Raphael Rudd is an accomplished musician, composer, conductor, arranger, and producer. He’s walked the stages of the world and the halls of Julliard. He’s built a respected career drawing equally from classical refinement and the language of rock 'n' roll. He emerged as an award-winning composer and a hot New York-area session player on piano and harp, and later toured the world with the progressive rock band Renaissance. But what brought Raphael Rudd to Rhino on this Friday afternoon is one of his many collaborative projects - in this case, with Pete Townshend.
Born of mutual admiration and a common devotion to the Eastern spiritual leader Meher Baba, Townshend and Rudd’s friendship and musical exchange resulted in, among other things, a pair of benefit concerts recorded in 1979 and 1980, just prior to the release of Townshend’s classic album, Empty Glass. Rhino unearthed the recordings and will release them as The Oceanic Concerts on October 16th. To present the flavor of the record and some of his other work, Raphael Rudd gave an intimate performance at Rhino’s LA offices.
Joined by longstanding friend and drummer Joe Gold, Rudd emerged elegantly clad in a Nehru jacket, gave a smiling nod, and sat at the baby grand for solo renditions of “Beyond Passion” and “Homage,” two instrumental pieces from his 1980 album The Awakening Chronicles. Immediately, I was struck by his uniquely physical approach to the instrument. Surpassing the typical limb-flailing animation of the concert hall, Rudd leans into the ivories with his whole body. He hammered on, hammered off, and twitched in time, using his stool as launch pad for his lurching passion. Did Pete have anything to do with such an engaging style? Dunno, but Rudd was tackling the implacable chest of wood and wires like it was low-slung Les Paul (was it me, or did he throw in a windmill or two?).
After an up-tempo, drum-driven “Let My Love Open The Door” (an early version of the song appears on The Oceanic Concerts), Rudd and Gold delivered a lyrical ballad in “Coming Home” and some “south of the border fun” in “Fiesta,” during which Rudd’s rock’n’roll mannerisms were in full effect. Rudd then paused to deliver the story behind his next number, the somber, reflective “Kitty’s Theme,” which also appears on Oceanic. His first composition for harp, the piece is a tribute to his first mentor, Kitty Davy.
Prefacing “The Awakener,” a celebratory little number dedicated to Pete Townshend, Rudd shared an anecdote from his work on the Quadrophenia soundtrack. Hired to compose, arrange, and conduct parts of the score, he related how he, as a young man, stepped into the studio and up to the podium before members of the London Symphony. Having only heard the music in his head, he was, in a sense, hoping for the best. Needless to say, it all worked out.
Never mind the excitement among the seated ranks; I think Raphael Rudd was running on high octane in his own right. Leaving us with “one more little remembrance,” he hopped eagerly back in the saddle for a sprightly tune that would have worked well for those training sequences in boxing movies. Being the animated devil he is, he was all over the ivories, at one point climbing atop his stool and stomping out a few choice pieces of cacophony. Rock 'n' roll, baby!
Talk about a great melding of styles and influences. In Raphael Rudd, this audience got Julliard by way of Pete Townshend and Eastern mysticism. And it all took place in front of a KISS pinball machine.
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