by Bruce Robinson
News and Public Affairs Director: KRCB FM (NPR Public Radio for the Redwood Empire)
Special to The Sonoma Index-Tribune
Text & photo © Sonoma Index Tribune

“Two degrees in be-bop, a PhD in swing;
He’s a master of rhythm, he’s a rock and roll king...”

When Little Feat recorded “Rock and Roll Doctor” in 1974, they could hardly have known how well Joel Rudinow would come to match their lyric. A professor of Philosophy by day, the soft-spoken Sonoma resident has a musical alter ego that comes alive at the keyboard, where his lifelong love of New Orleans piano traditions finds full expression.

Although he has toured nationally with Elvin Bishop, gigged regularly around the Bay Area with the Michael Barclay Blues Band and Gator Beat, and just released his first solo CD, Dr. Rudinow views his music-making as a hobby, maybe even an obsession. But not a job.

“I really consider myself an amateur,” he explains with a quiet intensity, “which basically means you do it because you love it; because if you didn’t do it, you’d be more crazy than you are. You’d have more trouble managing your emotional life if you didn’t play. And that’s always been true for me.”

Rudinow pursues an altogether different path in his day job teaching at Santa Rosa Junior College, a position he has held since the 1980s. Part of that choice is simple pragmatism. “I could see pretty early that if I tried to make a living at [music-making], the kinds of compromises I would have to make would be heartbreaking, and the kinds of risks I would be taking would be insane,” Joel reasoned. “So if I have an opportunity to pursue another activity that has integrity and is more secure, it doesn’t make sense to sacrifice that” for the uncertainties of the music business, with its notorious lack of steady work, health care benefits or other signs of stability.

A native son of Santa Rosa, Rudinow began his musical studies at age 7, taking piano lessons from Eugene Shepherd, Norma Brown, and Francis Kelly, each an important figure in Sonoma County classical music circles. But the beginnings of rock and roll were in the air, and Joel was breathing them in deeply.

“There was always some tension there, because I was interested in boogie-woogie and my teachers weren’t all that encouraging in those directions,” he smiles, reflecting back, “so I was in various stages of rebellion against my training. But it was good training, and I’m very grateful to have gotten it.”

The phonograph became his other teacher, as Joel explored the popular music that caught his ear—especially the piano players, such as Little Richard, Ray Charles, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis. “You get it off records and you play in ensembles and you just try and absorb it,” he shrugs. “You find your way around by tracking sources, so I went back to the boogie-woogie guys, Albert Ammonds, Meade Lux Lewis, Pete Johnson”.

As he delved into the music that most enchanted him, Rudinow found that much of it derived from the rich musical history of New Orleans. “For instance, when you hear [Little Feat keyboardist] Bill Payne, you might wonder where does this come from? And then you find out, ‘Well, there’s this guy, James Booker. His records aren’t available domestically, but you should check out this German record over here.’ So I became aware of James Booker. And of course I had heard a lot of Dr. John. He was an obvious link to the deeper roots in New Orleans.”

Rudinow remains so enamored of the New Orleans piano tradition that he presented a lunch hour colloquium on the topic at SRJC last month, tracing the links from Jelly Roll Morton to Professor Longhair, to Booker and Dr. John, to Henry Butler and Harry Connick Jr., Allen Touissaint, and Jon Cleary.

As he began his informal musical education, Joel was also searching for a career path. The initial choice, somewhat by default, was engineering, which he began with limited enthusiasm.
On a whim, he tried an introductory Philosophy class. It was an immediate fit.

“I found Philosophy really engaged some of my dialectical chops; I can argue a bit and here’s an environment in which that is encouraged and rewarded. So I got into that right away.” A college degree led to graduate work and the Ph.D, followed by seven years of teaching Philosophy at Dartmouth College. Then it was time to come back home to California, where he found work at Sonoma State, and then SRJC.

But the vibrant local music scene Joel had left behind was much different now, and musically he was paying dues “in some pretty raunchy bands for a while.”

Things got better when he joined Rich Domingue in the early incarnation of Gator Beat. Joel also met Michael Barclay through some neighboring musicians, and has been a mainstay in Barclay’s blues band for nearly 20 years.

Then, while jamming one afternoon in Cotati’s Inn of the Beginning, he was offered an audition with Elvin Bishop, and leapt at the opportunity. Since Bishop mostly performed on weekends or during the summer, “I could finish my classes, zoom down to the airport and catch a flight to, say Atlanta, do the gig and be back in time to teach again Monday morning. It was a bit hairy, but I managed to juggle it - for two years.”

That association also got Joel started on his recording project. “When I got into Elvin’s band, he asked me, ‘Do you write?’ So I began working on demos, and right about the two year mark I was just about finished with the first one.”

That was in 2000, but Rudinow slowly continued working on his private project, assembling a modest, computer-based home studio—dubbed the Doctor’s Office-- to do so. “At first I thought, I’ll never finish this project. You have to steal time one or two nights a week to invest in it. But after awhile I had five tunes in various stages of completion and it began to look more plausible.” With “a real finishing sprint,” he wrapped up the recording late last year.

The resulting 12 tracks on Rude Notes Galore find Rudinow stretching out on both piano and organ (plus keyboard bass here and there), often in the company of friends like Norton Buffalo, sax man Al Garth, and guitarists Michael Barclay and Volker Strifler. His original songs pay homage to several traditions, from ragtime to big-band R&B, along with a healthy dose of blues, all with Joel asserting himself on lead vocals, too.

But he’s hardly ready to rest. “I’m starting to think about the sequel,” he confides, “and if that takes another five years, I guess I’d better get started.”

