World Music to Take Center Stage at the Rooftop of the Aspen Art Museum

In what should be the final JAS Café performances prior to JAS opening their permanent home, the Paul JAS Center, in December, JAS will return to the rooftop of the Aspen Art Museum this summer with a line-up featuring musicians from across the globe. Each night will feature a 6:30pm show at $75/ticket and an 8:45pm show at $55/ticket. A series pass including four 8:45pm shows of choice will be available for $180. Tickets go on-sale Friday, March 28 and can be purchased at www.jazzaspensnowmass.org

World-class Columbian powerhouse pianist, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, 27-year-old Jesus Molina will kick the summer series off on Friday, July 28th. Molina is a Berklee College of Music grad and Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation award winner who has already carved out an impressive career as a fiery virtuoso turning heads world-wide.

Welsh born vocalist Judith Owen will perform on Saturday, July 29th. Judith has a well-established European career as a versatile and entertaining performer, whose broad, stylistic range spans from classical, jazz, blues and musical theatre. Judith is also a comedic actress and master storyteller.

The first weekend rounds out on Sunday, July 30th with the return of the brilliant A cappella group Naturally 7. Although “A capella group” so vastly underplays what Naturally 7 creates onstage that they had to coin a phrase – “Vocal Play” – to more accurately depict what they do, transforming their voices into actual human instruments, effortlessly producing music of any genre.

The next weekend of performances will take place Aug. 7-10, overlapping the second two-week gathering of the all-scholarship JAS Academy presented by Jazz Aspen Snowmass in collaboration with the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. The “Afro-Caribbean Sessions,” led by Trinidad-born trumpeter Etienne Charles, focuses on diverse Afro-Caribbean styles of music, which will be the highlight of all the weekend performances. Things start on Thursday, Aug. 7 with a special performance at 8:45pm featuring the JAS Academy Afro-Caribbean Big Band led by Charles and his group “Creole Soul,” focusing on the boisterous sounds of Trinidad Carnival.

On Friday, Aug. 8th, the Brooklyn-based band, Kaleta & Super Yampa Band, fronted by Afrobeat and Juju veteran Leon Ligan-Majek (a.k.a. Kaleta) will perform. Kaleta is a singer/guitarist from West Africa who lived his adolescent life in Lagos, Nigeria where Afrobeat was born.

Grammy nominated Jamaican-born pianist Monty Alexander will perform on Saturday, Aug. 9th with his Harlem-Kingston Express “Order of Jamaica.” Alexander returns to the JAS Café on the heels of a world-wide tour celebrating his 80th B-Day! Alexander’s Harlem-Kingston celebrates the intersection of jazz and Jamaican musical expressions— through the blues, gospel, and topped off by deep grooves of Jamaican calypso and reggae.

The season closes on Sunday, Aug. 10th with a sure to be unforgettable performance from the Cuban musician and sensation, Cimafunk, known for mixing funk and hip hop with Cuban and Afro-Caribbean music. “A Must-See Act… … Cimafunk is creating the new sound of Cuba & redefining Latin Alternative… with an energetic intensity that has drawn comparisons to James Brown… A funkadelic force to be reckoned with… a trailblazing creator whose music unites Afro-Cuban rhythms and African American funk”- GRAMMY.com

“In the nearly (10) years since our first shows at AAM, JAS has been privileged to present an enormous number of memorable performances by diverse world-class Artists each summer. In 2025, we are proud to present a mixture of some of our favorite Artists through the years, alongside a number of JAS Café debuts that we know will be unforgettable,” said JAS President & CEO Jim Horowitz. “As the count-down begins to the official December 2025 opening of our first, permanent year-round home for performance, education and gathering, the Paul JAS Center, we will savor each of these shows ….and look forward to more JAS / AAM collaborations in the future!”

Learn more about the series and artists by visiting us here.