Philosophy) in the discipline of Philosophy, "the Doctor" has been teaching Philosophy and Humanities for over 30 years - at Dartmouth College, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Western Ontario, Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada), Sonoma State University and now back in his hometown of Santa Rosa, California at Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC), where he is former Chairman of the Philosophy Department. (artist portrait above by Jami Jamison)

He has published two successful college textbooks, Invitation to Critical Thinking, and Ethics and Values in the Information Age, as well as a host of articles of philosophical scholarship on topics ranging from the ethics of abortion and advertising to the aesthetics of popular culture. His next book, Soul - From Plato to Motown - a Musicology meets Cultural Studies Meditation on the relation between Blues, Rock'n'Roll, and Gospel music - is scheduled for publication in 2007 by the University of Michigan Press in its "Tracking Pop" Series.

Producer: Dr. Joel Rudinow produces two concert series at Santa Rosa Junior College: Music 4 the Soul: An Evening of Gospel, Spirituals and Rhythm & Blues, and The Evolution of the Blues now in its successful 14th year - showcasing artists from the Redwood Empire and beyond.

Musician: Born in Oakland, California, Dr. Joel Rudinow grew up listening to blues and early rock'n'roll on legendary radio stations KDIA and KOBY during the heyday of the 1950's. As a young child, he was surrounded by musical influences. "My grandparents were important opera singers who emigrated from Russia to New York by way of what was then Palestine, and when they got to New York my grandfather became cantor in the largest synagogue in New York City. My parents listened to a lot of classical music, and also folk music: Pete Seeger, the Weavers, Miriam Makeba, Odetta, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee. I began studying piano at the age of seven with Eugene Shepherd and Norma Brown, leading luminaries of the Sonoma County classical music community. I played tympani and percussion in the Sonoma County Junior Symphony, alongside classmate 'Symphony' Sid Page (who went on to play the famous violin solo on Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks'"I Scare Myself"), and formed my first band at the age of thirteen."

Just out of high school with little sense of direction, Joel got turned on to the Paul Butterfield Blues Band by local ragtime guitar master John Brandeburg. "The Butterfield Band were playing with unheard of intensity, and they were our age! - college guys jamming with Muddy Waters and Otis Spann. This was a big inspiration." So, off to college at the University of California at Davis, Joel bought a Hammond organ and a van, joined a college blues band, and dove into the musical stew brewing in the San Francisco Bay area. Part of the psychedelic music scene centered around the Fillmore Auditorium and Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco, the Davis/Sacramento music scene produced the world's loudest band, Blue Cheer, if that matters, but also some better, if lesser known bands - Oxford Circle, Redwing, the Nate Shiner Blues Band, Homewood, the Samuels Brothers. Within a couple of years the San Francisco scene had attracted and held many of the musicians Joel was most inspired by. Michael Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop of the Butterfield Blues Band as well as Nick Gravenites, Charlie Musselwhite, Harvey Mandel and Barry Goldberg were all permanent fixtures in San Francisco. Bands with bizarre and forgettable names formed and dissolved. A lot of jamming took place. "Like the night in 1968 I went to the Keystone Corner club in San Francisco to sit in with Michael Bloomfield, Nick Gravenites and other Chicago transplants who were shortly to form the Electric Flag, and got my truck vandalized. I did get to sit in, for one tune, on organ. They played that sucker so fast it made my head spin. But I hung in there, just like I figured Bloomfield had done back in Chicago."

By the late 1960's Joel had transferred to the Santa Barbara campus of the University of California where he got involved in concert production, and helped bring Jimi Hendrix, Cream, The Electric Flag, and Santana to campus. But the winds of change were swirling ominously all around. "I was in a group called 'The Bad Karma Banned', which was probably tempting fate. The steady gig we thought we had lined up for the summer of '68 fell through, and the bass player left town. I wound up collecting empty pop bottles on the beach. The draft for the Viet Nam war was in full swing, I had a pregnant wife, there was rioting in the streets, and the options weren't looking very good. The avenue that opened up for me was graduate school in Canada. So I sold off all my gear and moved north."

By the mid-1970's Joel had a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of British Columbia and a teaching job at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. "I bought some new gear and started jamming around with some of the students. There were some pretty advanced musicians among them, and pretty soon we had a smokin' band that was busy most weekends in the frat houses and clubs. This did not earn me great respect among the faculty and, needless to say, I failed to get tenure, though I was made an honorary member of one of the fraternities."

After seven years at Dartmouth, he headed back to his roots in northern California. "I pretty much had to start over at the bottom. All the musicians I knew when I was a student had moved on in one way or another, and I had no immediate prospects to continue my teaching career either. So I paid a lot of dues in depressing day jobs and raunchy bands too unmentionable to enumerate. But gradually you find your feet. It took a few years, but pretty soon I was teaching part-time at the local community college, and finding my way into better and better local bands."

Then one day at the legendary Inn of the Beginning the local Blues Society was hosting one of its weekly jam sessions. "I was doing a short set with harp player Bill Noteman and my neighbor Dave Aguilar (currently touring and recording with Norton Buffalo). We called our little ensemble 'Rude Notes Galore' (get it?). Evan Palmerston (then the bass player in Elvin Bishop's band and currently with Cold Blood) came up after our set and said, 'Elvin needs a keyboard player. You want to come out and audition?' This led to a two-year stint on the road with Elvin - a dream come true and a great learning experience".

Singer/Songwriter: These days the Doctor continues to moonlight on keyboards in American roots music bands - touring occasionally with the Cajun/Zydeco band Gator Beat, gigging locally with the Michael Barclay Blues Band, Steve Gornall and the Blue Collar Blues Band, Bill Noteman and the Rockets, the Detroit Disciples, the Kay Irvine Band, and producing and recording his own material. Rude Notes Galore is Dr. Joel Rudinow's first full-length recording project as front-man and leader.

Tom Hyslop in Blues Revue says,

Keyboard ace Dr. Joel Rudinow has gathered key players from the Northern California scene to assist on Rude Notes Galore (Whassup Pussycat 0501), his first solo recording after years of working with Elvin Bishop and others. It's a good-time effort marked by wry lyrics and a variety of styles. . . . An enjoyable set.

- Tom Hyslop in Blues Revue Issue # 99 (Apr/May '06)