem Columbia das Rennen für sich entschieden und einen für damalige Verhältnisse sehr hohen Vorschuss von 600.000 Dollar gezahlt hatte,[1] veröffentlichte Winter im Mai 1969 das Album Johnny Winter.
Obwohl der Auftritt im August 1969 beim Woodstock-Festival gefilmt wurde, erschien er nicht im Film, da sein Manager sich mit der Filmcrew zerstritten hatte. Die Crew war anschließend der Meinung, dass der Auftritt „zu merkwürdig“ gewesen war.
Das im Jahre 1969 erschienene Album 'Second Winter' hatte eine Besonderheit: Das Album hatte 2 LPs, aber nur 3 bespielte Seiten. Als Begründung schrieb Johnny Winter (Zitat): "We also really liked everything we'd done and didn't want to leave any songs out. We couldn't honestly give You more, and we didn't want to to give You less, so here is exactly what we did in Nashville - no more and no less". (Zitatende)
Im Jahre 1970 nahm er den Song Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo mit einer Band auf, zu der auch Gitarrist Rick Derringer und Bassist Randy Jo Hobbs von The McCoys gehörten. Nachdem er bis 1973 massive Drogenprobleme hatte, kehrte er mit Still Alive and Well (unter Mitwirkung des Flötisten Jeremy Steig) zurück.
In einem anderen Bereich beteiligte er sich 1977, als er Hard Again von Muddy Waters produzierte. Die Partnerschaft der beiden brachte einige Alben hervor, die Grammy Awards gewannen. Im selben Jahr nahm er auch Nothing but the Blues zusammen mit Mitgliedern von Waters’ Band auf.
Am frühen Morgen des 22. April 1979 trat Johnny Winter als Top-Act der 4. Rockpalast Nacht in der Essener Grugahalle auf. Dieser Auftritt machte ihn auf einen Schlag in Europa sehr bekannt. 1988 folgte die Aufnahme in die Blues Hall of Fame.
Am 12. Mai 2007 kam es auf dem Museumsplatz in Bonn zu einem Aufsehen erregenden Rockpalast-Konzert, in dem Johnny Winter als dritte Band nach Rick Derringer und seinem Bruder Edgar Winter auftrat. Vorher hatten die drei Künstler erfolgreich eine Reihe von Auftritten in den USA in dieser Konstellation absolviert.
Im Herbst 2008 spielte Johnny Winter mit seiner Band (sowie mit Eric Sardinas & Big Motor als Vorgruppe) mehrere Konzerte in Europa, ebenso im Jahre 2010 – zum Beispiel auf den Leverkusener Jazztagen.
Auch 2012 war er wieder in Deutschland auf Tour, nachdem er mit Roots im Jahre 2011 sein 18. Studioalbum veröffentlichte, auf dem viele weitere Bluesmusiker mitwirken.
Johnny Winter starb am 16. Juli 2014 im Alter von 70 Jahren in einem Hotel im Bezirk Bülach (Kanton Zürich, Schweiz).[2]
Posthum wurde sein Album Step Back Anfang 2015 mit einem Grammy als bestes Bluesalbum ausgezeichnet.
Leben
Johnny Winter kam mit Albinismus zur Welt. Er war der ältere Bruder des Musikers und Komponisten Edgar Winter. Bereits in jungen Jahren trat er zusammen mit ihm auf. Als er fünfzehn Jahre alt war, nahmen die beiden mit ihrer Band Johnny and the Jammers die Platte School Day Blues bei einem Plattenlabel in Houston auf. Seine Vorbilder waren Muddy Waters, B. B. King und Bobby Bland.
1968 begann Johnny Winter in einem Trio mit Bassist Tommy Shannon und Schlagzeuger Uncle John Turner zu spielen. Durch einen Artikel im Rolling Stone erhielten sie eine gewisse Aufmerksamkeit und bekamen einen Vertrag beim kleinen Label Liberty. Nach einem Auftritt im Fillmore East Anfang 1968 stieg der Bekanntheitsgrad des Musikers dermaßen an, dass sich bald RCA und Columbia um ihn stritten. Nachdem Columbia das Rennen für sich entschieden und einen für damalige Verhältnisse sehr hohen Vorschuss von 600.000 Dollar gezahlt hatte,[1] veröffentlichte Winter im Mai 1969 das Album Johnny Winter.
Obwohl der Auftritt im August 1969 beim Woodstock-Festival gefilmt wurde, erschien er nicht im Film, da sein Manager sich mit der Filmcrew zerstritten hatte. Die Crew war anschließend der Meinung, dass der Auftritt „zu merkwürdig“ gewesen war.
