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Mark Rapp
"More than anyone else among today's trumpeters [Rapp] is breaking down the age old paradigms as to how the trumpet ought to be played in a jazz environment." -JazzPolice.com
About Me
The Mark Rapp Group has played sold out shows at
the Blue Note (NY), Joe's Pub, Yoshi's (San Fran) and such venues as the JVC Newport Jazz
Festival, Dizzy's at Jazz Lincoln Center, JazzTime Festival (Croatia), Jazzland (Vienna), Jazz
Standard (New York) and more. Mark was named a top emerging trumpeter by Downbeat
Magazine, featured on a Travel Channel documentary and has played with Branford
Marsalis to Hootie and the Blowfish and most recently recorded with Don Braden and
Gerald Clayton. His critically acclaimed debut CD Token Tales is being played around the
globe.
There's a new breed of young trumpeters coming down the road. These new young lions
have studied the playing and music of bop and hard bop masters such as Dizzy Gillespie,
Clifford Brown, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan and Kenny Dorham, among others. Having
looked at the innovations of forward-thinkers like Don Cherry, Lester Bowie and Dave
Douglas, the young firebrands have also not neglected the funk, jazz-rock, soul and
fusion of artists like Miles Davis, Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock. The resultant music
they create melds and brings together the radio music of their youth with the history of
their horn to find fresh ways to approach and fashion a style of playing more oriented
toward groove without losing modern approaches to upper chordal harmonic structures so
prevalent in the jazz music of the late 20th century. Perhaps one of the best examples of
the direction being taken by this new breed is played by Mark Rapp.
Growing up in South Carolina, Rapp first attended Lenoir-Rhyne College on a music
scholarship, but dropped out after a few months, moving to Florence, South Carolina to
work construction. Eventually Rapp enrolled in Winthrop University in South Carolina,
studying trumpet with Dr. Ian Pearson. After graduating, and following discussions with
Wynton Marsalis, Rapp moved to New Orleans to study jazz under Ellis Marsalis while
earning a Masters in Jazz from the University of New Orleans. Five years later and after
performing extensively throughout the city, Rapp moved to New York. Finding the initial
year there a tough go, his perseverance paid off and the now mid-30s year-old musician
has been turning heads ever since. Regular performances at the Carnegie Club and the
Rockwood Music Hall in New York have brought him to the notice of people such as
saxophonist Branford Marsalis, who has performed with the young trumpet phenom.
Rapp�s reputation has grown to the extent that many of today�s top artists want him in
their bands. Included in this list are rockers like Darius Rucker, Hootie & The Blowfish,
Edwin McCain and Sister Hazel. From the jazz side artists Rapp has worked with include
Walter Blanding Jr., Don Braden, Gerald Clayton, Wess Anderson, Wycliffe Gordon, Seamus
Blake, John Ellis and Rodney Green, among others. With such a pedigree it�s no surprise
Rapp received a standing ovation following his performance at the 2008 Newport Jazz
Festival appearance. Other recent performances include the JVC Newport Jazz, Jazztime
Festival (Croatia), Sonoma Wine & Song Festival and the WC Handy Jazz festivals, as well as
club appearances at New York locales like the Blue Note, and Dizzy�s Coca-Cola Room to
Yoshi�s in San Francisco.
The critical praise has, as one would expect from the above, been great. In 2007 Down
Beat listed Rapp on their very short list of, �Top emerging jazz trumpeters.� JazzTimes
also had great praise, writing, �(Rapp) has his own way of defining jazz, which keeps its
standard principles� while delving into the experimental side.
- Excerpt from Dr. Thomas Erdmann's book Jazz Trumpet Interviews published by Edwin
Mellen Press, Fall 2009
Currently, Mark resides in Geneva, Switzerland and New York, NY and is constantly
performing in support of his critically acclaimed debut record Token Tales. The upcoming
Braden-Rapp: The Music of Billy Strayhorn record with Don Braden, Gerald Clayton and
Sachal Vasandani is in production and should be released late in 2009.
Mark plays a custom Monette Ajna I Prana trumpet with a Monette B2GS3 88 mouthpiece,
a custom Monette Prana LTJ with a Monette B3 mouthpiece and a Kanstul flugelhorn with a
Monette B2 mouthpiece.
Rapp lives up to his billing as one today's exciting young trumpeters. - AllAboutJazz.com
One can't help but sense a distinct identity to Rapp in both his composing and playing...
and for this reason, we will be hearing a lot more from him. � Jazz Improv NY Magazine