Jordan Rudess - Rhythm Of Time (2004)

Jordan Charles Rudess - Born November 4, 1956 (Great Neck, New York, USA)
Jordan Rudess is a classically trained keyboardist who entered the world of prog with the release of the album 'Listen' in 1993. It is a bombastic album full of various keyboard sounds, with many odd-time signatures and Jordan provides also his vocals to a couple of songs, being backed by a female vocalist. This album helped him being recognized as Best New Talent by the readers of the Keyboard magazine. At the same time, Jordan used to play with Annie Haslam from Renaissance and The Dixie Dregs, who reunited after 12 years for one last studio album 'Full circle' in 1994. Soon after The Dixie Dregs toured, Jordan and Dregs' drummer Rod Morgenstein formed a power duo 'The Rudess/Morgenstein project' who released a very good record on the Domo records label. Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater called him to join an instrumental project involving the legendary bassist Tony Levin and his bandmate John Petrucci on the guitar. This project was called Liquid Tension Experiment and lasted the time of two records, which are regarded as major records by fans of instrumental rock. After the keyboardist Derek Sherinian left the band DREAM THEATER, Jordan Rudess was asked to replace him. He released with them their highly acclaimed album 'Metropolis part II : scenes from a memory', then the controversed 'Six degrees of inner turbulence', the metal-driven 'train of thought' and the more symphonic 'Octavarium'. In the course of his collaboration with Dream Theater, Jordan released some solo albums on the Magna Carta label. 'Feeding the wheel' is an album that once more showcases his great skills on keyboard and piano, featuring a cast of great musicians among which Steve Morse and Terry Bozzio. '4NYC' is a tribute to the victims of the 9/11 of 2001 terrorist attack. This is a record featuring only him on keyboards. 'Rhythm of time' is in the vein of 'feeding the wheel' but leans more towards metal, due to the presence of Joe Satriani, Kip Winger, Greg Howe and Vinnie Moore. In a nutshell, Jordan Rudess is a progressive keyboardist who entered the hall of fame progressive artists such as patrick Moraz, Rick Wakeman and keith Emerson (all playing with him on a Magna Carta tribute to the Classic composers) thanks to a wide pallet of keyboard sounds and a virtuosity rarely reached in the rock realm.