Das im Jahre 1969 erschienene Album 'Second Winter' hatte eine Besonderheit: Das Album hatte 2 LPs, aber nur 3 bespielte Seiten. Als Begründung schrieb Johnny Winter (Zitat): "We also really liked everything we'd done and didn't want to leave any songs out. We couldn't honestly give You more, and we didn't want to to give You less, so here is exactly what we did in Nashville - no more and no less". (Zitatende)
Im Jahre 1970 nahm er den Song Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo mit einer Band auf, zu der auch Gitarrist Rick Derringer und Bassist Randy Jo Hobbs von The McCoys gehörten. Nachdem er bis 1973 massive Drogenprobleme hatte, kehrte er mit Still Alive and Well (unter Mitwirkung des Flötisten Jeremy Steig) zurück.
In einem anderen Bereich beteiligte er sich 1977, als er Hard Again von Muddy Waters produzierte. Die Partnerschaft der beiden brachte einige Alben hervor, die Grammy Awards gewannen. Im selben Jahr nahm er auch Nothing but the Blues zusammen mit Mitgliedern von Waters’ Band auf.
Am frühen Morgen des 22. April 1979 trat Johnny Winter als Top-Act der 4. Rockpalast Nacht in der Essener Grugahalle auf. Dieser Auftritt machte ihn auf einen Schlag in Europa sehr bekannt. 1988 folgte die Aufnahme in die Blues Hall of Fame.
Am 12. Mai 2007 kam es auf dem Museumsplatz in Bonn zu einem Aufsehen erregenden Rockpalast-Konzert, in dem Johnny Winter als dritte Band nach Rick Derringer und seinem Bruder Edgar Winter auftrat. Vorher hatten die drei Künstler erfolgreich eine Reihe von Auftritten in den USA in dieser Konstellation absolviert.
Im Herbst 2008 spielte Johnny Winter mit seiner Band (sowie mit Eric Sardinas & Big Motor als Vorgruppe) mehrere Konzerte in Europa, ebenso im Jahre 2010 – zum Beispiel auf den Leverkusener Jazztagen.
Auch 2012 war er wieder in Deutschland auf Tour, nachdem er mit Roots im Jahre 2011 sein 18. Studioalbum veröffentlichte, auf dem viele weitere Bluesmusiker mitwirken.
Johnny Winter starb am 16. Juli 2014 im Alter von 70 Jahren in einem Hotel im Bezirk Bülach (Kanton Zürich, Schweiz).[2]
Posthum wurde sein Album Step Back Anfang 2015 mit einem Grammy als bestes Bluesalbum ausgezeichnet.
John
Dawson Winter III (February 23, 1944 – July 16, 2014), known as Johnny
Winter, was an American blues guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, singer,
and producer. Best known for his high-energy blues-rock albums and live
performances in the late 1960s and 1970s, Winter also produced three
Grammy Award-winning albums for blues singer and guitarist Muddy Waters.
After his time with Waters, Winter recorded several Grammy-nominated
blues albums. In 1988, he was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of
Fame and in 2003, he was ranked 63rd in Rolling Stone magazine's list
of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".[1]Early career
Johnny Winter was born in Beaumont, Texas, on February 23, 1944.[2] Winter, along with his musician brother Edgar (born 1946), were nurtured at an early age by their parents in musical pursuits.[2] Johnny and his brother, both of whom were born with albinism, began performing at an early age. When he was ten years old, Winter appeared on a local children's show, playing ukulele and singing Everly Brothers songs with his brother.
