If you haven't had an opportunity to attend any of the
Friday night jazz sessions at Gullifty's in Squirrel Hill, you are missing out
on some wonderful music. Last Friday, pianist Steve Rudolph and his
excellent quartet held court, captivating the crowd with wonderful, small group
arrangements. Sponsored by the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild, Rudolph,
bassist Steve Varner, drummer Phil Haynes and trumpeter John Swana performed
before a near-capacity audience that soaked up the music.
The vitality of a venue is often measured by the number of musicians attending a
concert when they are not performing. In addition to saxophonists Kenny
Blake and Don Aliquo Sr. and drummer Roger Humphries, who is recovering nicely
from hip replacement surgery, David Baker and other members of the Smithsonian
Jazz Masterworks Orchestra were present. Baker, who serves as president of the
International Association of Jazz Educators and chairman of the jazz studies
program at Indiana University, was in town with the Smithsonian Orchestra
recording a DVD at the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild.
The musicians were part of a crowd that was treated to the music of Rudolph, who
locked in a groove and maintained it throughout the evening. After performing a
ballad, the group performed "Invitation," featuring compelling solos
by every member of the quartet.
- Nate Guidry, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette jazz critic
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CADENCE MAGAZINE June 2004
Review of JOE HUNT TRIO
CD -DREAMBOXMEDIA 1067.
I'm Glad There is You/ Mr. Bim/ Solar/ Everything I Love/ I Hear a Rhapsody,
Over the Rainbow/ Twelve Tone Tune
Joe Hunt, d; Steve Rudolph, p; Steve Meashey, b
Saylorsburg, PA, Dec. 15-16 2002
Yes, that Joe Hunt
In the rather cramped liner
notes is a description of pianist, Steve
Rudolph as "an artist who projects strength and soul within a lyrical
framework," whose "technical ability allows the music to speak to
listeners
without drawing attention to himself" - if so, he's failed, because
this is
playing of a caliber to turn heads. On up tempo tracks he is graceful without
glibness, his lines so light and fleet they barely touch the ground; when he
plays a ballad such as "Over the Rainbow", he is expressive but also
bracingly clear-sighted and unsentimental. This is Evans with the pep and
imagination still present, rather than the kind of innocuous redaction of
his style one so often encounters among his followers. Rudolph, Hunt and
bassist Meashey make this kind of jazz sound fresh and sometimes (on fast
pieces like "Solar" and "The Sweetest Sounds I Ever Heard")
genuinely
exhilarating. It's a first rate disc, and deserves widespread attention
among enthusiasts of the traditional piano trio.
Nate Dorward, Cadence Magazine page 40, June 2004
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Philadelphia Enquirer
Review of JOE HUNT TRIO CD -DREAMBOXMEDIA 1067.
"Drummer Joe Hunt was a collaborator
of Stan Getz's and a professor at Boston's jazz think tank, the Berklee College
of Music, for 30 years before he landed in Central Pennsylvania...
Their trio recording is a well-motored affair. Hunt, who has backed singers from
Astrud Gilberto to Ann Hampton Calloway, pulses with delicacy, his sound brush-like
even when he's gotten out the sticks.
Rudolph can sound gilded and plush, but he also provides the occasionally jagged
melody interpretation, and Meashey often rises to the fore. Standards dominate,
but the pianist offers three tunes, including a dark and beguiling cut, 'The
Earth, the Moon & the Stars,' which begins like a children's tune before its
poignant denouement. The trio is a pleasant surprise."
- Philadelphia Inquirer - 2005
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THE DAVIS ENTERPRISE Thurs. Dec. 4., 2003 Davis, CA newspaper
Review of Christmas with the Steve Rudolph Trio RLCD1054
...is a marvelous album, and one that'll probably get left in the CD changer. Pianist Steve Rudolph and buddies - Paul Langosch, bass and Matt Wilson, drums - deliver fresh, inventive and quite entertaining readings of 11 Christmas carols and standards. The arrangements are engaging, the tempos tend toward finger snapping fast, and the musical interplay between these three always tight; I particularly enjoy "We Three Kings" and "Deck the Halls".
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FLY Magazine feature article - Jan 2008 - click here
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CADENCE MAGAZINE Vol. 26 No. 12
December 2000
Review of Christmas with the Steve Rudolph
Trio RLCD1054
Pianist Steve Rudolph demonstrates that one needn’t compromise one’s aesthetic values when doing a Christmas album. Though the repertoire consists of the usual suspects of holiday pop songs and carols, Rudolph comes about as close to having a Christmas album with year ‘round appeal as one can. (I happen to believe that’s an impossible measure anyway.) It makes me curious to hear what he plays the other eleven months of the year.
