JOE LYNN TURNER: Video Footage Of Florianópolis 'Workshop' Posted

Legendary hard rock vocalist Joe Lynn Turner (RAINBOW, DEEP PURPLE, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN) took part in a special "workshop" performance on August 8, 2009 at Opus Espaço Cultural in Florianópolis, Brazil. Video footage of his appearance can be viewed below.

OVER THE RAINBOW — the new band featuring former RAINBOW musicians Joe Lynn Turner, Paul Morris, Bobby Rondinelli and Greg Smith alongside the son of the iconic RAINBOW founder/guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, Jürgen Blackmore — will embark on a European tour in September/October.

Paul Morris replaced Tony Carey, the original keyboardist for OVER THE RAINBOW, prior to the band's performance in front of 12,000 fans at the Sweden Rock Festival on June 4, 2009 in Sölvesborg, Sweden.

Like all members of OVER THE RAINBOW (with the exception of guitarist Jürgen "J.R." Blackmore), Paul Morris was also a member of RAINBOW. He recorded and toured with them from 1994 through 1997.

In the '70s, '80s and '90s, RAINBOW released over 20 albums (five gold, four silver), seven Billboard Hot 100 and Mainstream Rock tracks, six Top 75 U.K. songs and at least seven MTV frequently played videos. Since 1998, former members of RAINBOW and their respective management offices were overloaded with requests for RAINBOW to reunite. Rondinelli, Smith and Turner agreed that the only legitimate way to accomplish this was to employ a Blackmore on guitar.

Jürgen Blackmore is a critically acclaimed guitarist in his own right and agreed to join this endeavor after realizing how intense the demand was for a RAINBOW "reunion." OVER THE RAINBOW marks the first time that four members from three different eras of RAINBOW have taken the stage together along with J.R. Blackmore.

Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow [Remaster] by Rainbow

After years of strife, Ritchie Blackmore finally left the band he helped found and consecrate, DEEP PURPLE.

It was 1975. Blackmore then had been responsible for the departures of Rod Evans, Nick Simper, Ian Gillan and Roger Glover. Now it was his time. Becoming friends with PURPLE's opening act ELF (fronted by an unknown Ronald Padavona, a singer and composer who matched Blackmore's grandiose ancient wet dreams), disenchanted with PURPLE's Funk and Soul incursions, the man in black left acrimoniously after an European tour promoting the uneven Stormbringer. Hiring ELF as his studio band (minus the guitar dude, David Feinstein) RITCHIE BLACKMORE'S RAINBOW was born. Ritchie Blackmore, guitars and compositions. Ronald "Ronnie James Dio" Padavona, vocals and compositions. Craig Gruber, bass. Gary Driscoll, drums. Mickey Soule, keyboards. It is interesting to notice ELF had a song named Rainbow in their 1974 sophomore record, Carolina County Ball (a soft Honky Tonk number!).

ELF presented a Folk-Hard Rock hybrid that provided RAINBOW a working framework. The band never strayed enough from Folk ballads to rival PURPLE in decibels - but it played hard, earnest and abrasive. This is not CROSBY, STILLS AND NASH. Definitely, there is no Funk and Soul here, whereas medieval and renaissance mini-epics abound. It sounds closer to what JUDAS PRIEST and BLACK SABBATH were doing by mid-1970s - songs with a dark bent, built on guitar (electric/ acoustic) licks, but growing to coalesce into ambitious mini suites with commanding vocals (what becomes a little more interesting in the wake of remastering).

The song that marked BLACKMORE's split with PURPLE - Black Sheep of the Family - belonged to FAT MATRESS, Progressive band lead by JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE's Noel Redding. Following Redding's lead - who broke bonds with Funk, Soul and R&B in favor of Psychedelic Progressive Rock - Blackmore re-recorded the song with RAINBOW. Hendrix himself proved another huge influence in RAINBOW's debut, with virtuoso Bluesy showmanship providing the foundations for many tracks here, Little Wing in particular for Catch the Rainbow (a virtual follow-up, or at least a paraphrase).

The eponymous album is not that varied. It fuses Blackmores' main sources - late 1960's Rock N'Roll infused with medieval mystique. But it is a startling fusion. One that would spark a handful of Heavy Rock subgenres in the 1980s and 1990s, especially Melodic Metal.

Part of the influence arrives from the mature playing and overall high level of compositions (some of them, versions). "Borrowing" ELF's sonority and inspired by his PURPLE split, it is not that hard to understand why RAINBOW gelled so quick. Arriving at a new place coming from well-known starting points, veterans Blackmore and Dio compose and play as if their lives depended on it. Supported by PURPLE engineer Martin Birch, the compressed sound placed urgency on vocals and above all, the mesmerizing guitar. Dio and Blackmore companions' excelled in reliability - so much that proceedings become increasingly predictable, convincing Blackmore to find a more challenging (virtuoso) set of players for 1976' Rising.

Coaxing a perennial riff, Blackmore opened the proceedings with back-to-basics Man on the Silver Mountain. Dio's pedestrian lyric was less important than his confident, broad vocals. Bass, drums and keyboards remain humble. The song is a huge riff boosting another memorable Blackmore soloing. A Hard Rock classic, maybe - but differing substantially from DEEP PURPLE dynamics, that is.

