Jeff Rupert, Tenor Saxophone

Saxophonist Jeff Rupert is a YAMAHA performing artist. Performing and recording credits include associations with Diane Schuur, Mel Tormé, Kevin Mahogany, Ernestine Anderson, and Benny Carter’s Grammy winning 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.

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Jeff Rupert’s six recordings as a leader all charted on Jazz Week.  Do That Again! was #39 out of the top 100 jazz albums of 2014, and En Plein Air: The Jazz Professors play Monet charted on Jazz Week  to #29.  Performance venues include the Blue Note, Birdland, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Tokyo Forum, the National concert hall of Taipei, Taiwan, and jazz festivals in Europe, Israel, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. Rupert’s latest release  Imagination is a collaboration with pianist Richard Drexler.

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

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Jeff Rupert is Pegasus Distinguished Professor, Trustee Endowed Chair, and Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Central Florida (UCF), and founder of Flying Horse Records.

“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.

“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.