Rudolph Pickett Blesh (January 21, 1899 – August 25, 1985) was an American jazz critic and enthusiast.

Blesh studied at Dartmouth College and held jobs writing jazz reviews for the San Francisco Chronicle and the New York Herald Tribune in the 1940s.

Together they sparked renewed interest in the music of Joseph Lamb, James P. Johnson, and Eubie Blake, among others.

He held professorships at several universities later in his life, and wrote liner notes to jazz albums almost up until the time of his death.

He died on August 25, 1985, on his farm in New Hampshire from a myocardial infarction, aged 86.