Originally published in Prog magazine (UK) 91 · September 2018
Paving The Way
ArticleJordan Rudess1 min read
Who was the first prog keyboard player? Dream Theater’s Jordan Rudess has his say...
“It’s impossible to say who was the first progressive keyboard player, because the world of classical music was so much more than just one person on one instrument.
“But Mozart (1756-1791) was hugely important. He was viewed as this incredible genius at a very tender age. He was doing things that were amazing people at the time – sitting at the piano and improvising. Then as he began to introduce his compositions, he was really pushing boundaries. He sounds tame today, but what he was doing was definitely cutting edge and radical.
“But you can go back even further, to someone like Bach (1685-1750), who was a huge influence on so many groups. If you listen to Gentle Giant, and that whole thing with counterpoint, that all goes back to Bach.
“For me personally, Prokofiev (1891-1953) was a huge influence. I know he influenced people like Keith Emerson too along with Aaron Copland (1900-1990), and that filters down – Emerson, Lake And Palmer’s Tarkus was one of the albums that really influenced me when I was younger. It showed me how you could do things differently in rock music. That’s why progressive music is always developing – it’s got a rich history, but it’s also taking that history and continually moving it forward.”
—DEV