Our contributor from Brazil Marcelo Soares writes:

Legendary bossa nova composer Carlos Lyra has died today, December 16, 2023, at the age of 90.

You may not be a bossa nova fan, but you definitely have heard of at least one of his songs, Maria Moita — the riff, originally written by Tom Jobim for Lyra, has a very definite resemblance to Smoke on the Water. [We’ve speculated before on these pages how the Purple people could have encountered the tune.]

Maria Moita was written for Pobre Menina Rica (Poor Rich Girl) — originally a musical, which never turned into a stage production. It became a tour, and an album, recorded in 1964. All lyrics were written by Vinicius de Moraes, one of the best known poets in Brazil and also the author of the lyrics for Girl from Ipanema and other bossa nova standards.

Blabbermouth reports that Don Airey will sit out the upcoming Deep Purple gig in India on December 17 “due to unforeseen illness”. Adam Wakeman will fill in on the keyboards in his stead. The article quotes band’s statement on unspecified “social media”:

Due to unforeseen illness, Don Airey is unable to perform at Bandland in Bengaluru later this month. Don is hugely disappointed not to be performing with the band in India, but wishes all fans a fantastic night in Bengaluru on 17th December. Adam Wakeman (BLACK SABBATH, OZZY OSBOURNE) will be performing with DEEP PURPLE at Bandland in Bengaluru on 17th December.

At the time of this publication, there is no confirmation of this on either of the band’s two official websites.

Adam Wakeman has a whimsical side project Jazz Sabbath that interprets Black Sabbath classics in jazz style. The project has two albums out, and Simon McBride played on one of them.

Check out Jazz Sabbath performing at Leverkusener Jazztage in 2022:

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the heads up.

India’s Deccan Herald has a short interview with Simon McBride:

The Irish singer-guitarist joined Deep Purple officially last year as a replacement for Steve Morse. He is set to perform in Bengaluru on Saturday and Sunday with members Ian Gillan, Ian Paice, Don Airey and Roger Glover for BookMyShow Live’s newest IP, Bandland.

McBride, who has never been to India and hopes to soak in the culture briefly during his short trip to the country, said Deep Purple’s music has always been a huge influence, not just on him, but on music lovers all over the world.

“They’ve influenced me over the years. I learned their songs when I was a kid so it’s incredible for me to be a part of that. I never ever thought or believed that my name would be attached to Deep Purple but now it is. I treat them like we’re playing in a normal pub band or something,” McBride told PTI in an interview.

Read more in Deccan Herald.

Photo © 2022 Stefan Brending, cc-by-sa-3.0 de

Steve Morse, together with his son Kevin, has paid tribute to his friend and aerobatics instructor Nikolay Timofeev, who recently passed away. Continue Reading »

What makes a good cover of a song? There are covers that strive to be as close to the original as possible. Personally, I don’t find them that interesting. It’s basically an exercise in futility: why listen to a copy, even a good one, when the original is just a couple of clicks away, right? And then there are covers that take the original, transform it inside out, and make it their own. The band responsible for us congregating here started its career from one of those (and there are a couple more brilliant covers on that first album).

Here is a cover that in our humble opinion ticks all the right boxes, and as a bonus it’s a very deep cut into the band’s catalogue — I’m Alone. Enjoy!

Jacopo Beltrandi – vocals
Luca Federici – guitars
Thomas Barbalonga – violin
Mirco Melone – double bass
Josè Manuel Salgado – percussion

Thanks to Luca Federici for bringing it to your attention.

Roger Glover was profiled by the Outlook India magazine.

He was only 10 when he first heard rock music and it changed his life, says Deep Purple guitarist Roger Glover who went on to explore Indian music and even bought a sitar and tabla before he realised just how difficult they were to play.

The 78-year-old, amongst those behind all-time classics such as ‘Smoke on the Water’ and ‘Highway Stars’, counts Indian music as one of the predominant influences in his life and said he was born at the right time to see the birth of rock and roll.

“It was brilliant. I never thought about it as any particular thing other than great fun. But as you get older, of course, you get immersed in world music and, of course, Indian music plays a big part,” the guitarist said, recounting the time he heard rock music for the first time.

Read more in the Outlook India.

Since the possibility of the current lineup doing Soldier of Fortune for all practical purposes is nil, here’s a take on the track from the good ol’ Cov. It’s a string ensemble version that was a bonus track on various editions of his Purple Album. Continue Reading »

Metallica’s guitarist Kirk Hammett spoke to Metal Mayhem ROC podcast and professed his love for Deep Purple:

Lars and I love Deep Purple. I’ve always loved it; Ritchie Blackmore is one of my favorite guitar players. Ritchie Blackmore is also Lars’ favorite guitar player of all time. When I was 15 years old, and I heard ‘Highway Star’, I thought [it was] mindblowing. It spoke to me — obviously [laughs]. Between Lars and I, we know a lot of Purple material, and yes, we jam occasionally on that stuff.

Deep Purple is really hard to cover. It’s actually easier to cover [Ritchie Blackmore’s] Rainbow than it is to cover Deep Purple. The guitar parts are always kind of difficult, but Ian Paice’s drum parts? Crazy. And then you have the whole contents of John Lord’s keyboards… Keyboards were such a heavy part of Deep Purple; if you cover Purple, you’ve got to have the keys!

Hammett quoted several bars of Speed King on Metallica’s latest album 72 Seasons.

The complete conversation, well over an hour long is available on YouTube.

Thanks to Ultimate Guitar for the info and transcription.

Don Airey was interviewed for Times of India:

Back in the 60s, the music industry was all about the singers and the songwriters. That has come back now with Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, and Madonna. You don’t really hear about a keyboard player doing anything great or a guitar player. It’s come back to the singers and the songs. Which, I think, is why Deep Purple survived. We are different, and people want to see different. Kids want to see a band. They don’t want to see people miming to a tape.

Read more in Times of India

Apparently, Deep Purple’s visit to India is making a splash in the local press. This time, Don Airey was interviewed by the Hindustan Times:

Speaking to us about the current popular music, keyboardist Don Airey shares, “It’s slightly annoying. You listen to an artiste like Taylor Swift and it’s all about spamming; it never stops! There’s no ups or downs, there’s no contrasts. It’s all just compressed and full-on.” Ask if he has a favourite artist from the current crop of musicians and he says, “I really like Billie Eilish, she writes some wonderful songs.”

Read more of Don’s thoughts in the Hindustan Times.