His recording career began at the age of fifteen, when his band Johnny and the Jammers released "School Day Blues" on a Houston record label.[2] During this same period, he was able to see performances by classic blues artists such as Muddy Waters, B.B. King, and Bobby Bland. In the early days Winter would sometimes sit in with Roy Head and the Traits when they performed in the Beaumont area, and in 1967, Winter recorded a single with the Traits: "Tramp" backed with "Parchman Farm" (Universal Records 30496). In 1968, he released his first album The Progressive Blues Experiment, on Austin's Sonobeat Records.[3]
Signing with Columbia Records
Winter caught his biggest break in December 1968, when Mike Bloomfield, whom he met and jammed with in Chicago, invited him to sing and play a song during a Bloomfield and Al Kooper concert at the Fillmore East in New York City. As it happened, representatives of Columbia Records (which had released the Top Ten Bloomfield/Kooper/Stills Super Session album) were at the concert. Winter played and sang B.B. King's "It's My Own Fault" to loud applause and, within a few days, was signed to what was reportedly the largest advance in the history of the recording industry at that time—$600,000.[2]
Winter's first Columbia album, Johnny Winter, was recorded and released in 1969.[4] It featured the same backing musicians with whom he had recorded The Progressive Blues Experiment, bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Uncle John Turner, plus Edgar Winter on keyboards and saxophone, and (for his "Mean Mistreater") Willie Dixon on upright bass and Big Walter Horton on harmonica. The album featured a few selections that became Winter signature songs, including his composition "Dallas" (an acoustic blues, on which Winter played a steel-bodied, resonator guitar), John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson's "Good Morning Little School Girl", and B.B. King's "Be Careful with a Fool".[4]
The album's success coincided with Imperial Records picking up The Progressive Blues Experiment for wider release.[5] The same year, the Winter trio toured and performed at several rock festivals, including Woodstock.[5] With brother Edgar added as a full member of the group, Winter also recorded his second album, Second Winter, in Nashville in 1969.[6] The two-record album, which only had three recorded sides (the fourth was blank), introduced a couple more staples of Winter's concerts, including Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" and Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited".[6] Also at this time Johnny entered into an intimate, albeit short-lived affair with Janis Joplin, which culminated in a concert at New York's Madison Square Garden, where Johnny joined her on stage to sing and perform.[2]
Unofficial albums
Contrary to urban legend, Johnny Winter did not perform with Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison on the infamous 1968 Hendrix bootleg album Woke up this Morning and Found Myself Dead from New York City's the Scene club. According to Winter, "I never even met Jim Morrison! There's a whole album of Jimi and Jim and I'm supposedly on the album but I don't think I am 'cause I never met Jim Morrison in my life! I'm sure I never, never played with Jim Morrison at all! I don't know how that [rumor] got started."[7]
Beginning in 1969, the first of numerous Johnny Winter albums was released which were cobbled together from approximately fifteen singles (about 30 "sides") he recorded before signing with Columbia in 1969.[2] Many were produced by Roy Ames, owner of Home Cooking Records/Clarity Music Publishing, who had briefly managed Winter. According to an article from the Houston Press,[8] Winter left town for the express purpose of getting away from him. Ames died on August 14, 2003, of natural causes at age 66. As Ames left no obvious heirs, the ownership rights of the Ames master recordings remains unclear. As Winter stated in an interview when the subject of Roy Ames came up, "This guy has screwed so many people it makes me mad to even talk about him."[8]
Johnny Winter And
In 1970, when his brother Edgar released a solo album Entrance and formed Edgar Winter's White Trash, an R&B/jazz-rock group, the original trio disbanded.[5] Johnny Winter then formed a new band with the remnants of the McCoys—guitarist Rick Derringer, bassist Randy Jo Hobbs, and drummer Randy Z (who was Derringer's brother, their family name being Zehringer). Originally to be called "Johnny Winter and the McCoys", the name was shortened to "Johnny Winter And", which was also the name of their first album.[2] The album included Derringer's "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo" and signaled a more rock-oriented direction for Winter.[9] When Johnny Winter And began to tour, Randy Z was replaced with drummer Bobby Caldwell. Their mixture of the new rock songs with Winter's blues songs was captured on the live album Live Johnny Winter And. It included a new performance of "It's My Own Fault", the song which brought Winter to the attention of Columbia Records.
Winter's momentum was throttled when he sank into heroin addiction during the Johnny Winter And days. After he sought treatment for and recovered from the addiction, Winter was courageously put in front of the music press by manager Steve Paul to discuss the addiction candidly.[2] By 1973, he returned to the music scene with the release of Still Alive and Well, a basic blend between blues and hard rock, whose title track was written by Rick Derringer. His comeback concert at Long Island, New York's Nassau Coliseum featured the "And" line-up minus Rick Derringer and Bobby Caldwell. Also performing on stage was Johnny's wife Susie. Saints & Sinners and John Dawson Winter III, two albums released in 1974, continue in the same direction.[10] In 1975, Johnny returned to Bogalusa, Louisiana, to produce an album for Thunderhead, a Southern rock band which included Pat Rush and Bobby "T" Torello, who would later play with Winter.[11] A second live Winter album, Captured Live!, was released in 1976 and features an extended performance of "Highway 61 Revisited".[12]
Muddy Waters sessions
In live performances, Winter often told the story about how, as a child, he dreamed of playing with the blues guitarist Muddy Waters. In 1977, after Waters' long-time label Chess Records went out of business, he got his chance.[2] Winter brought Waters into the studio to record Hard Again for Blue Sky Records, a label set up by Winter's manager and distributed by Columbia. In addition to producing the album, Winter played guitar with Waters veteran James Cotton on harmonica. Winter produced two more studio albums for Waters, I'm Ready (with Big Walter Horton on harmonica) and King Bee and a best-selling live album Muddy "Mississippi" Waters – Live. The partnership produced three Grammy Awards for Waters and an additional Grammy for Winter's own Nothin' But the Blues, with backing by members of Waters' band. Waters told Deep Blues author Robert Palmer that Winter had done remarkable work in reproducing the sound and atmosphere of Waters's vintage Chess Records recordings of the 1950s. The albums gave Waters the highest profile and greatest financial successes of his life.
