Category: Press

I didn’t know until researching it that Strawberry Alarm Clock’s ’60s pop smash “Incense and Peppermints” was originally supposed to be an instrumental. According to some band members, the vocals were foisted upon them by management in an attempt to get a big hit. That worked! The tune wasn’t even sung by a member of…

Music and art often go hand-in-hand, but rarely fit together as well as on acclaimed young jazz trumpet player Mark Rapp’s debut album from last year, Token Tales. The CD cover featured a color photo of Rapp with horn on a gray background showing a surreal drawing of the musician mirroring the pose. The artist,…

Mark Rapp’s debut album Token Tales shows many different facets of this trumpeter’s pioneering ways as he crafts a smooth jazz relaxer in “Thank You,” jumps into a funky rapport with his band in “Who’s The Man?” and articulates creamy soul-jazz lifts along “Mr. Tricky.” These are just some of Rapp’s skills at the top…

By WOODROW WILKINS AllAboutJazz.com One could argue that Mark Rapp follows the trails laid by such trumpeters as Miles Davis, Randy Brecker and Rick Braun. That all might be true, but Rapp is also establishing his own mark in jazz. One of Down Beat magazine’s top jazz trumpeters of 2007, Rapp mostly performs original music…

Token Tales Paved Earth Music, 54:32 ****1/2: Important debut by new trumpet, composing, and band leading talent, Mark Rapp. It’s all pretty amazing, but Rapp’s maturity and authority shine brightest on the ballad numbers (“Thank You,” “Token Tales,”) which he plays not only with conviction, but with a depth, beauty, and stateliness that belie his…