Rudolph deftly reharmonizes the pieces here and establishes structures that support extended blowing. On the hard swinging "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" the harmonies shift between suspension and release. "We Three Kings" gets turned into a four-to-the-bar romp. But he doesn’t always go against the grain of the tunes. On "O Come, O Come Emanuel" he extends and embellishes the somber mood of the original piece. Probably my favorite here Is the way he turns the stodgy "Silver Bells" into a hip waltz with some shifty harmonies.
He's well supported throughout. Langosch outlines Rudolph's quirky structures and makes them swing. Drummer Matt Wilson doesn't stint on the polyrhythms. Just because it’s Christmas doesn’t mean you can’t wail, and that’s just what Rudolph and company do, and that makes this session one of the best Jazz Christmas recordings to come my way. David Dupont
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JazzCorner (internet) Nate Dorward - "best recordings of 2004"
The Joe Hunt Trio (Dreambox Media). Gorgeous straight-a-head Bill Evans style piano trio. 99% of the time that's codespeak for "soporific"--it's unbelievable how many tenth-rate Evans imitators there are out there--but pianist Steve Rudolph is a real find, & Joe Hunt sounds just as good as he did back in the 1960s when he was on all those George Russell discs.
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The Hindu - interview in Chennai India - 2007 - click here
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JazzTimes, October
’96, by Deni Kasrel
Review: Steve Rudolph, "Everything I Love" R&LCD1049 (57:57)
I’ve never met Steve Rudolph but I have a hunch he’s a personable guy with a penchant for contemplation. At least that’s how he comes across in his playing on Everything I Love. The album has five Rudolph originals, plus tunes by Cole Porter, Bill Evans and Paul Desmond, among others. The technically adept Rudolph has broad command of his instrument and is good at capitalizing on its mode of nuance - like being both percussive and softly lyrical ("Estate’") or going for a lilting, glistening effect ("Three for B. E."). The bluesy "Back Home in Indiana" is progressive and pushes harmonic boundaries more than the rest of this repertoire. The full set is a mix of deft piano solos plus duets and trio work with Dwayne Dolphin, Roger Humphries and Steve Varner.
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review of The Joe Hunt Trio by N. Dorward "obsessive reviewer"
The phrase "Bill Evans-style piano trio" is 90% of the time codespeak for "dull": there's a lot of competent but really inconsequential piano trio music out there which does scant justice to Evans' legacy even as it pilfers from his harmonic language & pet devices. This is a disc that actually tackles the Evans legacy & makes it sound fresh--Evans with the brains & riskiness intact. Joe Hunt is a familiar name from the 1960s--he's on a lot of George Russell's classic dates for Decca & Riverside, & also worked with Getz & Evans himself--but he's been pretty hard to spot on disc in recent years for some reason. He's in superb form here. But the real discovery here is Steve Rudolph, a pianist I'd not heard before: he's got really good chops, but more to the point he takes a bracingly uncomplacent path through even very familiar standards--there's a reading of "Solar" here which is one of the freshest readings it's received in years. The program is a mix of Rudolph originals, a few standards ("Over the Rainbow", "I'm Glad There Is You", &c) & a couple Evans tunes; everything comes off strongly. Fans of mainstream piano jazz will want to check this one out.
