Take 6

Friday, June 25, 2021 | Shows at 5:30pm & 8:30pm

Durant St. VIP Tent

The most awarded vocal group in history (10 Grammy Awards, 10 Dove Awards, a Soul Train Award, and more) celebrates their 25th Anniversary!

Take 6 (Claude McKnight, Mark Kibble, Joel Kibble, Dave Thomas, Alvin Chea and Khristian Dentley), heralded by Quincy Jones as the “baddest vocal cats on the planet!”, is the quintessential a cappela group and model for vocal genius. Six virtuosic voices united in crystal clear harmony, against a backdrop of syncopated rhythms, innovative arrangements, and funky grooves that bubble into an intoxicating brew of gospel, jazz, R&B, and pop. With praise from such luminaries as Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Brian Wilson, Ella Fitzgerald and Whitney Houston, the multi-platinum selling sextet has toured across the globe, collaborated across genres, and is recognized as the pre-eminent a capella group in the world.

Take 6 has come a long way from their days at Huntsville, Alabama’s Oakwood College where McKnight formed the group as The Gentleman’s Estate Quartet in 1980. When tenor Mark Kibble heard the group rehearsing in the dorm bathroom, he joined in the harmonies and performed on stage that night. When Mervyn Warren joined shortly afterward, they took the name Alliance. Yet, when they signed to Reprise Records/Warner Bros. in 1987, they found that there was another group with the same name, so they became Take 6. Their self-titled debut CD won over jazz and pop critics, scored two 1988 Grammy Awards, landed in the Top Ten Billboard Contemporary Jazz and Contemporary ChristianCharts, and they’ve never slowed down.

What makes the music and the group last this long? The answers are direct and simple: faith, friendship, respect, and love of music. Such qualities garnered them awards beyond musical category – a Soul Train Award and two NAACP Image Award nominations. From their exceptional live performances to their recordings, these qualities remain at the heart of the Take 6 phenomenon. 

As Take 6 celebrates their 25th Anniversary with a brand new show, they’ll share the memories in the music of the past 25 years as well as reveal what the future holds!

https://take6.com

Dee Dee Bridgewater

Friday, June 25, 2021 | Shows at 7pm & 9:30pm

The St. Regis Aspen

Over the course of a multifaceted career spanning four decades, Grammy and Tony Award-winning Jazz giant Dee Dee Bridgewater has ascended to the upper echelon of vocalists, putting her unique spin on standards, as well as taking intrepid leaps of faith in re-envisioning jazz classics. Ever the fearless voyager, explorer, pioneer and keeper of tradition, the three-time Grammy-winner most recently won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album for Eleanora Fagan (1915-1959): To Billie With Love From Dee Dee. Bridgewater’s career has always bridged musical genres. She earned her first professional experience as a member of the legendary Thad Jones/Mel Louis Big Band, and throughout the 70’s she performed with such jazz notables as Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon and Dizzy Gillespie. After a foray into the pop world during the 1980s, she relocated to Paris and began to turn her attention back to Jazz. Releasing a series of critically-acclaimed CD’s, all but one, including her wildly successful double Grammy Award-winning tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, Dear Ella – have received Grammy nominations. 

Bridgewater also pursued a parallel career in musical theater, winning a Tony Award for her role as “Glinda” in The Wiz in 1975. She is currently on tour worldwide in support of “Memphis,” her new CD, and in April of this year was the recipient of an NEA Jazz Masters Fellows Award with honors bestowed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. 

http://www.deedeebridgewater.com

The Family Stone

Saturday, June 26, 2021 | Shows at 5:30pm & 8:30pm

Durant St. VIP Tent

Sunday, June 27, 2021 | Shows at 7:15pm & 9pm

Belly Up Aspen

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, R&B Pioneer Award Winner, and original founding member of Sly & The Family Stone; Jerry Martini, along with Phunne Stone (The multi-talented daughter of Sly Stone and the late great Cynthia Robinson) bringing the music of the first inter-racial inter-gender, main-stream major band in Rock & Roll history… the chart topping hits of Sly & The Family Stone.

These funksters are joined by the powerful voice of Swang Stewart on vocals, bringing a message of peace, love, and social consciousness, through musical harmony with some of the funkiest players of all time. Big Gunes of Funk like Nate Wingfield on the Guitar, Jimmy McKinney on keys, Frank Klepacki on Drums, and Blaise Sison on bass adding the proper pocket to the raw Family Stone sound.

