JAS Cafe Summer Series – Jesus Molina

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

A world-class jazz pianist, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and successful online piano tutor, 27-year-old Jesus Molina is a one-man force of nature, a Berklee College of Music grad and Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation award winner who has already carved out an impressive career.  His brand-new instrumental album Selah – a blessing meaning “praise” or “lift up” – perfectly captures his spiritual approach to music.

The second oldest of four children born in Sincelejo, Colombia, on the northern coast near Cartagena, Jesus Molina’s parents were both lawyers, while he turned out to be the only one with musical talent in his family. He was encouraged to pursue that passion by his grandmother, who gifted him a Casio keyboard when he was four years old, and he proceeded to plunk out the notes to “Happy Birthday,” to the encouragement of his mom, eventually teaching himself to play the saxophone before taking up the piano again as a teenager.

Molina had never been to America when he first flew into Boston in May 2016 to attend Berklee, earning tuition as part of the Latin Grammy’s Juan Luis Guerra Scholarship, taking ESL classes to learn to speak English along the way. “When they asked me about my dreams in music, all I could say was, ‘I Jesus Colombia… I love orange juice.’ But what I meant was, I want to be the next Chick Corea.”

And while his technical ability has led him to a role as an online Zoom tutor with a following of 25,000 students, Molina’s music is anything but sterile noodling, with an appreciation for accessible pop melodies which originally attracted him to the sax stylings of Dave Koz and Kenny G. But his life was forever changed viewing a video of Canadian piano jazz great Oscar Peterson, known as “the King of inside swing,” dubbed “the Maharaja of the keyboard,” by no less than Duke Ellington.

You can hear those influences on Selah, but that is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Molina’s crossover potential, with planned future albums devoted to pop vocal in Spanish and English, making him a true triple-threat.

After several previous recordings, including Agape (God’s Love) and Departing, featuring covers of classic jazz standards such as Chick Corea’s “Spain” or Dizzy Gillespie’s “Night in Tunisia,” along with several originals, Molina is looking forward to performing the newly penned Selah songs in front of live audiences. “I love playing for people,” added Molina. “That’s still my favorite part of making music.”

Selah is a musical blessing, a sacred symphony to transport this troubled world into a more joyful space. The world is about to discover Jesus Molina for themselves.