SARABANDE

During the period from the late 60's to the mid 70's, Jon Lord was very much interested in fusing Classical music with Rock. 1976's Sarabande album was the very culmination of that interest and most probably the most successful of his works in this style (I must admit that I have not heard them all, hence the 'probably'). I would say that this is about 80 - 85% Classical music and about 15 - 20% Rock music. In stark contrast to Concerto For Group And Orchestra, the Rock elements are perfectly blended into the overall mix of Sarabande. While Concerto For Group And Orchestra sounded more like a battle of group against orchestra rather than any kind of interesting fusion of Rock and Classical music, Sarabande achieves the goal of actually fusing the different styles together (even if the Classical elements dominate things). Maybe Lord himself also thought that he had achieved his goals with this album since this was the last album he ever did in that style.

The Rock elements consist of drums, occasional electric and acoustic guitars, bass and a quite interesting array of different keyboards including Hammond organ (obviously!), acoustic and electric piano and some different synthesisers. While Lord is most known for his Hammond playing, he did use synthesisers during the latter half of the 70's and occasionally in the 80's both with Deep Purple and on outside projects. However, from the 90's onwards he went back to his roots and played only Hammond and piano like he did in the 60's and early 70's. Maybe the presence of synthesisers is what has made Prog fans like this album so much? Or maybe it is the memorable melodies? Anyway, I think that this is worth listening to, but it is by no means essential.

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