UCF's Flying Horse record label turns education into reality

The Jazz Professors, an ensemble of UCF music department faculty members, also has recorded albums for Flying Horse Records, the UCF label. (UCF Jazz Studies Program / February 16, 2014)

By Jim Abbott, Orlando Sentinel

12:14 p.m. EST, February 16, 2014
Music business classes in the Jazz Studies Program at the University of Central Florida used to involve imaginary scenarios of touring and recording projects.

Now students gain real-life experience, producing, marketing and distributing jazz albums that have earned national radio airplay under the school's Flying Horse Records label.

Just four years old, Flying Horse has landed four albums on the Top 50 of JazzWeek magazine, a weekly industry publication that tracks jazz-radio airplay. The publication ranked one of those albums — "Do That Again" by the Jazz Professors, a six-member faculty ensemble — as No. 39 on its Top 100 albums of 2013.

In April, the student and faculty ensembles will be at work on two more releases.


The inspiration for the label bubbled out of the imaginary tours and recording sessions in those music business classes.

"We would assign the students to create a fictitious album or a fictitious tour," said Jeff Rupert, director of the Jazz Studies Program and the school's student Flying Horse Jazz Band. A trademarked company launched with the university's blessing and legal assistance, Flying Horse Records emerged to offer real-world learning experiences for students, who plan recording sessions, compose promotional material and handle distribution, with faculty supervision. Any profits go back into the label.


"As our students grow musically, I thought it was really important for us to grow in an understanding of the business," said Rupert, who has worked outside the classroom with jazz stars such as Maynard Ferguson, Sam Rivers and Benny Carter. "If we didn't teach them how to make a living, we're missing half of the equation."
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