JUDE GOLD has always liked objects upon which exciting things happen. First, it was the skateboard. Then, it was the pinball machine. For Jude, though, since the age of ten, nothing has matched the thrills and adventure that can be had on an electric guitar.
The guitar has led Jude all over the world, and all over the musical spectrum. Since earning a music degree at the University of California at Berkeley in 1995, he has performed and recorded in countless genres—deep house with globally-renowned deejay Miguel Migs, the jam band scene with JGB (featuring original members of the Jerry Garcia Band) and Merl Saunders, country and pop/Americana with siren songstress/singer/actor and Broadway/television/film star Kristin Chenoweth, electric jazz with bass phenomenon Jeff Berlin, classic rock with Eddie Money, raunch-rap with 2 Live Crew, modern orchestral with composer Anthony P. DeRitis and the Oakland Symphony, radio rock with Cathy Richardson and the Macrodots, funk/prog/fusion with guitar hero Greg Howe, experimental with DJ Spooky, acid jazz with Groove Shop, psychedelic ska with Fishbone frontman Angelo Moore, high life with Afro-pop legend King Sonny Okosun, adventure rock with bass ninjas Stuart Hamm and Billy Sheehan, and much, much more.
Jude’s session guitar work can be heard on films such as the Academy Award-nominated documentary, Daughter from Danang, the international release of the Dustin Hoffman/Robert DeNiro film Wag the Dog, and on countless television and radio commercials.
Jude’s love for the guitar has also earned him professional appointments in the guitar industry, as he serves as Director of GIT (the Guitar Institute of Technology)—the renowned guitar program at Musicians Institute in Hollywood, California—and as an editor and writer for Guitar Player magazine, a position he has held since 2001. (Peruse some of Jude’s feature articles on famous guitarists on the Writings page.) In both capacities, Jude is thrilled to connect with, learn from, and increase exposure for guitarists of every genre, style, career stage, and level of fame.
Blending two sounds that influenced him mightily as a youth growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area—greasy Oakland soul and ’80s hard rock and power pop—Jude has developed a hard-hitting guitar style with a deep pocket that he likes to call “evil funk.” You'll hear it in abundance on his soon to be released solo debut. Stay tuned for more details.
Currently, you’ll find Jude onstage with guitar hero on the rise Gretchen Menn in their “divine acoustic” duo, Lapdance Armageddon, in the studio wrapping up his aforementioned solo album, on tour doing more shows with artists such as Greg Howe and Cathy Richardson, and paying tribute to his hero, Edward Van Halen, with the band Hot For Teacher, “The Van Halen Experience.”