Adam Rudolph
In 1977 he lived and studied in Ghana, where he experienced trance ceremonies. In his travels throughout West Africa he saw how music can come from a cosmological grounding beyond music itself and can also be about something beyond music itself. In 1978 he lived in Don Cherry’s house in the Swedish countryside. Cherry inspired him to start composing and showed him about Ornette Coleman’s concept and the connection of music to nature.
Rudolph is known as one the early innovators of what is now called “World Music”. In 1978 he and Gambian Kora player Jali Foday Musa Suso co-founded The Mandingo Griot Society, one of the first groups to combine African and American music. In 1988, he recorded the first fusion of American and Gnawa music with Sintir player and singer Hassan Hakmoun. Rudolph intensely studied North Indian Tabla for over 15 years with Pandit Taranath Rao. He learned hundreds of drum compositions and about how music is a form of Yoga – the unity of mind, body and spirit. In 1988 Rudolph began his association with Yusef Lateef, with whom he has recorded over 15 albums including several of their large ensemble collaborations. Lateef introduced Rudolph to the inspirational practice of Autophysiopsychic Music – “that which comes from one’s spiritual, physical and emotional self”. Rudolph still performs worldwide with Dr. Lateef. Their performances have ranged from their acclaimed duet concerts to appearances as guest soloists with the Koln, Atlanta and Detroit symphony orchestras.
Rudolph continues to also create visual art – painting, drawing, photography – and to write. In 2006, his rhythm repository and methodology book, Pure Rhythm was published by Advance Music, Germany. In 2010 Rudolph’s article Music and Mysticism: Rhythm and Form was published in Arcana V, edited by John Zorn. Other essays have been published by Parabola Magazine and Morton Books.
Rudolph has been on the faculty of Creative Music Studio (New York and Istanbul) Esalen Institute, California Institute of the Arts and the Danish Jazz Federation Summer Institute. Rudolph has received grants and compositional commissions from the Rockefeller Foundation, Chamber Music America, Meet the Composer, Mary Flagler Cary Trust, the NEA, Arts International, Durfee Foundation, Phaedrus Foundation and American Composers Forum.
Adam Rudolph page on metarecords.com + Adam Rudolph: language of rhythm on newmusicbox.org + Moving Pictures on metarecords.com + Hu Vibrational on metarecords.com+ Go: Organic Orchestra on metarecords.com
Projects
KARUNA TRIO or duet (Adam Rudolph e Hamid Drake)
Personnel: Hamid Drake: drumset, udu drums, gourd drum, percussion; Ralph M. Jones: soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, hulusli, ney, bamboo flutes, sipsi, c and alto flutes, bass clarinet, spoken word; Adam Rudolph: handrumset (kongos, djembe, tarija), electronic keyboards and samples, cajon, udu drums, thumb pianos, marimbula, sintir, mouth bow, selya overtone flute, gongs, dusun’goni, percussion.
Moving Pictures
The music of Adam Rudolph’s Moving Pictures heralds a new and vital direction in the evolution of American music. Grounded in the American improvisational tradition, the ensemble embraces music forms, languages, instrumentation, and cosmologies of Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the African diaspora. Decades of performance and research into these music cultures have given the artists the background and experience to create a unique and unprecedented improvisational art form.
hu vibrational
Deep percussive African rhythms and Afro – Jazz with elements of hip-hop and electronica. Recorded and mixed at Bill Laswell’s state of the art studio, this is the fourth album by Hu: Vibrational and for those who bought the previous 3 releases this will not disappoint! Produced and mixed by Adam Rudolph together with longtime Laswell engineer James Dellatacoma, the album features 7 world percussionists along several special guests including Bill Laswell hitting the deep pockets on bass plus Norwegian guitar whiz Eivind Aarset creating ethereal electronic palettes.
go: organic orchestra
The dream project of composer and percussionist Adam Rudolph, marks the release of their long-awaited debut studio recording, Sonic Mandala on Meta Records, with a blow out celebration concert. A 33-player orchestra that covers an astounding number of instruments, everything from the Malian hunter’s harp and bamboo trumpets to the Fender Rhodes and the Japanese noh-kan flute, Go: Organic Orchestra emphasizes the healing power of improvised music with an emphasis on percussion traditions from across the globe.
Go: Organic Orchestra and Brooklyn Raga Massive – RAGMALA
With its 40 piece ensemble, clarity of vision & unrelenting intensity the Outernational Indo Jazz of restless souls, Go: Organic Orchestra & Brooklyn Raga Massive is an epic global jazz fusion spectacle that can stand tall next to the best of the ’70s. A truly remarkable recording.