Sat, Dec 27

Evolution of the Blues XIV

Blues By The Bay
14th Evolution of the Blues Concert

After a 2-year hiatus, the Evolution of the Blues Concert returns to SRJC, paying tribute the variety of historical and regional styles of one of America's most important indigenous art forms: the Blues. This year we welcome legendary slide guitarist Ron Thompson. A San Francisco Bay Area legend, Ron Thompson honed his craft on tour as the band-leader for John Lee Hooker's Coast to Coast Blues Band throughout most the of the 1970s. San Francisco Blues Festival founder and producer, and host of KPFA's weekly "Blues By the Bay" show, Tom Mazzolini says, "I've always felt Ron is the most talented blues guitarist I've ever seen. He can do it all. . . What many folks aren't aware of is that Ron was a huge asset in the re-emergence of John Lee Hooker - he was the foundation for that boogie sound." Grammy nominated for his album Resistor Twister, Thompson has received countless awards, including Real Blues magazine's Best Live West Coast Blues Act, and Best West Coast Blues Slide Guitarist. Opening for Ron will be the 10-year Reunion of 'Impeach This!' - a Sonoma County all-star blues band that came together briefly to perform at the 6th Evolution of the Blues Concert in 1998, featuring guitarist Volker Strifler, Bill Noteman on harmonica, Evan Palmerston (bassist with Cold Blood), the Pulsators' Johnny Campbell on drums, and SRJC's own Dr. Joel Rudinow on keyboards.

Co-Sponsors: SRJC Multicultural Events Committee, SRJC Associated Students and the Sonoma County Blues Society. Celebrating Black History Month.

Master of Ceremonies Bill Bowker has been programming American roots music in the Redwood Empire for many years and is host of the award winning Blues With Bowker show on KRSH-FM.

Tickets:

$15 advance
$10 with Associated Students membership card
$20 day of show

Tickets: SRJC Office of Community Education, The Last Record Store, Backdoor Disk and Tape, Peoples' Music, Tall Toad Music, www.brownpapertickets.com

Sat, Mar 29

Root Doctors

Teed Rockwell and I enjoyed our first outing as "Root Doctors", playing to a small but appreciative audience at Berkeley's Caffe Trieste. Root Doctors is an experimental foray into hybrid world music. Teed is the first musician to perform Hindustani raga music on the Chapman Stick, or touchstyle fretboard, a contemporary electric string instrument with so little history it can be called Eastern or Western. Together we are exploring the vast territory between classical Indian ragas and New Orleans piano music. We are booked next at the Toad In The Hole Pub in Santa Rosa on Sunday June 15th, and back at Caffe Trieste on Thursday, October 10, 2008. Stay tuned for further dates.

Tue, Feb 19

Upcoming Dates

On Thursday, March 20th, I'll be performing at the Caffe Trieste in
Berkeley in a duo with Teed Rockwell. Teed specializes in Hindustani
raga music on a very interesting instrument - the touch fretboard.
The Chapman Stick is the most widely known of the touch fretboards,
but Teed plays an instrument with more strings, called a Warr Raptor.
Teed's most recent work was in a trio with didjeridu master Steven
Kent and jazz drummer and tabla master Sameer Gupta. They played
several critically aclaimed shows of "Australian Bebop Ragas", and
have a CD in the works. Teed and I are currently exploring the vast
territory between Hindustani raga and New Orleans piano music just to
see what we may find. This should be VERY INTERESTING!

Then on Saturday, March 22nd, I'll be back at the Tradewinds in
beautiful downtown Cotati, CA with the Michael Barclay Blues Band.

And on Friday, April 25th, watch out for my showcase at the Last Day
Saloon in Santa Rosa. It'll be Dr. Joel Rudinow & Rude Notes Galore
on a double bill with Strange Cabbage!!

Hope to see you out there!!

Wed, Jan 9

Track of the Week @ garageband.com

"Walk On, Baby" rose to #28 on the Blues Charts, scores Best Drums in Blues for the Week of January 7th, and will be featured as Blues Track of the Week @ garageband.com! (Wait a minute . . . the week's not over yet).

Tue, Jan 8

Another Track of the Day @ garageband.com

"Ethyl's Place" was picked as the funk "track of the day" at garageband.com for Tuesday, January 8. That's 2 days in a row! In 2 categories! Whassup with that!

Mon, Jan 7

Track of the Day @ garageband.com

"Walk On, Baby" was picked as the blues "track of the day" at garageband.com for Monday, January 7. Happy New Year!

Sat, Oct 6

On the air in NOLA

I'm really excited about this one! While we were down in New Orleans for Jazz Fest '07, we got a guided tour through the studios of WWOZ, New Orleans' Jazz & Heritage Station, courtesy of our old friend David Averbuck, also known on air as "DJ Jellyroll Justice". This last week David played 3 cuts from our CD and a 15-minute interview which he recorded with me in his home studio on his show!! A second interview segment, with a focus on my forthcoming book will be airing soon. Stay tuned.

Sat, Oct 6

MySpace page coming soon

I may be slow, but I'm getting there. I'm shooting for the dubious title of oldest fogie to finally get on MySpace. The bare bones of the new MySpace page for Dr. Joel Rudinow & Rude Notes Galore is up now. The retail music store is there, but has yet to be stocked with tunes. I'll have the full complement of Mp3 files uploaded very soon. Stay tuned.

The address is http://www.myspace.com/drjoelrudinowrudenotesgalore

Sat, Mar 10

Pictures From the Bo Diddley Show

Last week we got to meet and perform with Rock&Roll Hall of Famer Bo Diddley at the Raven Theater in Healdsburg. Here are a couple of shots Carolyn got during the show - capturing the spirit of the moment . . . everyone having a good time!