First Of The Big Bands Live

CD reissue. Tony Ashton was one of the great, underrated, British rock musicians. Starting out as organist and vocalist with the Liverpool band The Remo Four, he appeared on George Harrison's first solo album and went on to a long standing on/off collaboration with Deep Purple's keyboard player, Jon Lord. In the meantime, he formed a trio with Remo drummer Roy Dyke and bass player Kim Gardener, who had been in The Birds with Rolling Stone's Ronnie Wood. The eponymous trio broke up after their third album. In the summer of 1974, Ashton and Lord recorded a beautifully eccentric record called First of the Big Bands. It was a brave career move for them both, mainly because Jon Lord wanted to move away from his signature sound with Deep Purple (neo-classicism played on a Hammond organ with lashings of bravado and flash). He wanted to concentrate more on a sound featuring piano and a brass section, and between them, the two maverick musicians produced a bravely peculiar, but oddly enthralling album. As you can probably guess, from the title of this record, it is a welcome document of what happened when Tony and Jon First of the Big Bands live.