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Jordan Rudess — Feeding the Wheel
(Magna Carta MA - 9055-2, 2001, CD)

Feeding the Wheel Cover art

Keyboard wizard Rudess has come up with a chop-filled progressive / fusion outing that should be extremely enticing to fans of the genre. The basic “band” is the remarkable Terry Bozzio on drums with Rudess creating a dense, multi-layered keyboard foundation. Several of the tracks have brief but intense guitar interjections from the likes of Steve Morse and John Petrucci that trade licks with Rudess’ synth, organ, or piano leads. The overall sound is full and somewhat heavy, with lots of soaring keyboard excursions. Rudess also displays a deft melodic touch and even features a few more gentle moments with very tasteful acoustic piano. This counterbalances the mondo fusion element and gives the album a degree of depth and subtlety that the “flat out” approach misses out on. This is a concept album (“We all feed wheels that carry our hopes and dreams to another day”) and there is a minor amount of vocal narration, but none of this should get in the way of the listeners’ enjoyment. Feeding the Wheel is an extremely strong album that combines virtuoso playing with some solid melodic ideas to create a compelling combination. Rudess is yet another “musician’s musician” recording for Magna Carta. Kudos to the folks at this label for providing a creative outlet for great musicians such as Steve Morse, Terry Bozzio, Tony Levin, and of course, Jordan Rudess.

by David Ashcraft, Published 2002-04-01

An all-star cast that includes guitarists Steve Morse and John Petrucci, drummer Terry Bozzio, bassist Billy Sheehan, and violinist Mark Wood joins Jordan Rudess for his latest release — Feeding the Wheel. Bozzio is really the only guest who appears on most every song. The others alternate guest spots here and there on a few different pieces. The compositions on this album really show off Rudess' blistering speed and impressive technique. He truly does some technically incredible things on most every tune. Rudess has always been into using lots of different sounds and he goes through the arsenal of them on this album too. In addition to the standard piano, organ, synth string, and Moog tones, he also utilizes lots of the less frequently used orchestral sounds too — brass, bells, mallet percussion. "Revolving Door" is a good example of this. His piano solo, "Interstices," is one of those pieces that will make other musicians either want to practice harder or just give up. This is one of those albums that possesses many of the stereotypical qualities that critics of progressive rock have bitched about for years — long songs, lots of solos, complex multi-sectional compositions, etc.  Not to mention, there's no vocalist. Fans of those qualities despised by traditional rock music critics — frequently changing time signatures, extended fast riffing, intricate arrangements, complicated chordal structures, etc. will enjoy Feeding the Wheel. If you're into this stuff, Rudess puts on a clinic.

by Mike Grimes, Published 2002-04-01

On Feeding the Wheel you get pretty much what you'd expect keyboard intensive instrumentals with loads of chops from all corners. Perhaps I'm getting a bit inundated by these sorts of things but there¹s not all that much here that sits up and deserves special attention. Or perhaps I've become blasé about these shredmeister displays from Magna Carta. After giving this one a listen, I've decided that Derek Sherinian did it better on his recent release, Inertia (see review in #22), where he had the discipline to rock when he rocked and get jazzy without adding unnecessary pyrotechnics. But what's mainly lacking here is any sense of flow to the material or any continuity within the mediums explored. OK, so now I know Rudess can flat out play a million notes per second. But I don't think I care because none of it is served in a context that makes me connect to the material. Perhaps for pros like Rudess these things are a great release from the dull and monotonous paying work he gets in L.A. and New York. So be it. I still think it's possible to dazzle the listener while still producing effective songwriting. Even Rick Wakeman, the granddaddy of busy-fingers overplayers, managed this on his classic Six Wives of Henry VIII. If I could tell these guys one thing that would improve these releases it would have to be "Slow. Down." Then perhaps a song might actually happen. What a concept.

by Paul Hightower, Published 2002-04-01

Filed under: New releases, Issue 24, 2001 releases

Related artist(s): Terry Bozzio, Jordan Rudess, Steve Morse

More info
http://jordanrudess-magnacarta.bandcamp.com/album/feeding-the-wheel

 

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