JAS Cafe Summer Series – Judith Owen

Showtimes 6:30pm & 8:45pm @ Aspen Art Museum Rooftop

Judith Owen, a performer whose stylistic range spans rock, pop, classical, jazz, blues, and musical theatre, Owen is also a comedic actress and master storyteller.

Born into an overtly musical Welsh family, Judith Owen grew up in London surrounded by classical music, ballet, theatre, and the fine arts.  Owen was also exposed to many jazz icons and Broadway musicals that her parents loved (the mixture would become her signature sound). Owen quickly began performing at a variety of different venues around London. Her unique hybrid of classical/jazz-influenced styled sound soon affirmed a regular slot at Ronnie Scotts.

Judith’s new live album “Comes Alive” follows on the heels of her hugely successful 2022 album “Come On & Get It” (over 3.2 Million album streams and more than a million YouTube views).  “Judith Owen Comes Alive” – released worldwide in early spring 2024 – features 16 tracks recorded live over a weeklong residency in Bern, Switzerland at the legendary Marians Jazzroom in January of this year.

Revisiting some of the jewels featured on “Come On & Get It” with brand new live interpretations of Lady Be Good, Teach Me Tonight, Down With Love, Skylark, and Fever to name a few new tracks, Judith once again looks to the music of the unsung “badass” ladies of Jazz and Blues.

Owen conceived of the project as a result of her childhood fascination with the Jazz music of some of the so-called “pioneering but oft forgotten women” of the Jazz and Blues world including Julia Lee, Blossom Dearie and Nellie Lutcher – who she discovered hidden on the shelves of her father’s record collection alongside the likes of Oscar Peterson and Jelly Roll Morton. Captivated and enchanted by these “Unapologetic” chanteuses of the 40’s/50’s, who were singing about sex – and enjoying it at a time when women were meant to sing about romance – Owen made it her mission to dig deep and find out more from both a musical and historical perspective. The result is a joyful, uplifting, and empowering project; a throw-back with a fresh feel complete with a look and style that speaks of all those delectable, hugely entertaining women who broke the glass ceiling with their stiletto heels and were ever so proud of it!

The release of “Judith Owen Comes Alive” is accompanied by tour dates across the US and Europe with headline shows in New Orleans, New York City, Nashville, Oakland and Los Angeles before heading to Paris and Milan in June, and returning to London in July. A string of festival dates in Europe and the US round up the summer.