TWO CONCERTS NIGHTLY ~ 6:30 PM and 9:00 PM
Mark Rapp Presents:
Latin Jazz Celebration with The MARK RAPP Group
featuring
Gino Castillo, Andre Goncalves, Abdiel Iriarte, and Mitch Butler
Trumpeter, composer, arranger and bandleader Mark Rapp is the founder of ColaJazz.com, a jazz initiative to grow and support jazz in and around Columbia, SC through events, education, recordings, and advocacy. In 2019, ColaJazz was 1 of 15 jazz organizations in the country chosen to beta-test the new Jazz at Lincoln Center After-School Content. ColaJazz brings jazz to the Children Hospital, retirement communities, schools and communities in need. In partnership with the Koger Center, Rapp presented a “Jazz for Young People” concert to 700 kids in the Boys & Girls Clubs and shortly after, Rapp presented a “SC Jazz Culture” concert for 2000 Richland One 3rd graders. He is also the co-creator and Artistic Director of the “Live in the Lobby: Koger Jazz” series.
Mark Rapp created and launched an all-ages, all-levels summer jazz camp now entering its 4th year and has featured jazz luminaries such as Delfeayo Marsalis, NEA Jazz Master Dave Liebman and Sullivan Fortner. Rapp also created and launched an annual ColaJazz Festival now entering its 3rd year featuring Chris Potter, longtime Wynton Marsalis sideman Wess “Warmdddy” Anderson, Count Basie Musical Director Scotty Barnhart, Brazilian vocalist Liz Rosa, saxophonists Tia Fuller, Don Braden and Alexa Tarantino. In 2018, Rapp was named an Ambassador of Jazz for the State of South Carolina by the SC House of Representatives. Rapp is a 2020 Experience Columbia Ambassador and serves on the McKissick Museum advisory council.
Rapp has released 8 diverse recordings and appears as a sideman on a myriad of projects including Disney’s “Everybody Wants to be a Cat” alongside Roy Hargrove, Dave Brubeck, Esperanza Spalding, The Bad Plus, Joshua Redman and more. Rapp’s celebrated 2009 debut release “Token Tales” earned him a spot as a “Top Emerging Trumpeter” in Downbeat Magazine, sold out the Blue Note (NYC) and debuted at the famed Newport Jazz Festival. Rapp is a featured artist in Mellen Press’ “How Jazz Trumpeters Understand Their Music” among a prestigious list including Terence Blanchard, Lew Soloff, Freddie Hubbard, Tim Hagans, Dave Douglas and more. Rapp also composed and produced a jazz ballet “Woven: Life in Notes and Steps” (wovenballet.com). He has performed in jazz clubs and festivals around the world from Croatia, Brasil, Austria, Switzerland and USA including back-to-back appearances at the 2017 & 2018 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.
Performance Experience
Jazz clubs around the world from Snug Harbor (New Orleans), Blue Note (NYC), The Jazz Standard (NYC), Yoshi’s (San Francisco), Blues Alley (Washington, D.C.), Jazzland (Vienna, Austria), AMR (Geneva, Switzerland), Clube do Choro (Natal, Brasil) to Jazz Tunnel (Zagreb, Croatia). Jazz festivals around the world from the JVC Newport Jazz Festival, Fillmore Jazz Festival, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, WC Handy Festival, Festival AMR des Cropettes (Switzerland), JazzTimes Festival in Croatia to the Jazz&Blues Festival in Garanhuns, Brazil. Mark was featured at Cirque du Soleil’s opening gala for KA in Las Vegas and invited by Guy Laliberte to perform for his birthday. Mark has been guest soloist with Big Bands, recorded as a special guest artist on CDs, played in the United Nations Symphony Orchestra, and has had many jazz greats perform in his bands including bassist James Genus (Herbie Hancock, Brecker Brothers, Saturday Night Live, Aretha Franklin), Walter Blanding, Jr, Don Braden, Wycliffe Gordon, Nate Smith, Clerence Penn, Wess “Warmdaddy” Anderson and many others.
Education
Masters in Jazz Studies, University of New Orleans Bachelors in Music Performance, Winthrop University
Private Teachers
Mark has studied with Lew Soloff; Wycliffe Gordon; Stephen Jeandheur (Principal Trumpet, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande); Walter Blanding, Jr. (Tenor saxophonist, Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra); Marcus Printup (Trumpet, Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra); Clyde Kerr, Jr (who taught Nicholas Payton, Marlon Jordan, Terence Blanchard and others); Vincent Penzarella (NY Philharmonic), et al.
