Aspen Peak - Niche Media - Aspen living at its peak
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PhotograPhy by Leigh VogeL/getty images All ThAT JAzz After A quArter-century of lAying down Aspen's BAcKBeAt, Jazz aspen snowmass Keeps the groove Alive. by christine benedetti When Jazz Aspen Snowmass started its annual music festival, it was one of only two events of its kind in the country. Nowadays, music festivals are on a meteoric rise. All across the US, music fans can find curated weeks and weekends filled with everything from rock to hip-hop to bluegrass. Increasingly, festivals are also blurring these distinctions by mixing genres together in one collection, catering their programming to fans of multiple styles, and becoming more inclusive. Even festivals of jazz, one of the more guarded genres in music today, have opened their doors, and realized the benefits. "I never thought, I'll start a jazz festival and it will be 100 percent jazz all the time, every show," says Jim Horowitz, JAS president and CEO. Jazz Aspen, as it was then called, began in 1991, modeled after a similar program in Marciac, France. It spanned two days and featured a sit-on- the-lawn-and-sip-wine affair at Aspen's Benedict Music Tent. That year, the Ramsey Lewis Trio, Tuck & Patti, and Nancy Wilson performed. "It was to be one weekend at the beginning of the summer on the music festival grounds," says Horowitz. "That was as far as I could see or dream at that point." Two and a half decades later, the weekend at the tent is still a corner- stone in JAS programming—but now one of many. Besides the two-week festival in June, the nonprofit hosts its three-day Labor Day Experience The Benedict Music Tent, at Aspen Music Festival and School, has been the stage for some of JAS's biggest acts since the very beginning, in 1991. continued on page 58 aspenpeak-magazine.com 57 CULTURE Hottest Ticket