DIANA KRALL, STEVE WINWOOD, TONY BENNETT
& TROMBONE SHORTY TO HEADLINE THE
JAS ASPEN SNOWMASS JUNE FESTIVAL +
JAS CAFÉ SUMMER HIGHLIGHTS
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Diana Krall
Photo Credit: Robert Maxwell
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Tickets On-Sale Mon. January 6
JAS Aspen Snowmass
is pleased to announce their 2014 June Festival line-up, including four
nights of music at the Benedict Music Tent, JAS Café Downstairs @ the
Nell performances, and the continuation of the June Festival lawn party.
With dates which coincide with the annual Food & Wine Classic in
Aspen, JAS has altered the first weekend of the Festival to a Thursday - Saturday format, kicking-off on Thursday, June 19 with a rollicking night of New Orleans music featuring trombonist and vocalist Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue.
"Brass band, funk, rock and even some gospel-drenched soul music.. in
many ways, he is a genre unto himself," says Billboard Magazine of
Shorty. The band will be joined by special guests The Soul Rebels Brass Band and the legendary New Orleans jazz vocalist John Boutté, whose diverse styles encompass blues, Latin, gospel and R 'n B.
On Friday, June 20 multiple GRAMMY® Award-winning jazz singer/pianist Diana Krall will take the stage in her first return to Aspen since 2006. Krall's new show, based on her extraordinary new album Glad Rag Doll,
is an exhilarating and adventurous exploration of new sounds, new
instrumentation and new musicians, which Diana calls, "a song and dance
record."
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Tony Bennett
Photo Courtesy of the Artist
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The first weekend of the festival will conclude on Saturday, June 21 with one of the most influential artists in all of popular music, Steve Winwood.
For more than four decades Winwood has remained a primary figure in
rock 'n' roll. His last performance in Aspen was at the 2007 JAS June
Festival where he kept an enthusiastic audience on their feet throughout
the entire night.
The following weekend, on Saturday, June 28,
JAS and the Aspen Music Festival and School will co-present a very
special evening at the Benedict Music Tent featuring the legendary Tony Bennett.
New this year, JAS & AMFS will offer an on-site pre-concert dinner
at the JAS Patron Hospitality Tent, mirroring the Patron (VIP) ticket
that JAS provides at their festivals. Patron tickets will include
gourmet catered hors d'oeuvres, dinner and dessert, full open bars,
on-site parking, and premium floor seating for the concert. Reserved and
general admission seating will also be available for Bennett's
performance.
The expanded Free Lawn Party,
a huge hit at last year's June Festival, will once again take place on
the Benedict Music Tent grounds prior to the main stage acts on June 19-21, starting at 6pm
nightly. The party includes a variety of on-site food booths, beverage
and full bar service vendors and live music on two stages.
Additional shows surrounding the Festival will take place at the JAS Café Downstairs at the Nell, including jazz vocalist René Marie on June 26-27 with a tribute to one of America's most iconic entertainers, Eartha Kitt, a show based on Marie's acclaimed new release I Wanna Be Evil. Marie is followed by vocalist Tierney Sutton on July 2-3 performing "After Blue," a tribute to Joni Mitchell, from her new release.
Other highlights of the 2014 JAS Café Summer Season include the return of Jamaican jazz piano virtuoso Monty Alexander's Harlem Kingston Express, August 8-9 and world-renowned jazz guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli, August 15-16. More summer shows will be announced at a later date.
Tickets for the June 19-21 JAS June Festival performances at Benedict Music Tent and the summer JAS Café performances will go on-sale Monday, January 6 through the JAS Box Office at 866-JAS-TIXX (527-8499), www.jazzaspensnowmass.org or at the Belly Up Box Office in Aspen (970-544-9800). Tickets for the Tony Bennett show will also go on-sale Monday, January 6 at the AMFS Box Office, 970-925-9042 or www.aspenmusicfestival.com.