Teaching Experience
Mark has maintained a teaching studio throughout his travels. He has given master classes in University settings and has led and coached the United Nation’s World Music Project in Geneva, Switzerland. Mark was a guest lecturer for the Jazz Education Network Conference (Atlanta, Jan 2013), presenting the “Musical Mind: From Spirit to Song.” He is a passionate educator and performing artist and currently teaches privately through Freeway Music.
“Rapp has his own way of defining jazz, which keeps its standard principles while delving into the experimental side.” – JazzTimes
“Rapp is willing to tackle the history of this music with his eyes on the past and his mind on the present and future of this music.”
– AllAboutJazz.com
“One can’t help but sense a distinct identity to Rapp in both his composing and playing and for this reason, we will be hearing a lot more from him.”
– Jazz Improv NY Magazine
Gino Castillo began playing drums at just five years old in Ecuador. He studied at music conservatories in Havana, Cuba, where he discovered his passion for Cuban jazz. He worked as a solo musician in New York for several years before settling in Charleston, South Carolina with his family in 2010. Gino has earned several Jazz Artist of the Year awards, collaborated with many renowned international artists, and has taught at the Berklee College of Music. With his band, the Cuban Cowboys
Gino also is an Afro-Cuban jazz percussionist, singer and leader of the local bands Gino Castillo Quartet and Soulfunkubanized, A tribute to Africans- American music that influenced a change in modern cuban music in the 1970s. Gino Castillo has played professionally in Ecuador, Cuba, New York City, and for the last few years in Charleston, SC. Sponsored by Pearl Drums, he has appeared in concert and recorded with a long list of international artists, many of which can be heard on his latest CD, Ya Llegue.In Charleston, he performs with his own group, The Gino Castillo Quartet. He also appears with the Charleston Jazz Orchestra and a number of other local groups.
Celebrated Jazz educator, performing and recording artist Dr. Mitch Butler is the Director of Jazz Education with the ColaJazz Foundation.
Dr. Mitch Butler received his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Music Performance from East Carolina University. Dr. Butler is also a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a Doctor of Music Arts degree in Music Performance with an emphasis in Jazz Studies.
“Given Mitch’s expertise, vast experience and his stature in our South Carolina Jazz community, we could not be more thrilled to have garnered his interest in supporting, developing and growing our educational efforts. His passion for reaching our young people aligns with our core values. We could not be more excited to bring onboard such an immense force of jazz nature!”
Mark Rapp, Executive Director, ColaJazz Foundation
Dr. Butler has been the trombonist and arranger for a number of musical groups including the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. In February of 2017, Dr. Butler added the role of producer to his resume, as he teamed up with Grammy Award winning producer Richard Seidel, where he co-produced, arranged, and served as musical director for critically acclaimed vocalist Tiffany Austin. Dr. Butler has also been a trombonist for the international award winning jazz group JazzBonez and has performed and/or recorded with musical greats such as Dee Dee Bridgewater, Curtis Fuller, Tia Fuller, Derrick Gardner, Robert Glasper, Slide Hampton, Andre Hayward, Conrad Herwig, Brad Leali, Branford Marsalis, Bob Mintzer, Melton Mustafa, Dick Oates, Kenny Rampton, Rufus Reid, Herlin Riley, Stephen Riley, Darius Rucker, Grady Tate, Billy Taylor, Gregory Tardy, Fred Wesley, and many others.
Dr. Butler was the Director of Jazz Studies and Assistant Professor of Music at California State University, East Bay in Hayward, CA from 2013 to 2016. Before that, he was Director of Jazz Studies at Claflin University in Orangeburg, SC from 2009 to 2013. He has also invested time in music throughout the community, having provided private lessons in trombone and jazz studies as well as participating in clinics/workshops throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, the Southeast, Central Texas, Wisconsin, and California. Dr. Butler has also held faculty and teaching positions at several institutions including Durham School of the Arts, East Carolina University, North Carolina Central University, Elon University, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and the University of Texas at Austin. In August of 2018, Dr. Butler was named Coordinator of Jazz Studies at the University of Missouri at Kansas City and served in that role until August 2021.
Dr. Mitch Butler says, “I have been fortunate to work with Mark Rapp for over a decade in the music community in Columbia, SC. In all those years, I have had a great working relationship with him and many of the people involved with ColaJazz. It is with great pleasure that I join the team at ColaJazz Foundation as the Director of Jazz Education. I am appreciative to Mark and everyone involved in making this a reality. I am looking forward to continuing the lifelong endeavor of bringing music and jazz to the community as an educator and performer. Expanding this to include our youth with an organization with a stellar reputation is exciting and I can not wait to be a part of this task.”
Dr. Mitch Butler, Director of Jazz Education, ColaJazz Foundation
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