Dreaming And Beyond

Keyboard virtuoso Jordan Rudess of Dream Theater plays solo at The Kate Sunday

By Rick Koster

26 Aug 2021

How to blueprint an upcoming interview with keyboardist Jordan Rudess before his solo performance Sunday at the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center?

Easy. With careful strategy and a keen awareness of Rudess’s extensive-squared resume.

Twenty minutes have been allocated for the conversation, so...

Rudess is most famous for his work with prog-metal kingpins Dream Theater. Conduct a one-minute-and-eight-second discussion of each DT studio album he’s made during his tenure with the band. (Or less time per capita if you add in his albums with instrumental supergroup Liquid Tension Experiment or his 18 solo CDs. The latter is a remarkably versatile collection that ranges from Debussy/George Winston-style piano meditations and a Christmas album to a covers effort lovingly recreating work by musical heroes, and “Wired for Madness,” a chops-overdose experiment that’s the giddily musical equivalent of reading Kant’s “The Critique of Pure Reason” in 13/8.)

One could also broach Wizdom, the musical software development company Rudess started that’s created 10 different and ingenious apps/interfaces/harmonic generators to assist and expand the sonic horizons of beginner and/or top-level musicians. Or ask something silly, like whether Rudess is tired of “Pull Me Under,” arguably the most popular Dream Theater tune and one that’s been performed by the band onstage about 800 times...

As it turns out, Rudess still really likes playing “Pull Me Under,” which he cheerfully broaches as an aside during a Monday morning phone call that indeed cartwheels across the brightly colored canvas of his career.

“My life is all about creativity,” Rudess says. “When I wake up on any given morning, I might have a feeling or a musical idea in mind that would lead me in a certain direction. But as a professional, I don’t always get to play the type of music I want at that moment.

“When I’m in concert, there are spaces available for improvisation, so even if I’ve been thinking about another direction, I can still explore within context. It’s true that a lot of musicians tire easily of playing a particular piece of music. And I sometimes hear, ‘Do we have to play “Pull Me Under” again?’ For me, I like it. It’s sort of our one hit. So I enjoy it. I just enjoy playing music.”

Making The Best Of Circumstances

In 2020, Rudess had, like most folks, plenty of time to follow his muse and play music during COVID lockdown. This ultimately resulted in the gorgeous and meditative solo piano pieces released as “A Chapter in Time.”

Rudess operated under a completely different set of conditions for 2004’s “Rhythm of Time,” when he was suddenly presented with an offer to record an entire album in two weeks before an impending Dream Theater tour. This meant writing, arranging and recording material including reaching out to and contracting several contributing musicians. Rudess locked himself away in his home studio with no emails, social contact or telephone other than his immediate family.

“I think either situation is interesting and points out that creating a body of work takes a practical type of focus within the circumstances,” Rudess says. “With ‘Rhythm of Time,’ I operated with the theory that the project would get done because it HAD to get done. The pandemic, though, led to an intense burst of ongoing creativity that kind of marked this bizarre and tragic period we’re all living through.”

Originally, there was no plan to release the work that became “A Chapter in Time.” With no formal outlet for the fountain of music and emotions flowing, Rudess began improvising material live on YouTube. He wanted to share the music with other human beings and, daily for almost two months, Rudess would set his iPhone on his piano, turn on Facebook, and let it flow.

Balancing Obligations

“Then I started to wonder if I was sending the wrong message – that music is free,” Rudess says. “The spiritual side of me was happy, but there was another aspect. Not only myself but players all over the world need to make a living. I wanted to fix what I’d started – how do I keep the joy of creation and interaction with other people and not lose that, but at the same time convey that music is not free?”

Rudess’s wife Danielle, a producer, discovered Patreon – a subscription service connecting artists with fans – and the musician joined and has incorporated the platform to great advantage, both, he says, for himself and his fans. Also, he selected material from those sessions for the “Chapter in Time” album, which is a dynamic and archly wistful musical document.

Still Dreaming

Fans at The Kate can expect excerpts from that recording and other Rudess releases. It IS a solo keyboard show, after all. At the same time, towards the end of 2020, Dream Theater safely convened in their own studio – Canadian vocalist James LaBrie stayed home to observe pandemic precautions regarding travel – and earlier this year completed a new album called “A View from the Top of the World.”

The band is scheduled to tour North America in the fall; Rudess says they’re monitoring the upswing in COVID cases and variants and will make a decision on whether to carry on soon. Meanwhile, the album’s first single, “The Alien,” is out and, at nine minutes, seems a fresh and exciting slice of music fans would anticipate while at the same time moving forward.

“We chose ‘The Alien’ as we do everything in Dream Theater world,” Rudess says with a laugh. “Every decision goes through a lot of serious thought, and the song reflects our energy and the dynamics and shifts we’re known for. It’s a good choice, I think, and our label of course has an opinion, too. They’ve been good to us, and we were all on the same page with this.”

A Wealth Of Options

Will Rudess tease “The Alien” or other material from “A View from the Top of the World” during The Kate show? Fans never know; it’s possible Rudess himself doesn’t know. He enjoys and takes advantage of his vast catalog and the opportunity to explore spontaneous moods and even requests.

In addition to his own meditative albums and classical arrangements of DT selections, a typical solo Rudess show will include interpretations of or a medley of mellower moments from prog heroes like Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Yes, Genesis and King Crimson; possibly a tune or two from Liquid Tension Experiment material; short pieces by Bach or Chopin; and delightful explorations from American Songbook gems like “Over the Rainbow” or “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”

The solo nature of the performance dictates a certain mood and dynamics, but Rudess also reflects on the minor-chord nature of growing older. Now in his mid-60s, with two grown daughters and a longtime marriage to Danielle, Rudess acknowledges that, while he still loves the discipline, sky-high ambition and rigorous excitement of Dream Theater’s distinctive brand of energized prog metal, his downtime musical tastes have softened.

“I don’t sit around listening to a lot of prog metal,” he says, “though as a composer, and sometimes a listener, I do enjoy creating more intense music and exploring frontiers and harmonies in Dream Theater. But mostly, when I listen to something, it’s generally pretty mellow. Michael Hedges, Sigur Ros, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Elton John ballads... I’m drawn to that material and wanting to be calm. Maybe it’s just getting older, and maybe it’s a reaction to what’s going on in the world. I use music as a way to tune out.”

Such are the effects of time – even as they apply to Rudess’s backstage hospitality rider. “I think my part of the rider has always been pretty simple,” he says. “To be very happy, all I require is high-quality chocolate – not dark, even though it’s supposedly healthier – and ginger ale – but not diet ginger ale. Also, some towels and a nice bottle of Sauvignon Blanc if I’m of a mood after the show.

“It’s true that, more often than I’d like, I WILL go into my dressing room, and oh, no! There’s dark chocolate or diet ginger ale or even a very nice Mexican Chardonnay. But we work on these things. Just as we refine our music, we refine our hospitality rider requests. And we move forward.”