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ONE WAY Recommends- Scott Yanow - review of Soul Quest (PACT Records)
During
a period of time when nearly all of the larger labels have drastically cut back
or eliminated their jazz departments, concentrating instead on low cost
no-brainer reissues, jazz musicians have typically showed adaptability. Many are
currently recording for small labels and quite a few have started their own
companies. In the case of flutist Ali Ryerson, in another era she would have
been a natural to be on
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Cadence Magazine,
July ’96, by Stuart Broomer
Review: Steve Rudolph, "Everything I Love" R&LCD1049
(57:57)
Rudolph has big band experience, and his repertoire here includes pieces by Desmond and Evans, as well as a tribute to the latter. There’s very little contrivance, though, and certainly no apparent political agenda, just honest trio playing with a couple of moody piano solos thrown in. Rudolph’s gift is rhythmic ease. What he does well is swing, warmly and gently, and he does it in tandem with excellent rhythm players in the standard idioms. It’s apparent at tempos from slow to fast, and there’s often concentrated lyricism, as on "Estate’" and "Two Lonely People". The fine piano sound compliments an increasing emphasis on ballads and makes for pleasant late night listening. Stuart Broomer
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AllMusic.com 9/01
Although Steve Rudolph belongs to the class of jazz musicians who favor a relaxed, lyrical approach to the piano, every now and then he can startle with off-center chords a la Thelonious Monk as on his own "This One's for You, Bud." This technique helps to make the work interesting and keeps the listener alert. Beginning as a trumpet player, Rudolph switched to piano when he was 22. His big break came when Buddy Morrow hired him to play with the Tommy Dorsey ghost band. This album is his first as a leader and emphasizes his delicate (but not dainty) stylizing with a play list sprinkled with familiar and original material. As much as any cut on the album, Paul Desmond's lovely waltz, "Wendy," catches the spirit and grace of Rudolph's way with the piano. This tune reflects Desmond's character: dry, laid-back, and uncomplicated, all with a smile. You hear the smile in Rudolph's interpretation, which would have brought one to Desmond's face. Rudolph pays homage to another influence, Bill Evans, with an appealing version of Evans' "Two Lonely People." The informative intervention throughout this piece by bass player Steve Varner recalls Scott LaFaro's contributions to Evans' most significant trio. A further nod is given Evans with a pensive but lilting "Three for B. E." Roger Humphries reveals his roots as Horace Silver's drummer by laying down rhythmic patterns in support of the piano as well as some intelligent but not overbearing soloing on such cuts as "Everything I Love". Low keyed and well-textured, this is an album of assured and confident performances by a group that shows a strong allegiance to and respect for melody. Highly recommended. — Dave Nathan
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In
Our Prime
Tom Strohman/Steve Rudolph
Quartet | R&L Records - read
the review at http://www.allaboutjazz.com/reviews/r0701_084.htm
From western Pennsylvania comes a quartet of players who play with loose precision as they work their way through a set of familiar and original material. The result is what one might call sophisticated bop. There's plenty of improvising, expanding on the bop figures that were laid by the inventors of the style in the late 1940's with little agitation. Led by Tom Strohman on a variety of saxophones, the clarinet and flute and by the steady pianism of Steve Rudolph all buttressed by the strong foundation constructed by Steve Varner's bass, an hour of well conceived, cleanly executed arrangements are presented.
The album's kick off tune reveals the debt to that premiere jazz style as the group offers a scintillating run through of Rudolph's “T. C.'s” Tune. Old Devil Moon” is given a fresh up tempo, modern reading by the group. But like bop players of yore, this group is capable of more than playing fast and turning chords inside out. They record an out of the ordinary arrangement of Bobby Troup's “The Meaning of the Blues”. Here, Rudolph is the inside man with his introspective piano, with Goodwin the outside man, knocking off rim shots and other percussive announcements. The arbitrator is Strohman's flighty flute leading the way in a lovely proclamation of a tune that has been done by Julie London to Miles Davis. The Strohman/Rudolph version need not take a back seat to any version. The album's coda is a fitting, lilting “Scherzo for Summertime” and like that time of year has a calm, relaxed way about it. This piece comes from Strohman's 14 year son, Greg.
In Our Prime should be welcomed by those who get their listening pleasures in small group jazz. This album indeed is prime stuff. Visit Steve at www.steverudolph. com.
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Robin
Work & the Steve Rudolph Trio - Pure Imagination
... Pure Imagination Robin Work & the Steve Rudolph
Trio | R&L Jazz. Every now and then
one comes across a vocal session where the style and sound of the vocalist ...
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/reviews/r0701_130.htm
Every now and then one comes across a vocal session where the style and sound of the vocalist fits perfectly with the play list and the sidemen who back her. That happens with Robin Work's inaugural album. Work has a deep voice with a surprisingly pure tone despite the heaviness. It works very well with tunes of woe, wistfulness and melancholy such as “Ballad of the Sad Young Men”. Her rendition is much like Art Pepper's sax interpretation of this seldom recorded classic. On “Spring Can Really Hang You up the Most”, Work places her words so carefully among the chords played by Steve Rudolph on piano it's as if she is constructing a house of match sticks, attentive but concerned that one misplaced syllable may result in the house collapsing. This is not carefulness rising out of hesitation or uncertainty, but care to make sure the song is sung just right...and it is. She ends this tune on a perfectly pitched low note. This track is also graced by a lovely bass solo from Paul Langosch.
