FOR RELEASE FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 2019                                                      

PRESS CONTACT: ANDREA BEARD – [email protected]

Jazz Aspen Snowmass Announces JAS Café Summer Series
Featuring New Faces, Returning Favorites and an Expanded JAS Academy

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Aspen, CO, March 29, 2019 – Jazz Aspen Snowmass has just announced their full JAS Café Sumer series line-up with shows taking place Downstairs at The Little Nell (TLN), Rooftop at the Aspen Art Museum (AAM), and new this summer at the Velvet Buck in the St. Regis. Tickets for the series go on-sale Friday, March 29 at 10am mst and can be purchased at 970.920.4996 or at jazzaspensnowmass.org. Individual show tickets range from $44-$55 while a series pass to the five shows of your choice is available at a $50 discount. All nights will feature performances at 7pm and 9:15pm.  The series picks up where the new format June JAS Experience June 20-23 concludes: Celebrating diverse, world-class artists from jazz and related forms of music in multiple, intimate venues in the Aspen core.

The series kicks off on June 28 at TLN with the fiery 13-piece ensemble Orquesta Akokan, performing deeply soulful mambo straight out of Havana, Cuba. Driven by a “groove like a runaway train” gushed NPR., the virtuoso rhythm and reed players and classic Cuban repertoire with a modern twist are dazzling audiences around the world on their 2019 tour.

On July 19 world-renowned guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli returns to the JAS Café with performances at AAM. Hailed by the Boston Globe for “reinvigorating the Great American Songbook and re-popularizing jazz,” Pizzarelli is a rare entertainer of the old-school.

The following night, July 20, 2017 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition winner Quiana Lynell will perform at AAM. Lynell infuses her classical training with a gospel upbringing, freshly approaching jazz as a soulful & engaging storyteller, with a compelling stage presence that is winning her new audiences.

On July 25-26 JAS will turn the Velvet Buck at the St. Regis into an intimate jazz club for performances from Grammy-winning New Orleans keyboardist and vocalist Jon Cleary and his Trio. Cleary will mix the Crescent city sound into a tribute to New Orleans’ jazz piano legends including Professor Longhair, Fats Waller and Jelly Roll Morton.

JAS will kick-off the 2019 JAS Academy Summer Sessions with a special weekend of performances on August 3-4. The JAS Academy, presented in association with the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, will bring 23 college aged musicians to Aspen for two weeks of intensive studies on both the performance and business side of the music industry. Frost Dean and multi-Grammy nominated pianist Shelly Berg will perform with his Trio at TLN to open the Academy with special guest vocalists Niki Haris and Billy Valentine. Haris and Valentine, two kindred, world-class vocalists and knockout entertainers, will treat audiences to a playful, spirited tour of jazz, blues and soul classics, including numerous memorable duets.

On August 8 Arturo Sandoval Afro Cuban Ensemble will perform at TLN. One of the most dynamic and vivacious live performers of our time, 10-time Grammy winner Sandavol is one of the world’s most acknowledged guardians of jazz trumpet and flugelhorn, and the Afro Cuban roots of Latin Jazz.

Breakout vocalist Veronica Swift, who was a huge hit in her Aspen debut as a special guest with the Shelly Berg Trio at the Café this winter, will return on August 9 at TLN alongside pianist Emmet Cohen and his Trio. Both Frost School of Music alumni, Swift and Cohen, who tour together often, are planning an exhilarating and diverse program for the evening.

“Sassy, sexy, humorous, reflective, and joyous,” (DownBeat), the veteran vocalist and Grammy winner Catherine Russell will perform at AAM on August 16. Russell, known equally for her and moving effortlessly between jazz, blues and soul dazzles audiences with familiar favorites and forgotten treasures. “The Real Deal” Wall Street Journal.

JAS Academy Artistic Director Christian McBride brings his project, Christian McBride and Inside Straight to the AMM on August 17. The six-time Grammy winning bassist hand-picked this hard swinging, acoustic quintet, featuring vibraphones.

On August 18 the Summer Series will close with a performance from the JAS Academy Big Band led by McBride. All twenty-three participating students will perform on this last night of their residency in a mix of classic repertoire from Ellington to Basie, as well as more modern arrangements from McBride. 

All of the summer Café performances will feature a JAS Listen Up! pre-concert artist interview prior to their first performance at 6:15pm. During these interviews artists share stories and insight on the music they’ll perform and what to listen for.

For a full listing of showtimes, Listen Up dates, dinner offerings and more, please visit jazzaspensnowmass.org.

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