Patron (VIP) tickets for the JAS June 19-21 Festival will be available on January 6 at 970-920-4996 or www.jazzaspensnowmass.org. Lodging and ticket packages can be found at 800-SNOWMASS.
For more information on the JAS June Festival please visit www.jazzaspensnowmass.org or call JAS at 970-920-4996.
# Media Contact: Andrea Beard (970) 920-4996 ext 12 #
ARTIST BIOS
Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue:
Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews has God-given talent, natural charisma
and a relentless drive to bridge music's past and future. His latest
album, Say That to Say This, sounds like nothing else out there, as Andrews and his longtime band, Orleans
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Trombone Shorty
Photo Credit: Kirk Edwards
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Avenue - guitarist Pete Murano, bassist Mike Ballard and drummer Joey Peebles - continue their natural musical evolution.
In
a very real sense, the torch is passed from one great New Orleans band
to another on the album, which features the first new studio recording
from the original members of the legendary Meters in 36 years, as they
revisit their 1977 classic "Be My Lady," with Andrews singing lead and
playing horns.
Andrews' previous projects include 2010's GRAMMY® Award-nominated Backatown and hissophomore effort, For True
which spent 12 weeks atop Billboard's Contemporary Jazz Chart. In the
past few years alone, Andrews has appeared on recordings by an eclectic
assortment of artists ranging from Zac Brown to Eric Clapton to Rod
Steward and Cee Lo Green. In February 2012 Andrews performed at The
White House. "That was a dream come true about 50 times over," he says.
"When we started playing I forgot I was out the White House because I
was on stage with all this musical royalty - B.B. King, Mick Jagger,
Booker T. Jones, Jeff Beck, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, Gary Clark
Jr., the list goes on. And then, when I turned to the audience, there's
the President and the First Lady. I'm like 'This can't be happening.'"
Good
things continue to happen for Trombone Shorty, thanks to his
virtuosity, his dedication, and his ability to move people. That he
pursues his passion with such humility and unpretentiousness makes his
still-unfolding story as compelling as the music he's making along the
way.
John Boutte:
John Boutte's job is to sing - to sing jazz, to sing it with such style
and grace that no one ever mistakes him for anything other than a
master. Growing up, Boutte was awakened by the sounds of his New Orleans
neighborhood. Voices carried over the fence from the church behind his
home in the Seventh Ward, the home where his mother Gloria still lives,
where most of his Creole family still lives and sings. Past the front
yard, second-line parades rolled by, matching the madness of Carnival
season and the transcendent joy of the jazz funeral. This roux of
influences created John Boutte, and serves him to this day. He is one of
those remarkable cases where the art arises from the true heart.
Diana Krall: Diana Krall's extraordinary new album Glad Rag Doll,
is an exhilarating and adventurous exploration of new sounds, new
instrumentation and new musicians. It stars a singer and piano player,
filled with mischief, humor and a renewed sense of tenderness and
intimacy. The record reveals itself at that remarkable vanishing point
in time where all music: swinging, rocking and taboo, collide with songs
of longing, solace and regret. All are made new again in a vaudeville
of Krall's own imagining. It is at once a major departure and a natural
progression for the gifted musician. Diana simply calls the album "a
song and dance record." As ever with a Diana Krall record, her
distinctive feel and unique sense of time is crucial. She has
established a new and exciting rhythmic rapport with drummer Jay
Bellerose and bassist Dennis Crouch that has let loose some of her most
joyous piano playing heard on record to date.
Krall's 2009 GRAMMY® Award-winning album, Quiet Nights,
used Brazil as a musical point of reference and landed at #3 on the
Billboard 200, her highest ever position on the chart and her fourth
consecutive album to debut within the top 10.
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Steve Winwood
Photo Credit: Sam Erickson
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Steve Winwood:
For more than four decades, Steve Winwood has remained a primary figure
in rock 'n' roll, a respected innovator who has helped to create some
of the genre's most celebrated achievements. Winwood burst into
prominence in 1963 with the Spencer Davis Group and since that time his
celebrated skills as a composer, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist
have developed an impressive catalog of popular music.
