Unstandard: One of the things that has lead to the decline of Jazz as popular art form, is a monster that we ourselves as Jazz musicians have perpetuated. The concept of the Jazz Standard Repertoire has marginalized our our connection with our listeners. I noticed countless while hustling for gigs. I would walk into a restaurant and ask, “How would you like to have Live Jazz?” which ultimately is asking them,  “How would you like to have live 1920′s, 30′s, and 40′s pop music in your restaurant?” This didn’t seem right, so we started to deconstruct and rearrange popular music that everyone knew in various jazz styles. Doing this, we were able to hold onto these gigs for exponentially longer. Unstandard is seeking to break down the limitations that we have put up for ourselves and in terms of our repertoire to carry Jazz and new listeners love for the style of music into a new era.

As an active saxophonist and composer/arranger primarily in West Michigan, Rich has performed all over the United States as well as in Europe where he performed at the Vienne, Montreux, and North Sea Jazz Festivals. He has accompanied and recorded with such artists as Richard Davis, Jack Wilkins, Steve Davis, Jim McNeely, “Blue” Lou Marini, Chris Vidala, Larue Nickelson, Michael Ross, Wycliff Gordon, and John Fedchock. Rich also directs and performs regularly with his own groups, The Mars Trio, Van Voorst Jazz Quartet, and The Forefront.

As a composer, Rich studied under world renowned jazz composer, Chuck Owen, at the University of South Florida and has experience writing for big bands, various jazz combos, orchestras, choirs, worship music, as well as other chamber groups. From 2004-2008, Rich was a teaching assistant, instructor, and adjunct professor at USF while completing a Masters of Music in Jazz Composition and Jazz Performance. He received his B.M. from Hope College in Holland Michigan where he was awarded the Distinguished Artist Scholarship. In 2006, he was selected by the Center for Jazz Composition at the University of South Florida to arrange a piece for Karrin Allison for the Jazz Masterworks Series.

He is currently Director of Worship Arts and Discipleship at Church of the Living Christ in Fremont, MI and a doctoral candidate at the Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies in Jacksonville, FL, where he is pursuing a Doctor of Worship Studies. Rich served as composer in residence at Tampa Covenant Church from 2007 – 2011 where he was commissioned to compose the Ancient-Future Worship series, a collection of arrangements and original compositions that embrace the Ancient-Future worship model. He served as an adjunct professor at Trinity College of Florida, where he taught Practical Worship Studies, and saxophone performance. In his spare time, Rich enjoys gourmet cooking, good conversation over a fresh cup of coffee and spending time with his wife Bonnie and two sons.

© Britney Fullgraf | www.belvederestudio.com | Lakeland, FL

I Could Write a Book by richvanvoorst

Be Thou My Vision by richvanvoorst

Mars Trio Excerpt by richvanvoorst

O Lord Hear My Prayer by richvanvoorst

“My Romance”

Rich Van Voorst (s.), Alejandro Arenas (b.), Mark Feinman (d.)

“Alone Together”

Rich Van Voorst (s.), Alejandro Arenas (b.), Mark Feinman (d.)

“Stella”

Rich Van Voorst (s.), Alejandro Arenas (b.), Steve Davis (d.), John Oleary (p.)

“No Greater Love”

Rich Van Voorst (s.), Alejandro Arenas (b.), Steve Davis (d.), John Oleary (p.)

“Body & Soul”

Rich Van Voorst (s.), Alejandro Arenas (b.), Steve Davis (d.), John Oleary (p.)

The Forefront is a Jazz Collective formed in 2007 as a project group for the members to explore artistic compositional endeavors. Since then the group has played throughout the west Florida area for various events. The group currently consists of saxophonist, Rich Van Voorst, Drummer Mark Feinman, Bassist Alejandro Arenas, Pianist John O’Leary, Matthew Mill on Trumpet, and Paul Keesling on vibes and percussion.

Coming soon!

You only have power over people so long as you don’t take everything away from them. But when you’ve robbed a man of everything, he’s no longer in your power – he’s free again.

- Alexander Solzhenitsyn

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“This at least seems to me the main problem for philosophers… How can we contrive to be at once astonished at the world and yet at home in it? How can this world give us at once the fascination of a strange town and the comfort and honour of being our own town?… We need this life of practical romance; the combination of something that is strange with something that is secure. We need to to view the world as to combine an idea of wonder and an idea of welcome. We need to be happy in this wonderland without once being merely comfortable.”

~ G. K. Chesterton

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Via Bruce Kirby

A man’s free will cannot cure him even of the toothache, or a sore finger; and yet he madly thinks it is in its power to cure his soul.

~ Augustus Toplady

“Life shatters all abstractions in one way or another, including words such as “faith” or “belief.” If God is not in the very fabric of existence for you, if you do not find Him (or miss Him!) in the details of your daily life, then religion is just one more way to commit spiritual suicide. “

~ Christian Wiman

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“Worship as an act of communication educates me in the Christian life. . . .
The full gamut of Scriptures read and preached forms my entire life in the world–personal, family, vocation, ethical. In this way worship sets the world in order, educates me about my place in it, and inspires me to understand God’s ways of dealing with me and with his people.”

Robert Webber, Worship Is a Verb: Celebrating God’s Mighty Deeds of Salvation (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishing, 1992), 104.