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Jeff Scott Rust, owner of Jasir Productions, began producing recordings on location in 1976 while performing with the Richland Jr. High School Bands in Memphis, Tennessee. The school had excellent concert bands and jazz bands directed by Raymond Settle, and it seemed like a good idea to capture those sounds for posterity, as well as for the benefit of other students who needed recordings of their performances for study. Jeff called this venture *JSR Sound*. He had also begun studying film, videography, video editing, and animation techniques in a special program known as C.L.U.E. (Creative Learning in a Unique Environment) which started in the Memphis City Schools when he was in the fifth grade. His 8mm animated movie "The Revolt", a collaboration with fellow student Matt Spinolo and based on characters from Roman mythology, won first place in a West Tennessee Regional film competition.
He continued to cultivate a fascination with electronics, music and film production through his years at White Station High School and started producing experimental recordings with percussion, piano and electronic instruments. He also started to learn song arranging by working with his father on demo recordings of his father's songs. Opportunities to play drums in Memphis area clubs began to happen while he was a sophomore in High School.
At the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Jeff earned a bachelor degree in composition with emphasis on scoring for film. The school's program helped him advance skills in performing, writing, and production. Directed study at Berklee teamed him up with visual artist and animator Eric Hirsch, who was then a senior at the Rhode Island School of Design. At DuArt in New York, Jeff and Eric worked on the project's final sound mix with Dominick Tavella (Academy Award winner for Sound - "Chicago"). Their collaboration yielded en trance, an animated short film which was selected by RISD to tour Europe and seen at design studios and film schools there. En trance was broadcast on WNET in New York and later picked up by the Public Broadcasting Service in Toronto, Ontario. Jeff continued his own recording ventures by collaborating on song demos with Berklee students and by recording student recitals. A friend from East Africa gave him the nickname Jasir (jah-'seer), Arabic for courageous. And so his venture became known as Jasir Productions.
The heart of the studio's production system includes a Macintosh G4 (OS 10.11), MOTU 896 interface, a wide array of microphones, a Behringer Powerplay Pro-XL monitoring network and Logic Pro 6, the state-of-the-art MIDI/Digital audio recording software by
EMAGIC. Along with a host of special features, Logic includes one of the best audio sample editors on the market. Recent editions of MOTU Digital Performer and Opcode Vision are also available, and transfers of song data between these three popular programs can be done. Audio restoration for film and video soundtracks has been an important area of work in recent years. The studio also incorporates Adobe Photoshop imaging software, iMovie2 and Final Cut Express HD for video editing. These services have been in demand with the production of hundreds of live recordings ranging from solo vocalists to band concerts and a student opera production. In the studio, recordings have been produced for a broad spectrum of projects in styles ranging from gospel quartets, 20th Century chamber music, rap, R&B, reggae, rock, country, jazz and opera, as well as music and sound design for theatre and film productions. Some highlights in recent years are:
- Location recording for The Assisi Concerts, a series of concerts taking place at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Cordova. The Inaugural Gala in December 2005 featured internationally renowned soprano
Kallen Esperian, Memphis Symphony Orchestra flutist Karen Busler, and other wonderful musicians with arrangements and direction by bassist (for Bernie Leadon of The Eagles), composer and arranger Sam Shoup. In March of 2006, the church's concert choir directed by Anthony Williams performed the Requiem by Maurice Durufle, with accompaniment by organist Helen Rougeou and a chapel orchestra made up of musicians from the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. In July we were blessed to have visiting artists Fiona Thompson, Ya-Ting Chang, and Peter Sirotin, the
Mendelssohn Piano Trio. And in September Karen Busler, artistic director of the series, presented "Making Joyful Noises". This concert featured Karen, a host of excellent singers and instrumentalists, and direction by Adam Turner. Visit The Assisi Concerts web site to hear samples of the concerts in a promo created by producer Rick Robinson.
- Five of our song productions have been selected by Tony Dimito and Cannell Studios for use in rebroadcasts of the popular TV shows Hunter (TV Land), 21 Jump Street, and Stingray (various media channels). Styles include blues and country by Will Barrett Band, hard rock by The Rise/Remembrance, World music by J.S. Rust and opera featuring tenor Scott Sadler.
- Location recording for the Memphis Vocal Arts Ensemble, directed by Thomas Machen in several of their concerts from 2005 to the current year, including: Sing Hallelujah, hosted by Joyce Cobb and her band Cool Heat; a fundraiser concert at the Clark Opera Memphis Center hosted by soprano Kallen Esperian; and Cartoon Classics - A Family Concert, presented at the William H. Rose Theatre of the Buckman Performing and Fine Arts Center.
- Sound design & original music for Cloud 9, a play by Caryl Churchill produced at Theatre Memphis on the Next Stage (March, 2004). With direction by Brian Mott, this production was nominated for four Ostrander Awards including Best Sound Design.
- Sound design & original music score for Cymbeline, a Sleeping Cat Studio Theatre production of William Shakespeare's play. Directed by John Malloy and produced by Jim Esposito. The play was performed by a talented troupe of actors in Memphis, March 19 through April 6, 2003. The "Stage On Screen" video version of this play runs about 2' 30", and it is currently being marketed by Mr. Malloy. Chad Davis was director of photography using Panasonic DVX-100 cameras. Editing was by Jeff Rust and John Malloy using Final Cut. Excellent results were obtained for the soundtrack using EMAGIC Logic Pro 6.
- Sound design & original music for Ned Slowman in "Anniversary Dinner", an animated film produced by Harvard University graduate student Ian Maisel, professor of advanced media studies Adrian Mendoza, and other talented animators at Harvard's extension school. Jeff collaborated with musician/engineer Bill Brockmeyer and the animators in March, 2003 on campus at Harvard.
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General Sessions - music scoring, sound editing and the recording of two new songs by the band, The Aims Gang for this feature film which made its debut at the 2002 Indie Memphis Film Festival in October of 2002.
It was also screened at the Las Vegas Independent Film Festival in November, 2002.
And at the Los Angeles Independent Film & Video Festival in 2003, it won the award for Best Score in a feature. . .see
Awards
It enjoyed showings at Memphis' Studio on the Square movie house and the New York Independent Film & Video Festival. The movie was recently broadcast on WKNO-TV, a PBS affiliate in the Memphis area. The soundtrack CD, mastered at Jasir Productions, has been released for commercial distribution in the Southeast U.S.
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Into Thy Narrow Bed - sound design, music and assistant editing for a pilot edition of this feature film which premiered at the McCoy Theatre on April 28, 2002. It was seen at the First Annual Media Co-op Film Festival in August and also received a special screening at the 2002 Indie Memphis Film Festival.
- Production of Premonitioned Time, the
Will Barrett Band debut CD with Keith "Mo" Morris and Charles David "CD" Overton. The disc was released October 4, 2002 with a big party and concert at the Gibson Lounge in Memphis. The disc received praise from Commercial Appeal reviewer Bill Ellis in his holiday "Hot Sounds" article. In addition to broadcasts in the Southeast U.S., songs from the CD have been included in the soundtracks of the popular 80's shows Hunter and Stingray for the shows' rebroadcasts on cable TV.
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Ruby's Cube - Chapter One, a CD collaboration with folk-jazz fusion singer-songwriter Ellen Ruby-Markie.
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Musically Yours - James A. Hyter, the debut solo CD by one of Memphis' best loved singers and entertainers.
- Record production for Robin Crouse, a young and gifted coloratura soprano who is currently with the Opera Company of Charlotte and performing with major opera companies all around the U.S.
Listen to mp3 samples of music and sound design.
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