Adam Rapa

[madalumni]

Wow - this guy is amazing!

[Buddy Holly]

http://www.tasteebros.com/high.htm

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[liebot]

Adam's an amazing guy... he came to a couple of camps with East Coast in '04 to help out before he went on tour (used to date our caption head, knew him real well), and he gave us a lot of talks not only about brass technique but also about the art of performance, about what it meant to really give your all, etc. etc.

And then he played for us. The guy was popping out double C's with little effort and no warm up. We had a trumpet solo in '04 that year and our caption head wasn't really happy with the way it had turned out. Had Adam at a winter camp and let him improvise over the rest of the corps just for fun. They recorded a run through of it and transcribed it and that basically became the trumpet solo. So, to summarize - he's an awesome, down-to-earth, funny guy that can play the trumpet like a god. He marched East Coast from 97 (maybe 96) until 2000. I have recordings of 98-00. There are some pretty ridiculous solos in it. But *don't* ask me for them.

[liebot]

Oh, and I'm pretty sure he's mostly self-taught.

Though I could be wrong about that. I do know he dropped out of school so he could practice more.

[oldbandguy]

Only met Adam once, at TMEA 04 I think. He guest soloed on the Wehrle (sp?) Trumpet Concerto when I was with Metropolitan Winds.

Now, you guys have to understand, Met Winds had Arturo Sandoval a few years back as our guest artist at Dallas' Meyerson Symphony Center, and he stunk up the joint--literally. Unprepared, hadn't practiced. I'll load up the recording sometime. Pretty pathetic. He discovered the piano in his old age and was more interested in playing the grand the DSO uses than what he's known for. Says, "next time I'll bring my own band" for the Wehrle and the other big piece we played with him.

Just a few years ago we had the opportunity to take a group of our band kids to a clinic that Arturo was giving.

After days of building the kids up about this great chance to hear one of the world's great trumpet players we

go the clinic and Arturo spends almost the entire time "pecking" at the piano. We had kids in our group that

could play piano better than he did. Not once did he play his trumpet...best he would do was a short ballad

on his flugel horn. He obviously didn't give a #### that he had a room full of young trumpet players just waiting

to find a new hero. I wouldn't walk across the hall to hear him play now. Trumpet or piano.

Maybe our kids will have the chance to hear Adam play some day.

[ECJ94]

Adam's an amazing guy... he came to a couple of camps with East Coast in '04 to help out before he went on tour (used to date our caption head, knew him real well), and he gave us a lot of talks not only about brass technique but also about the art of performance, about what it meant to really give your all, etc. etc.

And then he played for us. The guy was popping out double C's with little effort and no warm up. We had a trumpet solo in '04 that year and our caption head wasn't really happy with the way it had turned out. Had Adam at a winter camp and let him improvise over the rest of the corps just for fun. They recorded a run through of it and transcribed it and that basically became the trumpet solo. So, to summarize - he's an awesome, down-to-earth, funny guy that can play the trumpet like a god. He marched East Coast from 97 (maybe 96) until 2000. I have recordings of 98-00. There are some pretty ridiculous solos in it. But *don't* ask me for them.

He actually started marching in 1994, his first solo was on "Claire's Song", our closer that year.

[RickCogley]

I just bought his CD from his website. Man, can he blow. Jeez, what a player!

[drewbugler]

It was always a treat going on after them with Tarheel Sun, hearing him play solos as we sit at the gate. Oh boy :-)

[Medeabrass]

Oh, and I'm pretty sure he's mostly self-taught.

Though I could be wrong about that. I do know he dropped out of school so he could practice more.

One of my best friends was a bass trombonist in Blast and he said the same thing. He didn't drop out of college, he dropped out of highschool!!! No formal training except for private lessons (I think). The thought of it just blew me away...I think I've asked him to confirm this 2 or 3 times because it seems so unbelievable to me.

[randomnoise]

Adam is also a nice guy, as well as being very talented. I used him a few times when we had the Renegades MoneyCorps going (a corporate ensemble doing a Blast-type show). He was really fun to hang out with - he has twice the energy of anyone I have ever met.

We had a trumpet section for one gig that included Adam, Roland Garceau, Joey Pero and a couple of other great ex-drum corps leads. Pretty amazing to hear those guys going for it.

Adam also plays on the Blue Devils Alumni and Friends CD, available at www.bluedevils.org (I even think it is on sale). An amazing album that every drum corps fan should have in their collection.

We also hired Adam to be the emcee of the Loud Music Symposium a few years back. I had to be out of town, so he house sat for me and used the time to come up with an amazing cadenza/solo/multi-track version of the Star Spangled Banner. He was working on his CD at the time, guess I will have to go and buy a copy.

Great guy and an amazing talent. If any of you can pull it off, hire Adam for a gig - you will not be disappointed.