Category: Music

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

    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 tuned…

  • Jasper Artist of the Year 2016

    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 jazz from our dedicated fans and…

  • Ronda

    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 initiative to raise awareness of and to grow the amazing jazz scene in…

  • Impractical Jokers

    Impractical Jokers

    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 going to happen with the tracks I recorded. I first found my growling trumpet…

  • A Thousand Words

    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, celebrating, fun and happiness employing a mixed meter of 5/8, 3/4 and 2/4.…

  • Water Be Still

    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 recovering from. As an artist, I express and process feelings through…

  • Good Eats Live

    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 download the sheet music below and stream…

  • Dizzy Gillespie’s Trumpet

    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 famous horn, but I played it…

  • Cecil: composition and video

    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.

  • 4:3 Trio

    4:3 Trio

    4:3 Trio features André Gonçalves who plays both the electric bass and guitar at the same time! Tony Lee is a solid, driving force on the drums and percussion. Mark Rapp plays the trumpet, flugelhorn and didgeridoo. Both André and Mark utilize effects and loop pedals to build an organic, fluid tapestry of contemporary jazz…