Narcissistic Self-Portrait was another inescapable RAINBOW number, this time heavier and more percussive. Another showcase for Dio clear-dark vocals (he would keep this sullen Folk approach in his solo career). But more than anything else, another excuse for a tormented Blackmore soloing. He would recap the number for his BLACKMORE'S NIGHT era with beloved Candice Night. Here it goes down, too deep down to qualify as a classic. But it is a satisfying downer, more earnest than PURPLE attempts.

Black Sheep of the Family changed a little bit since its inception as a British late 1960s-Progressive-Psychedelic chestnut. Here with ELF Blackmore brings the track to boogie territory. It is the most straightforward approach displayed in RAINBOW's debut as well as the least interesting alchemy from the man in black's book of tricks. But it is relevant for this band's inception, as well as the sole proof that this band had been assembled all in a hurry.

On the other hand, Blackmore displays his virtuoso craftsmanship as brief, alluring HENDRIX's Little Wing is turned into an earnest, slightly depressed Catch the Rainbow. The level of trans-creation which Blackmore arrives at is fascinating, reinventing the beautiful acoustic lick in a different setting without sounding rip-off or parody. Few guitarists could work this out; Blackmore proves to be in Hendrix's league. Somewhere between HENDRIX and David Gilmour's harmonies, Blackmore builds a landscape for Dio melancholy (sounding positively Bluesy). Somber keyboards compliment the mood. Even guitar solos (no less than 2) get restrained - as in PURPLE's Soldier of Fortune. Seaside rumination.

Snake Charmer is a more in-your-face affair, a shaky Hard Rock number with Bluesy tones, a streamlined DEEP PURPLE maybe (but some lead breaks remind you, bizarrely enough, of AC/DC). Dio sings too straightforward, as if he was a hired gun. Keyboards remain important, but here they don't remind you of Jon Lord. Not destined to classic status, but a display of Blackmore hard credentials.

The Temple of the King is the acoustic rapture Blackmore tried a handful of times with PURPLE but never quite got at, once Gillan and Coverdale didn't delve in medieval imagery enough for Blackmore's and song's taste. Dio provides a perfect tone for this melancholic delight in imaginary golden ages. He seems even playful in his Tolkien-esque narrator role. But the most noticeable feature is Blackmore's mandolin riff - astounding for the setting and quickly mirrored by a weeping guitar solo. RAINBOW somehow manages to avoid over-the-topness with this serene number. The remaining members are just supporting roles - really.

If You Don't Like Rock N'Roll - just that. A 1950s Rock N'Roll with all the clichés and none of the grit - much like uncountable ELF numbers. It becomes evident why Dio had no success back in late 1950s and 1960s - he is too earnest, as if Rock N'Roll parties were a growing pain. Blackmore (a studio musician across the 1960s) plays professionally. But the only noticeable thing here is Mickey Soule's boogie piano.

JEFF BECK GROUP's version of Greensleeves (1968) provides the blueprint for Sixteen Century Greensleeves. A folk song (says the legend) penned by King Henry VIII of England, here Blackmore (boosting an ego twice that of the king) does his Catch the Rainbow trick again - he elongates the original composition (which he has played uncountable times, including in his PURPLE days) and fuses the original folk licks with Paganini arpeggios and the likes YINGWE MALMSTEEN loved to death. What could have been a, say, Jazzy impromptu here assumes earnest contours, as if Blackmore was a 16th minstrel. Then the remaining RAINBOW members arrive and turn the song into gloomy Hard Rock. Too pretentious and maybe too accommodated next to BECK's revealing take. Blackmore would go on with unusual takes, including a BEETHOVEN's 9th symphony with gurgling synths in his decadence days with Joe Lynn Turner. Only BLACKMORE'S NIGHT would find a more interesting way of showing Blackmore's affiliations.

An instrumental, mysterious take on THE YARDBIRDS' Still I'm Sad closes the record in satisfying fashion. Blackmore would use the song again in his 1995 reformation - this time as a frantic Melodic Metal motif. Here the man in black unleashed another magnificent riff, keyboards provide exquisite droning, and finally you notice there are a bass player and a drummer in the forefront. But there was no need - Blackmore alone equals what THE YARDBIRDS had achieved previously, with tone and taste, and prowess, engendering curvaceous melodies where the original was all Gregorian monophonic linearity. Another impressive showing of credentials. See ya.

Aug. 10, 1909: Leo Fender and the Heart of Rock ‘n’ Roll

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1909: Clarence “Leo” Fender is born.

The designer, engineer and inventor would found the Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company, the banner under which he created and produced the first wave of commercially successful electric guitars, basses and amplifiers. Fender’s panache for instrument design reached its pinnicle with his work on the Telecaster guitar, the Fender Precision bass and, most famously, the Stratocaster, the musical instrument that was the central force in defining rock ‘n’ roll in the 1950s and ’60s, and whose influence continues to dominate every genre of popular music.

