Eagle Rock Entertainment
All Access Review: A-
Deep Purple has tried this before. Back in 1969, when the
idea of a rock band sharing the stage with an orchestra seemed absolutely
ludicrous, especially to so-called “serious musicians” who wanted nothing to do
with anything besides classical music, Jon Lord’s ambitions were realized. The
long-time Purple keyboardist had composed the three-part movement epic Concerto
for Group and Orchestra, and plans were made for the Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra to perform the piece at Royal Albert Hall … with Deep Purple, mind
you.
Not surprisingly, as singer Ian Gillan recalls during a
lengthy interview included with the new separate concert DVD and two-CD
packages Live at Montreux 2011, many
members of the orchestra “… had an air about them” and were not keen on cooperating
with Purple in any capacity. At that time, classical musicians did not play
well with others, which was somewhat understandable. There really wasn’t much
precedence for this sort of thing, The Nice’s Five Bridges being the only other deal with the devil hatched
between an orchestra and a rock band around that time. A forward-thinking
conductor by the name of Malcolm Arnold wasn’t having any of it, however.
Gillan remembers Arnold giving the whole orchestra a rather “… brusque ‘pull
your socks up,’” which evidently is British code for, “stop acting like bratty
snobs and get back to work before I give you what for.” The mutiny quelled,
Deep Purple, still clinging to its progressive-rock approach while edging ever
closer toward the more straightforward, riff-heavy attack they would unleash on
1970’s In Rock and 1972’s Machine Head, and the Royal Philharmonic
ultimately joined forces to produce a performance that – perhaps because of the
publicity the event generated – unexpectedly landed their collaboration on the
charts.
What was once a groundbreaking proposition, reserved for
only the most classically inclined bands of the progressive movement, has
become old hat for Deep Purple, having performed with an orchestra several
times over the years. Last year, Gillan, drummer Ian Paice, bassist Roger
Glover, guitarist Steve Morse and keyboardist Don Airy, Lord’s replacement,
went down to Montreux, the Swiss community forever linked to Deep Purple by
catastrophe and the classic song, “Smoke on the Water,” inspired by the ruinous
casino fire started “by some stupid with a flare gun” at a Frank Zappa and the
Mothers of Invention concert. Backing them this time around at famed Montreux
Jazz Festival was the 38-piece Neue Philharmonic from Frankfurt, Germany – under
the blue-collar, workmanlike direction of Stephen “BK” Bentley-Klein – and in
all likelihood, over time, Purple has learned a valuable lesson from other,
more disastrous pairings such as this, and that is, don’t let the armada of
cellists, violinists, and whatever other instrumentalists happen to be in the
room play pretty and decorate these full-on, hot-blooded rock anthems with a
lot of flair and ornamentation.
The buzz word for Gillan and Paice regarding this project is
“augmentation.” Comparing the Neue Philharmonic’s purpose to that of Count
Basie Orchestra, the two Purple war horses talk about how the orchestra swings
and puts a strong shoulder to the grooves of the band’s classic hits, and the
orchestra does indeed expand on and enhance them with huge, sweeping waves of
sound that seem to lift and carry to heaven tracks like the lushly exotic
“Rapture of the Deep” and the swooning instrumental “Contract Lost” – featuring
Morse’s soaring, beautifully sketched guitar solo – that opens the doors of perception
to a reflective, emotionally powerful “When A Blind Man Cries.” And when called
for, Neue provides additional horsepower to “Woman from Tokyo,” “Space
Truckin’” and a blazing, brightly lit version of “Highway Star.”
It all comes together on “The Well Dressed Guitar,” where
Morse grinds away in brutally heavy fashion while glorious strings radiate
blinding light as the crowd, in dazzling unison, raises their hands overhead to
clap along with Gillan. Coming down however briefly from that incredible high,
the two units launch into a powerful, majestic version of “Knocking at Your
Back Door” that’s surges with dark melodic energy. On “Lazy,” Purple takes
over, their bluesy breakdowns and uprisings needing no color or nuance,
although Bentley-Klein does come down from his perch to offer up a
scintillating violin foray to Morse’s clinical six-string dissection and
Airey’s smoldering organ blasts. Between that and Airey’s needlessly showy, but
nicely balanced solo blend of futuristic keyboard sounds and jazzy piano, “No
One Came” works up quite a sweat, with Morse’s tricky lead finishing the job in
spectacular fashion.
A bit glitzy, as if begging for a residency at some tacky
Las Vegas hotel, and at times losing touch with the earthiness and guts that
have always kept Deep Purple grounded, the lengthy Live at Montreux 2011 is, nonetheless, a lively, brilliantly filmed
document of a magic night in the life of Deep Purple in a place that’s become
to them a second home. The sound has great clarity and richness, while the
high-definition cameras, shooting from a satisfying variety of angles and
distances, provide a visual feast for the eyes. Packaged with in-depth, and
quite candid, interviews with every current member of Deep Purple, plus a
smattering of new and vintage footage, Live
in Montreux 2011 is a heady rush of concert excitement. And when “Smoke on
the Water” rises up like some sleeping giant awakened after around 40 years of
dormancy, it fills Montreux with monstrous riffs, massive walls of strings and
blaring horns trumpeting what feels like a new dawn for Deep Purple. It isn’t,
actually, but for about 115 minutes, it seems as if the band, now having so
much fun together, has dived right in to the Fountain of Youth and come out
younger and full of vitality. And the Neue Philharmonic had something to do
with that.
- Peter Lindblad
