John Rapson
Associate Professor
Jazz Studies
Phone: (319) 335-1662
Office: 2044 VMB
ira-rapson@uiowa.edu

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John Rapson

John Rapson has been an associate professor of music and director of jazz studies at the University of Iowa since August 1993. A recording artist for Music and Arts, Sound Aspects and Nine Winds, he is a composer / trombonist whose work mixes ethnic and experimental elements with more conventional jazz forms. Jazz historian Mark Gridley has characterized his music as "extending several trends that were first demonstrated by Charles Mingus and George Russell."

From 1980-1990, he was a professor of theory/composition at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. During his tenure at Westmont, he founded a jazz program and continued to work professionally with musicians he had met in Los Angeles. His concerts and recordings include both mainstream and experimental sessions with John Carter, Bobby Bradford, Vinny Golia, Kim Richmond, Clay Jenkins and Alex Cline.

In the Fall of 1990, Rapson moved to the east coast to pursue a doctorate in ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University and performed with musicians from Boston and New York. His doctoral thesis deals with the cultural analysis of jazz transmission and performance practice of student musicians in public education. His collaborations while in the east include performances or recordings with Anthony Braxton, Julius Hemphill, David Murray, Bill Frisell, Tim Berne, Doc Cheatham, Ed Blackwell, Jay Hoggard and Allen Lowe.

Rapson's most recent compact disc Dances and Orations (from Music and Arts) is a collection of thirteen new compositions for sextet derived from improvisatory performances with Anthony Braxton. He has also recorded two albums, A Mingus Among Us and Been There, Done That, with Johnson County Landmark, the jazz repertory ensemble from the University of Iowa. He is currently the director of the oftENsemble, a twelve-member professional band dedicated to the performance of original works and a charter member of Tiny Prairie Landscape, an eclectic quintet that features New York drummer Matt Wilson. Previous albums from Rapson are Bing (Sound Aspects), Bu wah and Deeba dah bwee (Nine Winds).

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Last updated 21-aug-06