His accomplishments were recognized in May 2009 by the International Trumpet Guild (ITG) with their award of the ITG Honorary Award, the guild's most prestigious award.
On Rasey's 90th birthday, 40 trumpeters appeared outside Rasey's house to serenade him with "Trumpeter's Prayer.".
He performed on nearly every MGM film score from the late 1940s until the early 1970s, along with film scores from many other motion picture studios. He is recorded most of the Tom and Jerry cartoons of the 1950s and 1960s.
Perhaps his best known soundtrack performance was for the movie Chinatown (1974), featuring trumpet solos that brought him recognition and praise from the film studio community and the general public, an uncommon event in soundtrack recording at that time.
From 1947 onwards, Rasey worked regularly in Hollywood film studios, and was a pioneer in bringing the raucous and sexy sounds of jazz as well as big band styles into the classical tradition of the film studio orchestra.
Rasey was acclaimed as one of the most gifted trumpet artists of the twentieth century.
Known not for improvising but for the perfection of his technique and the purity of his sound, Rasey tells his students, "Roar softly," and "Have reverence for every note.".