Later career
After his time with Blue Sky Records, Winter began recording for several labels, including Alligator, Point Blank, and Virgin, where he focused on blues-oriented material.[2] In 1992, he married Susan Warford.[13] In 2004, he received a Grammy Award nomination for his I'm a Bluesman album. Beginning in 2007, a series of live Winter albums titled the Live Bootleg Series and a live DVD all entered the Top 10 Billboard Blues chart. In 2009, The Woodstock Experience album was released, which includes eight songs that Winter performed at the 1969 festival. In 2011, Johnny Winter released Roots on Megaforce Records. It includes Winter's interpretation of eleven early blues and rock 'n' roll classics and features several guest artists (Vince Gill, Sonny Landreth, Susan Tedeschi, Edgar Winter, Warren Haynes, and Derek Trucks). His latest album, Step Back, (which features appearances by Joe Bonamassa, Eric Clapton, Billy Gibbons, Leslie West, Brian Setzer, Dr. John, Ben Harper and Joe Perry), was released on September 2, 2014.
Winter continued to perform live, including at festivals throughout North America and Europe. He headlined such prestigious events as the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Chicago Blues Festival, the 2009 Sweden Rock Festival, the Warren Haynes Christmas Jam, and Rockpalast. He also performed with the Allman Brothers at the Beacon Theater in New York City on the 40th anniversary of their debut. In 2007 and 2010, Winter performed at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festivals. Two guitar instructional DVDs were produced by Cherry Lane Music and the Hal Leonard Corporation. The Gibson Guitar Company released the signature Johnny Winter Firebird guitar in a ceremony in Nashville with Slash presenting.
Recognition
Winter produced three Grammy Award-winning albums by Muddy Waters — Hard Again (1977), I'm Ready (1978), and Muddy "Mississippi" Waters – Live (1979).[14] Several Winter albums were also nominated for Grammy Awards — Guitar Slinger (1984), Serious Business (1985), and Let Me In (1991). In 2015 Winter won the Grammy Award for Best Blues Album for Step Back.[15]
In 1980, Winter was on the cover of the first issue of Guitar World. In 1988, he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. There was a character in the video game Heavy Rain named after Winter.
Lawsuit against DC Comics
In 1996, Johnny and Edgar filed suit against DC Comics and the creators of the Jonah Hex: Riders of the Worm and Such limited series, claiming, amongst other things, defamation: two characters named Johnny and Edgar Autumn, in the series strongly resemble the Winters. The brothers claimed the comics falsely portrayed them as “vile, depraved, stupid, cowardly, subhuman individuals who engage in wanton acts of violence, murder and bestiality for pleasure and who should be killed.”[16]The California Supreme Court sided with DC Comics, holding that the comic books were deserving of First Amendment protection.[17]
Death
Winter was professionally active until the time of his death near Zurich, Switzerland, on July 16, 2014.[18] He was found dead in his hotel room two days after his last performance, at the Cahors Blues Festival in France on July 14, at the age of 70.[19] The cause of Winter's death is not clear.[20]
Writing in Rolling Stone magazine, after Winter's death, David Marchese said "Winter was one of the first blues rock guitar virtuosos, releasing a string of popular and fiery albums in the late Sixties and early Seventies, becoming an arena-level concert draw in the process ... [he] made an iconic life for himself by playing the blues.
Johnny Winter - Last Performance - Johnny B. Goode - Wiesen 2014.07.12. :-(
R.I.P.
Johnny Winter
Lovely Days Festival
Ottakringer Arena, Wiesen, Austria
12. July 2014
Johnny Winter
Lovely Days Festival
Ottakringer Arena, Wiesen, Austria
12. July 2014
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