Blog - Mark Rapp

Wess Anderson & Mark Rapp Booked: New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival 2017

Excited to announce Wess "Warmdaddy" Anderson and I are presenting our new project at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on April 30, 2017! Stay...

Jasper Artist of the Year 2016

Speechless and beyond thankful to be the The Jasper Project 2016 Artist of the Year in Music! However, this award is not for me, it is for all of our amazing ColaJazz musicians. This award is for our growing jazz community. This award is for everyone who supports live...

Ronda

Listen Ronda is a composition by the Brazilian composer Paulo Vanzolini. This is Mark Rapp's arrangement incorporating an original chorinho introduction and ending along with a little frevo in the middle. This recording is featured on the ColaJazz vol.1 CD - an...

Impractical Jokers

https://youtu.be/6j5EQovT_hQ?t=2m19s My growling trumpet stripper theme surfaces again! This is a snippet of music I recorded while living in NYC for what was to be a YouTube comedy series. I was hired for many recording sessions most often never knowing what was...

A Thousand Words

This is my original composition "A Thousand Words" I composed for the TSP vol.II release "Ballads". Part I portrays a timeless beauty; love and longing; a yearning passion, yet peaceful and calm; a knowing. Part II starts around 5'30" and portrays adventure,...

Water Be Still

UPDATE: "Water Be Still" was featured on NPR. Listen to the interview here! In October 2015, devastating flooding caused $12 billion in damages in South Carolina. It destroyed homes, businesses and took precious lives too early. It was a disaster which many are still...

iCool Menopause Commercial

When I was living in NYC, I was hired for many studio recording sessions most often never knowing what was going to happen with the tracks I recorded. I'm on countless demo CDs for bands, songwriters hustling music for commercials, DJs sampling a jazz trumpet and so...

Good Eats Live

It's ALWAYS an honor to hear cats in other cities playing one of my original tunes! What a tremendous compliment. Here's organ great, David Ellington (from New Orleans), playing my composition "Good Eats" from my CD of the same name at a venue in Atlanta, GA. You can...

Dizzy Gillespie’s Trumpet

I had the amazing honor and privilege of playing on Dizzy Gillespie's trumpet - a trumpet which Jon Faddis gave to him. It happened on Friday, October 16, at the SC Jazz Festival, just 5 days before John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie's birthday. Not only did I play on this...

Cecil: composition and video

Jazz with didgeridoo, doumbek drums and a vibraphone? YES! When I allowed the creative process to flow, I realized what I needed to get out were my feelings and thoughts surrounding the murder of the beloved lion named Cecil. The “Cecil” composition/video and video pays tribute to the life and death of this majestic lion.