It
should come as no surprise to learn that many honors have been bestowed
on Steve Winwood. He is a recipient of the Ivor Novello Outstanding
Song Collection and the Musicians Union Classic Rock Award - honors both
voted for by his peers. He has also received an honorary Doctorate
Degree in Music from Berkley College of Music as well as a second
Doctorate from Ashton University in his hometown of Birmingham, England.
While rightfully acknowledged for his many achievements, Winwood forges
ahead undaunted, continuing to create and perform new and exciting
material.
Tony Bennett:
Tony Bennett, one of the legends of jazz and popular music, was born in
Astoria, Queens New York on August 3, 1926. He had his first hit,
"Because of You," in 1951 and made a career singing standards, including
his signature song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." Bennett's
career waned in the mid-1960s, as rock music became dominant, but
rebounded in the 1990s as Bennett brought back his original style,
tuxedo and the Great American Songbook. Bennett has won 17 GRAMMY®
Awards (including a Lifetime Achievement Award), and two Emmy Awards. He
has been named an NEA Jazz Master and a Kennedy Center Honoree and has
sold over 50 million records worldwide.
René Marie:
René Marie - singer, actress, writer. Eartha Kitt - singer, actress,
writer. Never before has there been a vocal recording tipping the hat to
the divine Ms. Kitt and her fiery, sensual and clever interpretations
of songs. With her incredible range of vocal ability, her powerful
emotional resonance and strong independent streak, René is the right
artist to conceive of this historic project, her latest album: I Wanna Be Evil (With Love to Eartha Kitt). This brilliantly entertaining album burnishes René's reputation as the most provocative risk-taker among today's jazz divas.
For
René Marie, success means shining attention on important issues in
America and on bold artists like Eartha Kitt who helped change America's
landscape for the better. René has become one of those bold artists.
Tierney Sutton: "A serious jazz artist who takes the whole enterprise to another level," - The New York Times.
Sutton, a five-time GRAMMY® nominee, is often described as "a singer's
singer," but just as often she is described as a "musician's singer,"
who uses her voice like an instrument. Spanning over 20 years of
collaboration, the Tierney Sutton Band's nine CD's have consistently
topped the US jazz charts, leading to Tierney's selection as Jazzweek's
Vocalist of the Year as well as to numerous other accolades in the music
world.
Tierney's latest CD, After Blue, is an intimate, jazz-inspired re-imagining of the legacy of Joni Mitchell.
Monty Alexander's Harlem Kingston Express:
Jamaican jazz piano virtuoso Monty Alexander is acclaimed the world
over for his seemingly extraterrestrial technique and sublime, heartfelt
swing. In a career spanning five decades he has built a reputation
exploring the worlds of American jazz, popular song, and the music of
his native Jamaica, finding in each a sincere spirit of musical
expression. For the Harlem-Kingston Express presentation, Alexander
traveled to Bob Marley's Tuff Gong Studio in Kingston and teamed up with
Jamaican top session players to record Concrete Jungle, a set of twelve
compositions penned by Bob Marley and reinterpreted via Alexander's
jazz piano-oriented arrangements. The resulting union of musical
perspectives digs deep into the Marley legend and brings together the
two worlds that Alexander most treasures, building the musical bridges
that are the very essence of his craft.
John Pizzarelli: World-renowned jazz guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli was called "Hip with a wink," by Town & Country, "madly creative" by The Los Angeles Times and "the genial genius of the guitar" by The Toronto Star.
Using performers like Nat "King" Cole, Frank Sinatra and Joao Gilberto
and the songs of composers from Richard Rodgers, George Gershwin to
James Taylor, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Lennon & McCartney as
touchstones, Pizzarelli has established himself as one of the prime
interpreters of the Great American Songbook and beyond, bringing to his
work the cool jazz flavor of his brilliant guitar playing and singing.
All media requests should be sent to:
Andrea Beard · 970-920-4996 x12
