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Jeff Rupert
His numerous recordings as a featured soloist include dates with Maynard Ferguson, Sam Rivers, Diane Schuur, Mel Torme, Benny Carter’s Grammy winning recording, Harlem Renaissance (Music Masters), and the New Jersey Blues band TheFins, to name just a few.
He has been featured on his own quartet recordings, Jeff Rupert, Jeff Rupert + Dirty Martini, Jeff Rupert & Kenny Drew Jr From Memphis to Mobile, in recordings with the Flying Horse Big Band, with blues group The Fins, and Jazz pianist, vocalist, and radio show host Judy Carmichael, among his many appearances.
His debut album,"Do That Again," with The Jazz Professors, charted in the top ten of the JazzWeek charts in the Spring of 2013. He recorded "Jazz Town" with the Flying Horse Big Band in 2012, "From Memphis to Mobile" with Kenny Drew, Jr. in 2009, and "Save Your Love for Me" with Jeff Rupert + Dirty Martini in 2004. He's also been featured on recordings with Benny Carter, Diane Schuur, and Mel Tormé.
Jeff’s busy tour schedule includes performances in Europe, Scandinavia, Japan, the Middle East, South America, Australia, and New Zealand. Jeff is a long time member of Sam Rivers’ band, with whom he performed at Lincoln Center for Ed Bradley’s Jazz from Lincoln Center broadcast on NPR.
Jeff has been a featured soloist at the Chicago Blues festival, the Montreux Jazz festival, Montreux, Switzerland, the Montreux festival/Japan, the Lucerne Jazz festival, the Jamaica Jazz festival, The Aruba Jazz festival, Bishopstock, Devon, England, The Jubileums Blues festival, Hamar, Norway, The Pori Jazz Festival, Finland, The Guinness Jazz Festival, Cork Ireland, as well as numerous other festivals throughout the world.
Jeff’s performance schedule includes concerts with Ernestine Anderson, Kevin Mahogany, Benny Green, Ray Drummond, and Joe Farnsworth. In addition, Jeff was a member of the Jaguar International Jazz Series, New Zealand, with Joe La Barbera, Larry Koonse, John Fedchock, and Tom Warrington.
Rupert teamed up with Kenny Drew, Jr. and friends to record From Memphis to Mobile; a handful of original works by Rupert as well as a few impromptu classics. Release date to be announced.
Rupert continues his work collaborating with drummer Marty Morell from the Bill Evans Trio; a Tribute to Stan Getz and Bill Evans.
Awards
Rupert has received numerous awards and honoraria as a clinician and music educator.
Gear
Yamaha Artist - YTS-82Z
Tags
Jeff Rupert: It Gets Better
by Jack Bowers
Florida-based tenor saxophonist Jeff Rupert leads a superlative quartet on It Gets Better, a graceful and charming album recorded September 2021 at the renowned Van Gelder Studio in New Jersey. While comparisons to other musicians are as a rule less than viable, the striking similarities between Rupert and the late jazz giant Stan Getz cannot simply be overlooked or ignored. As John Coltrane once said of Getz, “We'd all sound like that if we could." Not only can Rupert sound ...
Continue ReadingThe Flying Horse Big Band: A Message From The Flying Horse Big Band
by Jack Bowers
The Message on the Florida-based Flying Horse Big Band's sixth album comes straight from the “messengers" themselves-- drummer Art Blakey's legendary Jazz Messengers, whose music is admirably presented here, and to whom the album is dedicated. Its ten songs were composed by members of the Jazz Messengers--Wayne Shorter, Hank Mobley, Horace Silver, Cedar Walton, Benny Golson--and two were re-scored for a large ensemble by former Messenger Michael Philip Mossman, with other charts by Mark Taylor (four), Harry ...
Continue ReadingThe Jazz Professors: Blues and Cubes
by Jack Bowers
Yes, the Florida-based Jazz Professors, as befits the name, are smart—but don't let that throw you. They also swing in the best jazz tradition, even though their fourth album, Blues and Cubes, was inspired by the art of Pablo Picasso. Unlike Picasso's works, however, there is scant abstraction here; the Professors embody far more bop than bemusement, more Blue Note than bohemian. As for day gigs, the Professors maintain theirs at the University of Central Florida in ...
Continue ReadingFlying Horse Big Band: Florida Rays
by Jack Bowers
On its seventh recording, Florida Rays, the University of Central Florida's always dependable Flying Horse Big Band abandons its usual modus operandi—straight-from-the-hip contemporary jazz--to survey music associated with R&B legend (and Florida native) Ray Charles. As Charles, an accomplished musician, was best known as a vocalist, one might anticipate (correctly) that a handful of Charles' progeny would be stopping by to unmask their vocal talents. There are four singers in all: Rob Paparozzi, Vance Villastrigo, DaVonda Simmons and, last but ...
Continue ReadingJeff Rupert, Betty Carter, Gary Peacock and More
by Joe Dimino
This week we focus on brand new material from artists that don't get the attention they deserve in the world of jazz. We begin with Jeff Rupert teamed up with the legendary George Garzone and make our way to trombonist Ryan Keberle. We profile new music from Polish saxophonist Sywester Ostrowski and Bobby Watson paying their respects to the Super Bowl 54 Champion Kansas City Chiefs. We pay homage to bassist Gary Peacock, who recently passed away at the age ...
Continue ReadingJeff Rupert/George Garzone: The Ripple
by Jim Worsley
The Ripple refers to the infectious, warm, intimate, yet big sound developed by the great Lester Young, starting in the late 1930s. While Young pioneered improvisational creativity, Stan Getz later took the baton (well, it was actually a saxophone) and further expanded his idol's stylish approach with new and creatively open-ended visions. Young and Getz collectively have had an enormous effect on future generations of sax players. Consequently, they have left a significant and impactful mark on the sound of ...
Continue ReadingThe Flying Horse Big Band: The Bat Swings!
by Jack Bowers
Although The Bat Swings! could well be taken for a baseball analogy, the focus of this third CD by the University of Central Florida's high-powered Flying Horse Big Band is on music associated with the campy Batman TV series from the late 1960s that starred Adam West as the masked superhero and Burt Ward as his sidekick, Robin. The album embodies themes by the celebrated composers Nelson Riddle, Neal Hefti and Paul Francis Webster with arrangements by Michael Philip Mossman, ...
Continue ReadingThe Toughest High School Jazz Competition Goes National
Source:
GNUStar - Talent Services Division
Orlando, FL - “It’s the only talent competition of its kind in North America,” Jeff Rupert, Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Central Florida (UCF) said Monday. Five* of the nation’s best high school age Jazz musicians will come to Orlando in March, 2014, to perform with the UCF All-Star High School Jazztet, that will open for the headliners on the opening night of the UCF Orlando Jazz Festival 2014. Most state and national high school Jazz competitions ...
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"Rupert shines once more..." - Jack Bowers, All About Jazz
“Jeff Rupert, he is dynamite!” Mel Torme.
“Rupert is just the kind of soloist needed to spur a band on to heroic heights.” George Kanzler, music critic, The Star Ledger.
“From the moment I first heard Jeff Rupert with my band I considered him one of the great jazz players of today.” Maynard Ferguson.
Primary Instrument
Composer / conductor
Location
Orlando
Willing to teach
Advanced only
Credentials/Background
Jeff Rupert is a full professor and the Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Central Florida. Rupert Directs the Flying Horse Big Band, the Jazz Workshop, and teaches The Evolution of Jazz and jazz saxophone majors, and works privately with a small group of UCF students.
Clinic/Workshop Information
Rupert is a highly sought-after clinician and adjudicator who offers a number of clinics utilizing an integrated teaching method with students and professional educators across the country
Photos
Music
Videos
Jeff Rupert
Location: Orlando
Instrument: Composer / conductor
Born: September 6, 1964
Publicist: GNUStar - Talent Services Division
