A Biographical
Interview with Adam Rudolph
A master percussionist, Rudolph has been studying musics and rhythms from
around the globe for over 25 years -- "to understand more about human
creation in sound." He explains: "Most musicians come to grasp
an understanding of music in terms of style - such as the predominant style
of music of the sixties. When you look underneath style, then you see more
basic components, like rhythm and harmony. But at an even more essential
level there is music as vibration; and I think this is the deepest level
of understanding we can pursue".
Mentored as a youngster by legendary figures
in improvisational music, and in the Blues world of Chicago and Detroit,
Rudolph was inspired to find his own musical vision and voice by such revered
elders as saxophonists Fred Anderson and Malawi Nurdurdin; and trumpeters
Charles Moore and Don Cherry. But that was just the beginning of his life-long
musical odyssey. Rudolph's academic credentials are extensive -- a self-designed
undergraduate degree in ethnomusicology from Oberlin College, and an MFA
from the California Institute of the Arts. Still, it is through the oral
transmission of living traditions that he received his most vital imprint:
"What's passed on is specific musical information
about intervals, rhythms, use of sound and silence. But the more profound
things that we learn from the elders have to do with an attitude and a
reverence toward the creation of music. Don [Cherry] said to me: 'You have
to respect the silence before you can respect the sound.' There are many
such ideas that require deep reflection to absorb and integrate into one's
music." Rudolph's repertoire of world rhythms -- many of which were
learned on-site -come from the Balinese, Cuban, Ghanain, Haitian, Hindustani,
and Moroccan traditions, and are layered on top of his strong foundation
in American improvisational jazz drumming.
But though his extraordinary technique has brought
him fame as well as collaborations with master musicians from around the
world, Rudolph has "never been interested in trying to showcase technique
on the drum." His performances are "always in the service of
greater spiritual and emotional expression." While living in Ghana
in 1977, Rudolph met the Gambian griot Foday Musa Suso, the kora player
who now works with Philip Glass and Kronos. The following year, Suso and
Rudolph formed the Mandingo Griot Society in Chicago -- the first band
to blend traditional African music with R & B and jazz. During a trip
to Morocco in 1978, Rudolph became acquainted with the mystical music of
Gnawa. He has been collaborating with Gnawa master Hassan Hakmoun since
1988. South Indian violinist, L. Shankar, is another of Rudolph's frequent
performance partners. It was from his 15 year study of the North Indian
tabla drums, under the direct tutelage of Pandit Taranath Rao, that Rudolph
came to understand "the evolution of rhythm as a high art form."
One of the first tabla players for Ravi Shankar,
Taranath's performances as a solo artist and accompanist spanned three
generations. Among the most important "skills" that he passed
on to Rudolph was "the ability to experience music as a form of yoga
or spiritual pursuit." Under his guidance, Rudolph learned "to
use music as a vehicle for both self-expression and self-exploration."
It is Rudolph's dedication to his art, and his desire to absorb and express
the underlying worldview from which a specific musical language has arisen,
that makes his compositions so unique, accessible and engaging. From the
outset of his studies, he has paid special note to the sacred nature of
a culture's heritage of rhythms, sound and rituals and has treated each
of these components with great reverence:
"I never studied with Taranath, or with
the African drummers, with the idea becoming a master of those traditions
because I feel that the bridge between the art and life of distinct cultures
should be profound and preserved. But in creating relative to my own tradition,
I have found that I can strive to embrace the deeper human aspects within
any musical idiom. Because I don't attempt to interpret temporal or culturally
specific elements, I am free to feel my way into the strength and beauty
of a musical language." Rudolph's enormous foundation in world music
has given him a rich vocabulary for his personal expression as a performer
and composer:
"In general, my whole relationship with
what's called "world music," or "music cultures" has
not so much to do with referencing them in direct ways. Rather after listening,
studying, and performing these musics for many years, they have become
a part of my experience. I feel my intuitive expression embraces and synthesizes
their sounds and philosophies in organic ways."
Rudolph is also an accomplished and empathic
instructor who teaches world music improvisation and composition in Europe
and the United States. His rhythm workshops, geared to young and old --
with or without musical experience -- are designed to help participants
"find and develop your own voice with hand drums." While it may
sound unlikely that our hands could lead us to our voice, the path turns
out to be a direct one: Because the rhythm and pattern of our movements
in the world most often get locked into a limited, stylized mode of expression
when we are quite young -- learning to hear the infinite variety of rhythmic
possibilities outside the tempo of a single culture is a liberating experience
with potential repercussions in every area of our lives:
New rhythms break-up old patterns. Participants
thus find themselves more able and free to hear and "march to a different
drummer. This time, however, the drummer is themselves - responding to
the natural rhythms of their own unique being.
Rudolph continues to perform with, and compose
for his percussion ensemble Vashti, a quintet of world musicians that also
includes Hamid Drake, Poovalur Srinivasan (South India), Souhael Kaspar
(Egypt), and I Nyomen Wenten (Bali). As Adam Rudolph's Moving Pictures,
he tours worldwide and performs with multi-instrumentalist, Jihad Racy
of Lebanon and the legendary giant of creative music, Yusef Lateef.
Composing for these master improvisers poses
a particular challenge for Rudolph who must create a musical context that
inspires, contains, and blends flights of spontaneous musical invention.
To accomplish this feat, he employs an original compositional technique
that he calls "Cyclic Verticalism" which allows each improviser
to "move through the music in their own time flow, yet still cycle
with each other -- like planets circling the sun."
Rudolph has played on many recordings released
by Atlantic, Capitol, EMI, Flying Fish, Island, Polygram, Warner Brothers
and Windham Hill. In November 1994, Flying Fish released Rudolph's Moving
Pictures -- his first recording as composer, performer, and group leader
-- to great critical acclaim. Bob Tarte described the album this way for
The Beat
"Such eclecticism could easily add up to
a cacophonous mess or a new-age blandout. But the level of professionalism
is so high, what we get is the world-music equivalent of jazz elders deftly
improvising around one another, mapping out genre juxtapositions that make
other recombinant experiments seem tame."
The Dreamer is Rudolph's first release on his
own Meta Records label. It will soon be followed by Night Sky, which will
set the poetry of Blake, Goethe, Tu Fu and others into an "improvisational
sonic dialogue with instruments from around the world combined with sounds
of stellar objects, including pulsars, radio emissions, and solar storms."
Another recent Meta Records release is The World at Peace, the second orchestral
collaboration between Rudolph and world music innovator and legend, Yusef
Lateef.
The Dreamer is Rudolph's musical/philosophical
"thesis" distilling a quarter century of intense study, travel,
and performance. Within the unifying context of its composition, singers
and instrumentalists fuse their voices into a "syncretic musical fabric"
that is far more than an audio interpretation of paintings and text: As
a composition whose constituent elements -- though vastly different --
are equally essential to the whole expression, it is a universe in microcosm,
conceived and performed by conscious dreamers.
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