Concerto for Jon is the memorial concert in memory of Jon’s music and life.
Right now it is shaping up, and details are coming together.
The Sunflower Jam crew are behind this, and you can be first in line to get their news.
Please provide a valid email address to register your interest and get notifications when a date and venue have been confirmed.
Today, Jon would have turned 72.
In his honour, below is an exclusive and previously unseen clip of Jon rehearsing Lazy with Doogie White and the DCRS in Essen, Germany on November 15, 2010.
Tell us your story
Jon’s family and management are planning a deluxe photo book to celebrate Jon’s life. It will contain lots of previously unseen photographs.
To accompany the photos, the editors are assembling anecdotes, quotes or reflections that people may have on Jon.
If there’s a story, a quote or a joke he told, anything that you would be happy to see printed in the book and attributed to you – it can be one line or 2 pages, whatever feels right – please send it to book@JonLord.org.
If you have a photo that you would like to share as well, this would also be gratefully received.
Happy birthday, Jon!
Ritchie Blackmore explains to NJ.com the origins of his instrumental tribute to Jon – Carry On… Jon:
- We were snowed in, in that blizzard (on Feb. 8). The engineer and myself, the producer, we had nothing to do. I said, ‘I have an instrumental that I’ve vaguely finished. Do you want to try it?’
- I wrote it on the spur of the moment. I had a very melancholy kind of tune. Then I started thinking about Jon. I thought maybe we should do an organ part at the end, as a tip of the hat to Jon. Pat Regan is an accomplished organist. We put the organ sound on, and off he went. I guided him on a few things, like riffs and how Jon played syncopation with his right hand.
- So it was a throwaway idea that turned into something. It was something to Jon, a way of saying thanks for the years. It’s hard to talk about, when someone says, ‘What did you think of Jon?’ I’d rather play a tune. We wouldn’t have put it on if we hadn’t been snowed in. Maybe Jon caused the blizzard.
Carry On… Jon is included on Blackmore’s Night’s new album, Dancer And The Moon
BBC Radio 4 are repeating Rock’n'Roll in Four Movements, the programme first broadcast last August, which featured Jon’s last recorded interview.
Taking a closer look at the musicians that have worked to combine the worlds of rock and classical music, in the programme, Jon talks about his passion for writing classical music, inspired by his early experiment with his Concerto.
Also featured are Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson who talk about the genre’s excesses, and Roy Wood who talks about the early days of the Electric Light Orchestra.
Listen to BBC Radio 4 Monday June 3 at 4pm UK time – or listen online right now.
Watch Jon discuss the resurrected Concerto for Group and Orchestra with Tommy Vance in 1999 on VH1′s Friday Rock Show.
Filmed mere days before the Concerto’s 30th anniversary at the Royal Albert Hall, Ian Gillan lovingly explains how Jon’s Concerto originally helped raise Deep Purple‘s profile as the band was breaking through in 1969/1970 – and shows his affection for Jon.
- I’ve always been impressed by Jon Lord.
With thanks to Tim Summers.
Youtube says: ‘this video may have content that is owned or licensed by EMI, but it’s still available on YouTube! In some cases, it may be blocked, or ads may appear next to it.’
When Rock Meets Classics is a highly recommended 48-minute radio retrospective in Jon’s memory.
Opening with a snippet of the piano version of Child in Time, the comprehensive yet succinct overview of Jon’s career features all-new interviews with a list of important players in Jon’s musical life – incl. an interview with himself conducted in 2010 – and is peppered with appropriate and inspired soundbites of Jon’s music.
The not often heard voice of Eberhard Schoener, Jon’s German conducting partner, speaks of the pair’s work on Windows and Sarabande.
Jon’s daughter Sara speaks about his departure from Deep Purple and his years as a composer ‘writing music every day.’
The broadcast also features illustrious interviews with Ian Paice, Paul Mann, Roger Glover, Rick Wakeman, Glenn Hughes and more.
First aired in July 2012, the piece is hosted by Eli Lapid of The Voice of Israel who has kindly made it available exclusively for JonLord.org
Looking back at Jon and Frida interviewed at the press conference for Zermatt Unplugged 2010.
Among other things, Jon is asked about his current projects – which he explains are mostly orchestral, acoustic and more unplugged than his 40 years in rock’n'roll:
- I was very plugged for a long time, he jokes.
See also:
- To my pianist… Frida’s tribute to Jon from Zermatt Unplugged 2013 Read the rest of this entry »
Jon’s webshop has undergone a technical overhaul, and is up and running again. Welcome back!
We still offer a free tour t-shirt for all orders over £60.
Our specially priced bundle offers include several of Jon’s later albums – Durham Concerto and To Notice Such Things - as well as the Blues Project and orchestral live albums.
Come visit the Jon Lord Shop.
In this video interview, Steve Morse remembers Jon, starting with the first time they met at rehearsal 24 hours before their first concert together in Deep Purple.
In that dressingroom, Jon immediately picked up on Steve’s guitar licks and replicated them and improvised over them on the Hammond – a deep chemistry the pair would develop over the years onstage.
Steve goes on to talk about Jon’s input on the recording of the Purpendicular album, performing Concerto for Group and Orchestra at London’s Royal Albert Hall – and on Jon meeting Steve’s youngest son and speaking to him in a Donald Duck voice.
- The patience he had. He could do so many things so well. We miss him.
Steve Morse plays guitar on the third movement of Jon’s Concerto, recorded in 2012. Available in the Jon Lord Webshop.
With thanks to Barley Arts Promotion.
