Jon Lord – Windows

Jon Lord was far more than just the keyboard player in one of the giants of 70s Rock, Deep Purple.  He was also an extremely talented composer, and by that I don’t mean he just composed bits of music for Deep Purple, he actually wrote orchestral music too.  He brought the worlds of clasical music and hard rock together in Deep Purple’s Concerto for group and orchestra, and also did some work outside the band.  earMUSIC are happily reissuing these albums – “Gemini suite” was reissued at the end of 2016, and now “Windows” has just been reissued.  The third reissue, “Sarabande” will follow later this year.  As a fan of his work these reissues are great as the albums were hard to find and this gives me a chance to finally hear them.  The reissues have been remastered from the original stereo mixes so sound beautiful.

“Windows” was recorded live in June 1974 and features the Munich chamber orchestra coducted by Eberhard Schoener along with musicians including David Coverdale, Glenn Hughes, Tony Ashton and Ray Fenwick.

There are just two tracks on the album – “Continuo on B A C H” and “Window”.  “Continuo on B A C H” is an unfinished fugue by Bach that was based on a scale using only the notes represented by his name.  Jon Lord and Eberhard Schoener interpreted and completed it.  The second track is “Window” and this was based on the idea of a form of chain poetry called Renga, where one person writes the first verse then another writes the next verse and so on, and the track is split down into three movements.  Despite it being two tracks, this isn’t a short album – it clocks in at around 49 minutes.

It’s probably the most experimental of Jon Lord’s work, and it’s unlikely to appeal to many rock fans – it’s more a classical album although there are electric guitars used prominently in places, but it’s an amazing piece of work.

This really is a superb album that shows Jon Lord’s abilities as a composer.  If you listen to classical as well as rock then this is an album you should certainly listen to.