Leo Fender didn’t invent the electric guitar. Six-string slingers had been experimenting with rudimentary amplification systems since the early decades of the 20th century. Always itching for more volume, guitarists were eager to be heard above the drums and other loud instruments in the dance bands of the time.

The first real innovations toward electric axes, however, came with the awarding of two patents for magnetic pickups. The first went to Gibson’s Guy Hart for his company’s Hawaiian guitar design on July 13, 1937, and the second went to Rickenbacker’s George Beauchamp for his horseshoe magnet pickup design featured on his company’s lap steel “frying pan” guitars, on August 10, 1937 — coincidentally, Fender’s 28th birthday.

The earliest electric guitars were either of the lap steel or hollow body archtop varieties. It wasn’t until guitarist Les Paul constructed his own prototype solid body electric, nicknamed “The Log,” in 1946 that the stage would be set for the revolution that would define popular music in the second half of the century.

And that’s where Leo Fender comes in.

Fender was working alongside the earliest electric guitar designers throughout the 1930s and 1940s, even applying for his own patent on his 1944 Hawaiian guitar design. Fender’s earliest commercial successes were in amplifiers, but his first hit was the Fender Precision Bass. The “P-Bass,” introduced in 1951, was meant for players in jazz and dance bands who needed more volume than they could get out of their acoustic upright models. Fender’s bass was a huge success, and its design became his signature. Its visual cues were ones he would return to as he moved on to creating electric guitars.

The Broadcaster and the Telecaster, designed with his business partner George Fullerton, came first, in 1951. The Telecaster, a light-weight solid body with an adjustable neck that was easy to play, is still in production today. But nothing endured, influenced or captured the imagination like Fender’s next major design.

The Fender Stratocaster is more than just an electric guitar. It is one of the great hallmarks of modern art. As an object, it has made a profound impact, becoming synonymous with the men and women who play it and the art it has been used to create.

Put on a Jimi Hendrix song, shut your eyes and let your mind draw you a picture. There’s the head tipped back, the messy afro half-tamed by a headband, the face a mask of lidded-eyed sexual ecstasy, mouth agape. In his flailing hands is a white Fender Stratocaster. And what’s most the most enduring visual image of Hendrix? His stunt at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival when he lit his Strat on fire and knelt behind it, coaxing the flames to grow higher like a possessed Voodoo priest.

It’s the same with Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, David Gilmour, Buddy Guy, Jeff Beck, Buddy Holly, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Dick Dale — every popular musician who has chosen a Fender as his primary axe has assumed the guitar’s iconic curves as part of their own image. Only Stravinsky’s piano approaches such visual power.

Fender’s crowning achievement is indeed a tremendously influential piece of industrial design, and one of the most evocative relics of America’s post-war culture. The Stratocaster’s slopes and swooshes perfectly connect the empty spaces between the dawning space age, the sleek Modernism of Calder’s floating sculptures, the flamboyance and heat of a California hot rod, the raw lust of the sexual revolution and the angry rebellion of youth.

Most of the guitars on the market in the late 1950s had their share of feminine curves, but the Strat was the wood and metal equivalent of a pin-up model. It came in colors like orange sunburst, pearl white and the ever-popular candy apple red. It begged to be touched, and it practically screamed “trouble.”

It was, as the songwriter Jonathan Richman put it in “Fender Stratocaster,” his 1989 ode to the Strat, “everything your parents hated about rock ‘n roll.”

But in the end, it’s a guitar, and it’s not all about the looks.

All of Fender’s guitars were noted for their clean, bright sound. The Telecaster featured two pickups, one at the bridge and one closer to the neck that produced a thin, trebly twang. Strats were configured with a third pickup in between the neck and the bridge, supplying a wider range of tones. Since the solid wood design didn’t resonate as much as hollow body guitars, you could crank one up nice and loud without it feeding back. Just ask Bob Dylan, who plugged in a Strat at Newport in 1965 and turned American pop music upside-down.

Leo Fender’s guitars weren’t just versatile, they were also durable. The carved slabs of wood with bolt-on necks were made to be abused. The neck was detachable (making it easier to service) and adjustable, so the player could set the distance between the strings and fretboard to his or her liking. The Strat’s spring-loaded tremolo system, which could alter the pitch of all six strings at once, may have caused the to guitar to go out of tune a little, but you rarely saw one break.

All of Fender’s guitar designs have endured, and they are prized by both players and collectors. The visual boldness draws you in, but it’s the playability, the way the guitar feels balanced on your shoulders, the curvature of the neck and the way its carved body hugs your own that hooks you.

Fender didn’t stop after the Strat. He also designed the Jazzmaster, the Jaguar, the Duo-Sonic and the Mustang. He followed up the massively popular P-Bass with its slimmer and lighter cousin, the Jazz Bass. He also had a hand in designing the company’s famous amplifiers like the Twin, the Champ and the Bassman.

Leo Fender sold the company that bared his name to CBS in 1965. He founded two more companies, Music Man and G&L Guitars, that sold his newer instrument and amp designs.

He suffered from strokes and Parkinson’s disease late in life, and died in 1991. He never learned how to play the guitar.

Source: Various
Top photo: Matt York/AP
Middle photo: Corbis