But this is not an album devoted solely to sad songs reciting sad stories of sad people. “I've Got the World on a String” is a nice well-conceived medium tempo. Again, Work uses her low voice to give this tune a different hearing than one usually gets with this song. On an upbeat “Robbin's Nest”, she cleverly scats in a few bars from the “Trolley Song”. The Steve Rudolph Trio is especially sensitive to the special demands of Work's style and marvelously accommodates it. This album can be purchased from www.steverudolph.com and www.randlrecords.com
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Jazz-Quad
- Belarus, Russia, 2002
Review: Steve Rudolph, "Everything I Love" R&LCD1049
(57:57)
There are musicians that are always in the center of attention, they frequently play on festivals, go on tour, and critics are familiar with their work. And there are others, often as good, but rarely heard outside of their city, region, or sometimes even the place where they work. Boris Prusakor from Moscow is like that. Piano player Steve Rudolph from Harrisburg PA is like that, too. Born in Indiana, he picked up the trumpet as a kid, the studied it academically, but in 1971 completely switched to the piano. Living the life of a jazz musician, which means traveling around the country form one gig to another, he received (in 1978) an invitation from a hotel in Harrisburg to start a jazz program there and decided to settle down. But he didn't just settle down, he became the center of all the jazz in Central PA. He became the head of a very strong organization, the Central PA Friends of Jazz. He was teaching, organized concerts of a lot of famous musicians, played with many of them, and toured himself. R&L released some of his recordings but distributed them only locally. This particular album, recorded in 1995, just now became available for jazz lovers all over the U.S.A. and abroad.
This album gives you an idea about Rudolph's musical preferences as well as his mastery.
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Jazz News,
California Publication - Sept/Oct
’96 by Tom Phillips
Review: Steve Rudolph, "Everything I Love" R&LCD1049 (57:57)
The former Tommy Dorsey band (Buddy Morrow) pianist from Indiana (see track 6) who left the band as pianist and road manager to settle in Harrisburg, PA has done for the Keystone State what Bill Gates did for Microsoft. Besides being a highly skilled and inventive keyboard artist, Steve was one of the founders, and still plays a big role in the Central PA Friends of Jazz organization. Monthly concerts, an annual jazz festival, and a newsletter and telephone hotline have added greatly to our enjoyment of this culture. And to top it off, he is one of the finest gentlemen you’ll ever meet. Always ready to help his fellow musicians, skilled at not only being the "star" performer, but when accompanying a singer knows how to play a supportive role, and inspires and encourages all those on the bandstand with him.
One half of the selections on the CD are Steve’s own compositions. Bud, of course, refers to Powell, and B.E., if you couldn’t guess, was for Bill Evans, a favorite of his. Lucky 7 Blues is named for the café where he led Saturday afternoon jam sessions for several years with his trio, but with a steady stream of musicians sitting in. The variety of moods and tempos of this release show the many facets of this artist - the block chords taking the place of the brass or reed sections of the big band, th long flowing lines of his runs show his skill at stretching the melodic constraint of the chords without losing the listener in a meaningless cacophony of sound as so many modern players do. Each note he plays is always relevant….but hang on, Steve can take you on a roller coaster ride of improvisation that always evoke smiles from the appreciative audience.
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Harrisburg Magazine, January 1996 "34 Newsmakers of 1996"
Steve Rudolph - Since arriving in Harrisburg nearly 20 years ago, Rudolph has been largely responsible for the growth and development of the thriving jazz scene in Central PA. The Central PA Friends of Jazz, which he founded, is among the more successful non-profit jazz organizations in the country. He came to Harrisburg after leaving the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. What we heard: "Steve Rudolph is jazz in Central Pennsylvania." - "If you haven’t caught his work at the Harrisburg Hilton & Towers (where he performs six nights a week), you’ve missed something." - "When you talk about musicians who call Harrisburg home, few are known as far and wide as Steve Rudolph. He’s played all over Europe."
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Harrisburg Magazine Editorial August 1998- Ron Minard - commenting on the "Simply the Best" Awards: "As for jazz spots, those who went with The Bar at the Hilton got it right. Steve Rudolph is simply the best!"
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Harrisburg Magazine,
July 2000
"Why we Live Where We Live" 50 reasons to love Harrisburg
#12 Our own Central PA Friends of Jazz and Steve Rudolph provide things in which we all can revel.
View Steve w/ Jamie Broumas at
the Kennedy Center - Washington DC - click here