Special Event Performance by Saxophonist Jeff Rupert

Acclaimed saxophonist Jeff Rupert is in concert for a special performance on Sunday, March 12th, 2pm at the Veterans Memorial Center in Merritt Island.

Jeff Rupert has been a performing and recording saxophonist for forty years. Credits include over 75 albums: dates with Diane Schuur, Mel Tormé, Kevin Mahogany, Ernestine Anderson, and Benny Carter’s Grammy winning album, Harlem Renaissance. Jeff Rupert toured for fifteen years with Sam Rivers; four albums ensued, and from 1997- 2002 he toured and recorded with Maynard Ferguson. Jeff Rupert’s eleven recordings as a leader all charted on Jazz Week.  Performance venues include the Blue Note, Small’s, Birdland, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Tokyo Forum, the National concert hall of Taipei, Taiwan, and jazz festivals throughout Europe, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and Japan. Rupert’s release Let’s Sail Away with Veronica Swift was #1 on the jazz charts, and his last album The Ripple with George Garzone was the #5 jazz album of the year (2020). This fall Rupert releases It Gets Better, an album with Kenny Barron, Peter Washington, and Joe Farnsworth.

As a composer and arranger, Rupert has arranged for Bob Berg, James Moody, Maynard Ferguson, Judy Carmichael, Kenny Drew Jr, and Kevin Mahogany. Rupert has produced seven big band albums for the Flying Horse Big Band, all featuring original compositions and arrangements.

Jeff Rupert is a Pegasus Distinguished Professor, Trustee Endowed Chair, and Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Central Florida (UCF), and founder of Flying Horse Records. The Bat Swings! produced by Rupert (The Flying Horse Big Band), features music from the 60’s T.V Show, Batman. It  charted on RMR, JazzWeek, and the NACC jazz charts, and was the #1 jazz album of the week in the U.S. on two charts simultaneously. The Flying Horse Big band’s release Good News!  was #1 on the RMR charts, as was the band’s recording celebrating the music of Ray Charles,  Florida Rays. Rupert authors and hosts Jazz and the American Spirit, a nationally syndicated weekly radio show, which examines the connection between jazz and the American experience. 

“Jeff Rupert, he is dynamite!” Mel Torme.

“From the moment I first heard Jeff Rupert with my band I considered him one of the great jazz players of today.” Maynard Ferguson.

“Rupert is just the kind of soloist needed to spur a band on to heroic heights.” George Kanzler, music critic, The Star Ledger. 

“Jeff Rupert has a classic tenor sound, the virtuosity to execute practically any musical idea, and the imagination to make those ideas worth hearing.” Ed Berger, the Institute of Jazz Studies.

Admission:$20 for Jazz Society and Veterans Memorial Center members, $20 for guests, students under 25 yrs of age are FREE. Bring your own food & drink – tables, seating, great music and a beautiful view of the river are provided.