Composer/percussionist/improviser Adam Rudolph has issued more than two-dozen recordings since the '80s and performed extensively in concert throughout North & South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. He leads Adam Rudolph's Moving Pictures, Hu: Vibrational percussion group, and Go: Organic Orchestra, an 18- to 54-piece group for which he has developed an original music notation and conducting system. Along with kora virtuoso Foday Musa Suso, he co-founded the Mandingo Griot Society to pioneer the world fusion genre. In 1987, he appeared on Suso's Jazz Africa, which also featured Herbie Hancock, Aiyb Dieng, Armando Peraza, and Hamid Drake. During the '90s until his death in 2013, Rudolph closely collaborated with composer, multi-instrumentalist Yusef Lateef on 15 albums. After starting his own Meta label in 1997, Rudolph, Drake, and Pharoah Sanders issued Spirits in 2000. Go: Organic Orchestra's debut Web of Light appeared in 2002. Between 2002 and 2006, he cut three offerings with Hu Vibrational. Rudolph also recorded a series of duo and trio collaborations with artists ranging from Wadada Leo Smith, Sam Rivers, and Harris Eisenstadt, Omar Sosa, Jones, and Lateef before re-assembling Go: Organic Orchestra in 2008. In 2013, Rudolph collaborated on the acclaimed Voice Prints ?with Lateef, Roscoe Mitchell, and Douglas R. Ewart. Two years later, Go: Organic cut Turning Towards the Light ?for Cuneiform, while 2018 saw the beginning of a relationship between the percussionist and RareNoise on the trio offering The Unknowable with saxophonist David Liebman and sound artist, composer, and master percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani. In 2019, the saxophonist and percussionist cut Chi for the label, with Drake replacing Nakatani.

Rudolph was born in Chicago in 1955, and as a teen was mentored by the likes of Don Cherry, Fred Anderson, and Maulawi Nururdin. After receiving a self-designed undergraduate degree in ethnomusicology from Oberlin College, Rudolph went on to earn his M.F.A. from the California Institute of the Arts; in 1977 he traveled to Ghana and met the famed griot Foday Musa Suso, and a year later they reunited in Chicago to form the Mandingo Griot Society, pioneering a fusion of traditional African music with jazz and R&B. Rudolph also spent 15 years studying North Indian tabla drums under the renowned Pandit Taranath Rao and collaborating with L. Shankar and Hassan Hakmoun. His extensive research throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa allowed Rudolph to master a vast range of percussion instruments including the congas, djembe, bendir, dumbek, tabla, talking drum, kalimba, and udu; in addition to appearing on sessions by everyone from Herbie Hancock to Jon Hassell to Shadowfax, he collaborated extensively with Yusef Lateef from 1988 onward.

Rudolph debuted his own group, Moving Pictures, with a self-titled 1992 LP; in 1995 he premiered his first opera, The Dreamer. In 2002, Rudolph's Go: Organic Orchestra released Web of Light, and a few months later, Go: Organic Orchestra: 1 on Meta. The acclaim from jazz, new music, and world music critics and DJs was almost universal. The following year, two of the group's live West Coast performances -- both collaborations with Lateef -- were captured for the double-length In the Garden.

Also during the early 21st century, Rudolph became a member of Build an Ark in Los Angeles, a multi-generationall collective of musicians who included Carlos Niño, Dwight Trible, Dexter Story, Phil Ranelin, and a dozen others. They issued two fine albums, 2004's Peace with Every Step and 2007's Dawn. Rudolph also collaborated with Leni Stern on her 2007 effort Africa. Dream Garden followed in 2008. In 2010 Rudolph issued two more recordings on Meta: Yèyí with reed master and multi-instrumentalist Ralph Jones and Towards the Unknown with composer and multi-instrumentalist Lateef (although on the latter disc, Lateef received top billing). Two years later, Merely a Traveler on the Cosmic Path with Jones appeared on Meta, followed by Go: Organic Orchestra's Sonic Mandala and Voice Prints with Lateef, Roscoe Mitchell, and Douglas R. Ewart. It was Lateef's final recording. That year also marked the release of Good Medicine, a collaboration with Defunkt leader and trombonist Joseph Bowie under the name Ig Bo Duet. In 2015, Rudolph delivered Turning Towards the Light for Cuneiform with the Go: Organic Guitar Orchestra, featuring ten guitarists and a bassist. Among them were Rez Abbasi, Nels Cline, Joel Harrison, David Gilmore, Miles Okazaki, and Marvin Sewell. In 2017, a solo set entitled Morphic Resonances appeared on Meta showcasing the percussionist with a string quartet and the chamber group Kammeratorkestret Ensemble, as well as in various duos and trios. A year later, Rudolph worked with saxophonist Dave Liebman and percussionist/electronicist Tatsuya Nakatani for RareNoise on the album The Unknowable, and cut Karuna (Compassion) with old friends Jones and Drake. The drummer and percussionist worked with Liebman for 2019's Chi. That same year, Rudolph issued the double-length Ragmala, a 54-musician collaboration between Go: Organic Orchestra and the celebrated Indian fusion group Brooklyn Raga Massive, on which the composer/percussionist displayed his highly developed system of conducting for improvisers. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi