Welcome to the 1st annual ColaJazz Festival! My name is Mark Rapp, founder of ColaJazz and in partnership with the Music Farm Columbia, producer of this, our 2018 ColaJazz Festival. I firmly believe Columbia, our capital city, ought to be the cultural hub offering the best in the arts. We can be and are showing … Read more
GRAMMY-nominated saxophonist and Columbia, SC native Chris Potter returns home to headline the 2018 ColaJazz Festival. Columbia, SC, Nov 22nd, 2017: Grammy-nominated artist Chris Potter, arguably the best living saxophonist in jazz, will headline the 2018 ColaJazz Festival in Columbia on Feb 3, 2018. Potter grew up in Columbia, and graduated from Dreher High School. … Read more
Thanks to the Jordan Lawrence and the FreeTimes for the write-up on our inaugural ColaJazz Fest! Please visit the original post: https://www.free-times.com/music/chris-potter-to-headline-inaugural-colajazz-festival/article_125ebe3c-c0bd-11e7-aef4-1fa54932a2e4.html Jazz in Columbia is doing pretty good. With local artists taking over last night’s First Thursday on Main art crawl with a mini jazz fest and finding their way into new rooms (Chayz … Read more
I, Mark Rapp, had the honor of hosting and playing the headlining concert at the 2017 SC Jazz Festival for the Dizzy Gillespie’s Centennial Celebration. It was an amazing evening filled with fiery trumpeters, Eleazar Shaffer and Jon Thornton, accompanied by the up-and-coming, saxophone phenom, Ben Eidson, and backed by an all-star band with Danny … Read more
Recently, someone asked me about licks and stated that “using saxophone licks is not improvising.” I agree with that statement, but only to a point. After all, licks are like vocabulary. It’s all about how you put things together in the moment. Someone with a good vocabulary may or may not be a good writer/story … Read more
ColaJazz Creates More Gigs for Local Jazz Musicians Columbia, SC, August 14th, 2017: ColaJazz.com founder Mark Rapp is determined to grow Columbia’s jazz scene. Now, Mark Rapp (2016 Jasper Magazine’s Artist of the Year in Music) and Rosso Trattoria owner Richard Couture, are teaming up to offer three new jazz happenings at this popular Forest … Read more
On Friday, July 7, we had the first of hopefully many meetings with the jazz artists who are making Columbia, SC and its surrounding areas culturally rich, musically vibrant and simply an exciting place live and create. Mark Rapp invited jazz musicians around town to a group meeting to discuss our state of affairs, what … Read more
Pops was my mentor, my friend, and like a second father to me. Many years ago, he told me that if I wanted to be a better singer, I should listen to more horn players. He gave me my first Sonny Rollins record and my first Shirley Horn record. He was a musical force of … Read more