Jordan Rudess: 5 Great Keyboard Albums You (Probably) Don’t Know

Like most musicians who came up during the ‘70s, Jordan Rudess discovered a lot of new bands and artists while hanging out at record stores. The Dream Theater keyboard master recalls how he used to spend hours at Tower Records: “I’d go in for one thing and come out with something else,” he says. “Or somebody would see me looking at something, and they’d say, ‘You like that? Have you heard this?’ It was so cool back then, the social aspect to record buying.”

Today, Rudess says that some of his tips come from iTunes and Spotify, but he still relies on his social network for recommendations. “Traveling as I do, I meet so many musicians, and they’re always talking about new bands and artists I don’t know,” he explains. “And working in the keyboard industry, I’m always getting turned on to new stuff from friends. Just the other day somebody got me into this wild and cool prog band out of Italy, the New Trolls. We don’t have record stories anymore, but word of mouth still exists.”

Below, Rudess shares his own recommendations of great keyboard albums that slipped under the radar.

Refugee – ‘Refugee’ (1974)

Not many people know of this album or that the band even existed. Refugee were together for only a short period of time in 1974. Patrick Moraz teamed up Brian Davidson and Lee Jackson from the Nice. This is the only record they made, and I have to tell you, it’s an amazing keyboard album. It totally changed my course and influenced by direction.

One of the things that really stuck out at me is the way Patrick played the Minimoog. He had such flair and got some brilliant sounds out of it. I discovered this record pretty much when it came out. I was just leaving Juilliard and everybody was turning me on to these cool prog albums that would change my life.

I was bummed that there weren’t more records from these guys. I would always keep my eyes out for more stuff by Patrick Moraz. Of course, he ended up joining Yes and doing stuff like Sound Chaser, which was unbelievable. People should try to check out ‘Refugee’. It’s a barely known gem.

Trace – ‘Birds’ (1975)

Trace was a Dutch progressive band back in the mid-’70s. Their keyboard player was a guy named Rick van der Linden, who unfortunately died a few years ago. Trace only put out a couple of albums, but I really love this one called ‘Birds’ that came out in 1975.

When I heard it, I went, “Oh, my God. This is so great!” It’s a three-piece and the focus is totally on the keyboards. The stuff is very proggy, but there’s some classical and some rock, a little bit of jazz. Rick was one of the dudes. I got turned on to Trace by a guy in Japan who knew all about good prog. If anybody wants to hear some awesome keyboard stuff from a cool group, give Trace a listen.

Jan Hammer – ‘The First Seven Days’ (1975)

Jan Hammer is certainly known to a lot of people, certainly keyboard players, but I’m willing to bet that they don’t know his first solo album, The First Seven Days. It’s a great, great album, full of awesome sounds.

I played with Jan Hammer for a little while in a band with Tony Williams. It was really thrilling because some of the things we played were from this album. There’s video of us doing it at the Montreal Jazz Festival when I had lots of hair. I was the backup keyboardist for Jan. He only wanted to play the keytar at the time, so I had to stick to the organ.

‘The First Seven Days’ was a very important album to me at the time. Getting the gig with Jan, it was probably a little convenient that I knew it. I imagine it scored points some points.

John Foxx – ‘Metamatic’ (1980)

This isn’t a prog album, but it’s a very influential keyboard-based album nonetheless. John had a stint in Ultravox before he left for a solo career. This is an album that people need to hear because it was the first time that somebody used electronics in a certain kind of way. It was really cutting-edge and had an almost cold, cool vibe to it.

It was very ahead of its time, and it led me on a search for all of these new synthesizers. I wasn’t a big Ultravox fan at all at the time, but I got into John Foxx. Then when I went back and listened to Ultravox, it wasn’t as cool and edgy to me. John just seemed to be taking things in a really exciting direction. Even the album cover is great—it kind of looked to the future.

The Synergy – ‘Electronic Realizations for Rock Orchestra’ (1975)

Larry Fast is a really important keyboard artist. He did a bunch of records in the ‘70s under the name the Synergy. This album, Electronic Realizations for Rock Orchestra, is the first in a series. For me, it was another awakening in that it was a whole record done with synthesizers, nothing else.

It’s got kind of a proggy, Keith Emerson-like sound to it, but it was different in that it was all instrumental and synth-based. The textures were very creative, and the music was very bold. It was progressive and dramatic—very inspiring. I didn’t know stuff like this could be done. It sort of sent me into the studio to try to find my own thing.

I met Larry later on and we did some work with Wendy Carlos, re-creating ‘Switched-On Bach’ at the Beacon Theater. It was the first time that material had been performed live. It was great to be a part of that.