Jordan Rudess
| Jordan Rudess | |
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Rudess playing at the 17th International Percussion Festival in Opole, Poland, October 19, 2008
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Jordan Charles Rudes |
| Born | November 4, 1956 |
| Origin | Great Neck, New York, U.S. |
| Genres | Progressive rock, progressive metal, classical, new-age, electronic |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter |
| Instruments | Keyboards, guitar, Continuum |
| Years active | 1981–present |
| Associated acts | Dream Theater, Dixie Dregs, Liquid Tension Experiment, John Petrucci, Rod Morgenstein, David Bowie, Vinnie Moore, Tom Coster, Kip Winger, Nóirín Ní Riain, Rhonda Larson, Paul Winter, Scott McGill, Steven Wilson, Prefab Sprout, Jupiter, Neal Morse, Daniel J, Neil Zaza, Annie Haslam, John-Luke Addison, Behold... The Arctopus, Liquid Trio Experiment, Enrique Iglesias, Mr. Fastfinger, Ricky Garcia, Frost*, Richard Lainhart, Ayreon |
| Website | jordanrudess |
Jordan Rudess (born Jordan Charles Rudes; November 4, 1956) is an American keyboardist and composer best known as a member of the progressive metal/rock band Dream Theater and the progressive rock supergroup Liquid Tension Experiment.
Rudess was born in 1956 into a Jewish family. He was recognized by his 2nd grade teacher for his piano playing and was immediately given professional instruction. At nine, he entered the Juilliard School of Music Pre-College Division for classical piano training, but by his late teens he had grown increasingly interested in synthesizers and progressive rock music. Against the counsel of his parents and tutors, he turned away from classical piano and tried his hand as a solo progressive rock keyboardist.
When Bleu Ocean was assembling a team of fellow drummers to perform on the song "Bring the Boys Back Home", featured at Pink Floyd's The Wall, he invited Rudess for the session, since the keyboardist had been playing drums for a while. However, Rudess's performance was rejected by producer Bob Ezrin. At that time, Rudess had already chosen the keyboards as his main instrument.
After performing in various projects during the 1980s, he gained international attention in 1994 when he was voted "Best New Talent" in the Keyboard Magazine readers' poll after the release of his Listen solo album. Two of the bands who took notice of Rudess were The Dixie Dregs and Dream Theater, both of whom invited him to join. Rudess chose the Dregs, primarily as being a part-time member of the band would have less of an impact on his young family, a choice he was not given with Dream Theater.
During his time with the Dregs, Rudess formed a "power duo" with drummer Rod Morgenstein. The genesis of this pairing occurred when a power outage caused all of the Dregs' instruments to fail except Rudess', so he and Morgenstein improvised with each other until power was restored and the concert could continue. The chemistry between the two was so strong during this jam that they decided to perform together on a regular basis (under the name Rudess/Morgenstein Project or later RMP) and have since released a studio and a live record.
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