By his late teens, Rudess had developed an increasing interest in synthesizers and progressive rock music, citing his first experience in the genre as the Hammond playing and distorted stylistic expression of
Jon Lord. Against the advice of his parents and tutors, he turned away from classical piano and pursued a career as a solo progressive rock keyboardist. After Juilliard, one of his first bands was an "electronic space music band" called Complex. Formed by Rudess and former Juilliard instructor Joseph Lyons, along with Sal Gallina, they began playing college radio and house concerts. In January 1977, the band performed at Hansen Galleries in New York City. "This is music of real interest and vitality, more rhythmic and popularly appealing than most so-called 'serious' music," said the
New York Times of the performance, "yet never so blatantly exploitive as to arouse real cynicism." That spring, the band Ocean Star released an album featuring music by Complex. That summer, Rudess accompanied Lyons for a residency at the
Lexington Conservatory Theatre in Lexington, NY. Rudess served as assistant musical director and co-composed scores for the theater productions with Lyons, including the world premiere of
The Prevalence of Mrs. Seale by
Otis Bigelow. The duo also performed a series of concerts for the Earful concert series throughout the summer. When Bleu Ocean was assembling a team of fellow drummers to perform on the song "
Bring the Boys Back Home," featured on
Pink Floyd's
The Wall, he invited Rudess for the sessions, since Rudess had played drums as a child. However, Rudess's performance was rejected by producer
Bob Ezrin. At that time, Rudess had already chosen keyboards as his main instrument. Rudess was part of a studio project assembled by bubblegum pop impresarios
Jerry Kasenetz and
Jeffry Katz, who were also behind The
Ohio Express and The
1910 Fruitgum Company. In 1980, they ventured into
album-oriented rock with
Speedway Boulevard, which also featured touring members of
Ram Jam. The group never performed live and disbanded shortly after the album's release. After participating in various projects during the 1980s, he gained international attention in 1994 when he was voted "Best New Talent" in the
Keyboard Magazine readers' poll following the release of his
Listen solo album. Two of the bands that took notice of Rudess were
The Dixie Dregs and
Dream Theater, both of whom invited him to join. Rudess chose the Dregs, primarily because being a part-time member of the band would have less of an impact on his young family, a choice he was not given with Dream Theater. During his time with the Dregs, Rudess formed a "power duo" with drummer
Rod Morgenstein. The genesis of this pairing occurred when a power outage caused all of the Dregs' instruments to fail except Rudess's, so he and Morgenstein improvised with each other until power was restored and the concert could continue. The chemistry between the two was so strong during this jam that they decided to perform together regularly (under the name
Rudess/Morgenstein Project or later
RMP) and have since released a studio album and a live record. Rudess encountered Dream Theater once again when he and Morgenstein secured the support slot on one of Dream Theater's North American tours. In 1997, when
Mike Portnoy was asked to form a
supergroup by
Magna Carta Records, Rudess was chosen to fill the keyboardist spot in the band, which also included
Tony Levin and Portnoy's Dream Theater colleague
John Petrucci. During the recording of
Liquid Tension Experiment's two albums, it became evident to Portnoy and Petrucci that Rudess was what Dream Theater needed. They asked Rudess to join the band, and when he accepted, they released their then-keyboardist
Derek Sherinian to make way for him. Rudess has been the full-time keyboardist in Dream Theater since the recording of 1999's
Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory. He has recorded eleven other studio albums with the group: 2002's
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, 2003's
Train of Thought, 2005's
Octavarium, 2007's
Systematic Chaos, 2009's
Black Clouds & Silver Linings, 2011's
A Dramatic Turn of Events, 2013's
Dream Theater, 2016's
The Astonishing, 2019's
Distance over Time, 2021's
A View from the Top of the World, and 2025's
Parasomnia. In addition, he has appeared on the live albums
Live Scenes From New York,
Live at Budokan,
Score,
Chaos in Motion,
Live at Luna Park,
Breaking the Fourth Wall, and
Distant Memories – Live in London. In addition to working with Dream Theater, he occasionally records and performs in other contexts, such as a 2001 one-off duo performance with Petrucci (released as the CD
An Evening With John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess), as well as backing up
Blackfield on their first short US tour in 2005 and playing a solo opening slot for them on their second tour in 2007. He also contributed to
Steven Wilson's albums
Grace for Drowning and
Insurgentes. In 2010, Rudess composed "Explorations for Keyboard and Orchestra," his first classical composition. It was premiered in Caracas, Venezuela, on November 19, 2010, by the Chacao Youth Symphony Orchestra and guest conductor Eren Başbuğ. Rudess played all of the keyboard and synthesizer parts. On July 28, 2011, in a poll conducted by
MusicRadar, Rudess was voted the best keyboardist of all time. Rudess appeared on the
Ayreon album,
The Theory of Everything, released on October 28, 2013.
Use of technology , 2010 While many keyboard players in progressive rock tend to bring numerous keyboards on stage, creating large racks of instruments, Rudess samples sounds from other keyboards he owns and maps them to a single keyboard. Each "setup" assigns different sounds to various layers and key ranges of the keyboard controller; these setups are then arranged in the order they will be required for a gig and cycled through with a footswitch. Starting in the 1990s, he used a
Kurzweil K2600XS during live sets until switching in 2005 to
Korg's
Oasys workstation; he first utilized the Oasys station on Dream Theater's 2005–2006 20th Anniversary tour. He also employed a Muse Receptor hardware
VST and a
Haken Continuum X/Y/Z-plane
MIDI instrument, triggering a
Roland V-Synth XT and a synthesizers.com modular unit designed by
Richard Lainhart and
Roger Arrick. Influenced by Lainhart, Rudess was the first well-known keyboardist to bring a Haken Continuum onto a live stage. Rudess kept the Kurzweil for studio recordings and for some of his signature sounds, such as "the pig," which is often played in unison with the guitar or bass guitar. In 2011, Rudess switched from the
Oasys to the new flagship
Korg Kronos. In 2019, he added a Roland Ax-Edge keytar and a
Hammond XK-5 to his live setup, which were used on Dream Theater's 2019 record
Distance over Time. His current live rig consists of the Kronos, along with a Continuum, a Hammond XK-5, a Roland AX-Edge, a
lap steel guitar, a
Harpejji, and an
iPad. Since 2001, Rudess has used custom-made swiveling keyboard stands on stage for both Dream Theater and his solo career, which are built by Patrick Slaats from the
Netherlands. On Dream Theater's 2007–2008 "
Chaos in Motion Tour," Rudess expanded his live setup with the addition of a
Korg RADIAS, a Manikin
Memotron, and a Zen Riffer
keytar. Rudess stopped using his
Synthesizers.com modular after the European leg of the tour due to its size and weight. He still owns the synthesizer and keeps it in his home studio. During the
Progressive Nation 2008 tour, he introduced a
Kaoss Pad 3 on stage for the closing medley. For the 2009–2010 tour in support of
Black Clouds & Silver Linings, Rudess introduced the
Apple iPhone on stage, running an application called Bebot Robot Synth. Rudess originally used Bebot on the studio recording of "A Rite of Passage." In live performances, he utilized it on the same song, as well as in improvised solos featured in "Hollow Years" and "Solitary Shell." On September 24, 2010, Rudess released the song "Krump," an
electronica single, on
iTunes. It featured the use of the new
Roland Gaia, Roland's more recent keyboard. == Other work ==