Interview with Jordan Rudess from 2018

Interview with Tony Levin from 2017

Fans of Dream Theater will be very happy with this CD; it has everything that their fans would hope to hear.   

Stick Men is a unique power trio. Founded by legendary and still cutting edge bassist / Chapman Stick artist, Tony Levin, Stick Men continues to expand the horizons of modern progressive music.

This is a solo piano album.

This single from Anderson, Bruford Wakeman and Howe is out of print, of course, but these days, it’s not that hard (or sometimes expensive) to get your hands on something like this.

This new five-CD collection is pretty amazing. I've said before, and will repeat it here, that this new version of King Crimson might well be the best lineup they've had, particularly in terms of live shows.

Fans of the So album will especially want to pick this up.

Old school prog fans should find plenty to like here. That said, modern progressive rock aficionados will probably like it, too. .

This is such a great album.

This single from Anderson, Bruford Wakeman and Howe is out of print, of course, but these days, it’s not that hard (or sometimes expensive) to get your hands on something like this.

A contender for best of the year, this is arguably Sherwood’s best solo album ever.

Steve Thorne is one of the great unsung British prog heroes, a veritable one man band who has released a series of consistently well-crafted and thought-provoking solo albums, Crimes & Reasons being his fourth.

Dream Theater has been releasing records for 30 years now, and I’m happy to say that while there has never been a bad Dream Theater album, this new one is one that I would rank towards the top. 

I discovered Dream Theater very early and became a big fan.

This is an EP that’s tied to a graphic novel.

Marco Minnemann is a unique artist. His music is always creative and innovative.

This is quite a cool set. The main man behind this is Billy Sherwood, and I always like the stuff he does.

The bulk of this album consists of compositions Jordan Rudess created and performed with an orchestra.

This newest release from Lucas Lee continues his brand of progressive rock. It is often King Crimson-like, but has plenty of other leanings in place, too.

This solo release by keyboard wizard Jordan Rudess covers a lot of musical territory, ranging from hard edged prog and neo-classical to classic era jazz and fusion. The result is quite an entertaining work.

On the one hand, Nick D'Virgilio has been out of Spock's Beard for a while now. That means that perhaps the mentions of the band and comparisons aren't entirely appropriate.

This would land under progressive rock under just about any circumstance at MSJ because of the fact that it's a project by Jordan Rudess. That said, while this is not rock music, it is progressive.

There is certainly something to be said for truth in advertising. Looking at the group name and the album title, really sets the stage for the music within.

I’ve always been a big fan of the Doors.

I’ve got to admit that I go through phases with Dream Theater.

This is arguably Dream Theater’s best live video released thus far.

I saw Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe on this tour and it was purely magical.

I had never seen the mighty King Crimson play live before - not surprising, as I was only ten years old when the band last played my home town in 1974!

The excellent “Two of a Perfect Trio” tour was a well-publicized and equally well received series of concerts featuring the bands of King Crimson legends Tony Levin and Adrian Belew.

King Crimson has one of the most interesting and complicated histories in all of progressive rock. The lineup is one of the most dynamic, too.

Downey, California is best remembered for the spacecrafts, fighter jets and B-1 bombers built there over the past three or four decades.

More (and larger) photos from this concert are available in our members' area.

It seems that there is quite a bit of live material being released from this version of King Crimson. That's a great thing because this line-up might be the best ever.

Dewa Budjana is one of those artists you can count on for consistent quality. In terms of style of music, he's less consistent, but that's actually a good thing.

This is truly an amazing set. Looking at just the product itself, without even considering the performances will tell you that.

Dream Theater never do anything half way.  They created the masterpiece Metropolis: Scenes From A Memory and then decided to play the whole thing on tour.  

Anyone who has heard anything from Stick men will know what to expect here.

I've been looking to do a retro review of this box set for a while. I finally had the opportunity this time around.

This double CD compilation is an interesting and unique collage of multiple percussive styles given to a wide palette of genres and colors therein.

So many people these days give lip service to this charity or that, but you really have to admire the people who put their money (literally) where their mouth is. Such is the case with Simon Apple as they are donating a portion of the sale of each CD to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

I have said it many times, Dream Theater are a band of the fans for the fans.

This isn’t a favorite Dream Theater album for me.

It used to be a rule at MSJ that if something was out of print we didn’t cover it.

So was clearly the album that broke Peter Gabriel into the mainstream.

I am a big fan of pretty much anything Billy Sherwood is involved with and I love Supertramp, so when I heard Sherwood was in charge of assembling an all star tribute to Supertramp, I was excited.

This is a double disc set. I believe that it was also released at one point in time as two single disc sets.

What an amazing set this is.

Is this album progressive rock? No.

While this is released under Xavi Reija's name, the full lineup here is full of exceptional musicians. Reija handles the drums while Tony Levin delivers bass, standup bass and Stick.

When King Crimson reformed after the 80s period, there were definitely elements of that period still present in their sound. 

This live album is pretty great. .

Tony Macalpine comes from the school of technical guitarists occupied by guys like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Yngwie Malmsteen.

Dream Theater continues to release great CDs through their Ytsejam Records label.  They have released live discs and demos but this one is kind of odd as it is a compilation of songs from different sources.  

Vantomme is named for its founder Dominique Vantomme. He is a keyboardist, producer and more.

This album is fully instrumental. It’s a great disc, too. Some of the music here has appeared elsewhere (although most of the time in different arrangements)

This is a cool set. It is clearly not for everyone, though.

This new various artists collection, as you would imagine, pays tribute to the music of Yes. It's an intriguing set.

I’ve placed this one in the progressive rock section of Music Street Journal.