Jon Lord
Sarabande

After the breakup of the Purple in 1976, everyone went their separate ways: Glenn Hughes towards soul music, Coverdale first towards Rhythm'n Blues and then AOR, Tommy Bolin towards a regrettably very brief solo career, and Lord along with Paice formed a group with Tony Ashton, the PAL, with whom they didn’t achieve even the slightest success...

However, before embarking on this project Jon Lord found the time to create his last "Classic/Rock" Opera: "Sarabande".

To do this, he surrounded himself with an excellent group in which the name of Andy Summers stands out, who had to his credit collaborations with Soft Machine and Kevin Ayers and would soon form a band with a certain Sting, the skilled percussionist Mark Nauseef, known to Ian Gillan’s fans for his time in the Ian Gillan Band and also for his collaboration with Thin Lizzy, a solid rhythm base formed by Paul Karrass and Pete York on bass and drums respectively, and an entire symphony orchestra conducted by maestro Eberhard Schoener.

Unlike previous works with Deep Purple ("Concerto for Group and Orchestra" and "Gemini Suite") where the Baroque and Heavy Rock musical components were more predominant, this one has a more pronounced Jazz component and a certain sinuosity in its execution.

In my opinion, the album is the most successful of Jon Lord's solo works, it is definitely not anything transcendental or revolutionary, however, in its elegant simplicity and for the sophistication of its performances, it certainly deserves some attention. The orchestra plays a rather secondary role and mainly highlights the themes of the band, Jon Lord is in good form and Andy Summers gifts us with fluid guitar solos. The themes are well-structured but simple and catchy and serve as a springboard for the musicians involved in the recording to improvise.

Moreover, the recording is very beautiful, clear and crisp sound, and it is curated by the magical Martin Birch who provides the spatiality of sounds typical of his productions. The most beautiful themes are those of the Title track, clearly inspired by Brubeck's famous "Take Five", with a nice rhythm in 6/4, "Gigue" with a beautiful harmonic progression which serves as a great inspiration for interesting solos, especially by Andy Summers, and the Arabian-themed "Bourée" with a fine theme emphasized by the strings.

An album to be listened to especially for the quality of the performances, for the relaxed yet never overly pompous atmosphere, which gives us the best works signed by the eccentric Jon Lord.