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DOWNBEAT: HORN SENSIBILITIES
April 2009, page 65
by James Hale

Token Tales (Paved Earth 0901; 54:44) (3 1/2 Stars) by South Carolina native Mark Rapp presents a young trumpeter who sounds closer to Freddie Hubbard and Lee Morgan than his contemporaries. His attack is strong and favors a relatively pure tone without much inflection, an ideal match for muscular ballads like “Thank You” and the title track. Rapp broadens his sonic arsenal with didgeridoo, which ushers in “1st Minute, 1st Round,” and some electronic enhancement of his harmon-muted horn, on which he breaks out of the traditional Miles Davis model by playing more aggressively and with more metallic edge.

Ordering info: markrapp.com