They present an explosive set of their Psychedelic Funk classic hits of the 60s and 70s. The raw, unfiltered original sound that became part of the essential building blocks of many, if not most, of the great modern artists toolkits. Sampled and covered by major artists around the world, the influence of their music and sound is immeasurable in the development of modern music as we know it today.

http://www.thefamilystonemusic.com

Bettye Lavette

Friday, June 26, 2021 | Shows at 6pm & 9pm

Wheeler Opera House – 2nd Floor

Saturday, June 27, 2021 | Shows at 7pm & 9:30pm

The St. Regis Aspen

Hailed by the New York Times as “one of the great soul interpreters of her generation,” five-time Grammy nominee Bettye LaVette is a vocalist who can take any type of song – jazz or country, pop or rhythm & blues – and make it her own.  LaVette’s commitment to artistry has earned the admiration of musical peers such as Jon Bon Jovi (“she doesn’t just sing the song, she lives in each of them”) and Bonnie Raitt, who praised her as “one of the most incredible R&B singers singing today…a force of nature.”  Over the course of her remarkable, six-decade career, LaVette has sung for President Obama, published an autobiography, placed six records on the rhythm & blues charts, and starred in a hit musical. 

Born Betty Jo Haskins in Muskegon, Michigan, LaVette moved at a young age to Detroit’s North End.  In 1962, at the age of 16, she stepped into a recording studio for the first time and the result was a top 10 rhythm & blues hit, “My Man – He’s a Lovin’ Man.”  Released on Atlantic Records, a leader in African American popular music, the song made LaVette an overnight star. 

Monty Alexander

Friday, June 26, 2021 | Shows at 5:15pm & 7:45pm

Aspen Art Museum

Nearly sixty years after he moved to the United States from Kingston, Jamaica, his hometown, Grammy nominated legendary pianist Monty Alexander is an American classic, touring the world relentlessly with various projects, delighting a global audience drawn to his vibrant personality and soulful message. A perennial favorite at Jazz Festivals and venues worldwide and at the Montreux Jazz Festival where he has performed and headlined concerts 23 times since 1976, his spirited conception is one informed by the timeless verities: endless melody-making, effervescent grooves, sophisticated voicings, a romantic spirit, and a consistent predisposition, as Alexander accurately states, “to build up the heat and kick up a storm.” In the course of any given performance, Alexander applies those aesthetics to a repertoire spanning a broad range of jazz and Jamaican musical expressions—the American songbook and the blues, gospel and bebop, calypso and reggae—and gives the hardcore-jazz-obsessed much to dig into while also communicating the message to the squarest “civilian.”

A native of Kingston, Jamaica, Alexander also performs frequently with Harlem- Kingston Express, a double trio in which he coalesces his love for hard-swinging jazz with musical flavors that reflect his Jamaican heritage, shifting between an acoustic trio and master Jamaican practitioners of electric bass and drums.

“Even now, it’s one world of music for me,” Alexander says. “I try to remove all the lines. Even though I do this thing and that thing and the other thing, at the end of the day it’s Monty Alexander. I still seem to make people happy.”

https://www.montyalexander.com

The Motet

Friday, June 25, 2021 | Shows at 7:15pm & 9pm

Belly Up Aspen

Saturday, June 26, 2021 | Shows at 5:15pm & 7:45pm

Aspen Art Museum

Throughout history, unity starts on the dancefloor. From ancient tribal cultures to neon night clubs, beats bring bodies together. Once grinding and grooving in unison, the movement generates friction, sparks, and light. That might just be the purest form of energy on the planet. The Motet harness such energy. In fact, the Denver septet — Dave Watts [drums], Joey Porter [keys], Garrett Sayers [bass], Ryan Jalbert [guitar], Lyle Divinsky [vocals], Drew Sayers [sax], and Parris Fleming [trumpet] — encode a message in their energetic mélange of boisterous badass funk, swaggering soul, and thought-provoking pop.

In the process, they challenge convention and arrive with a dynamic, diverse, and definitive statement.

Since emerging in 1998, the boys have cooked up eight full-length albums and entranced countless crowds. 2016’s Totem saw them welcome Lyle behind the mic and Drew on sax. Shortly after, they kicked off what has become an annual tradition by selling out the legendary Red Rocks Amphitheater for the first time. “It was my six-month anniversary and first show for a hometown crowd,” recalls Lyle. “I’ve got 10,000 people looking at me like, ‘Who the hell is that?’,” he laughs. That night would be chronicled on the fan favorite Live at Red Rocks. In the meantime, the group maintained a prolific pace of 100 shows per year in support of Totem.

http://themotet.com

Ulysses Owens Jr. Gen Y

Saturday, June 26, 2021 | Shows at 6pm & 9pm

Wheeler Opera House – 2nd Floor

Sunday, June 27, 2021 | Shows at 5:30pm & 8:30pm

Durant St. VIP Tent

Heralded as a “powerhouse of a showman” (Glide Magazine), a “legitimate jazz triple threat” (Critical Jazz) and a drummer who “take[s] a back seat to no one” (The New York Times), performer, producer and educator Ulysses Owens Jr. goes the limit in the jazz world and beyond.

An active faculty member of the Jazz Studies Program at his alma mater, The Juilliard School, Visiting Artist in Residence at Utah State University, and Faculty Artist in Residence at Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, Florida where he teaches the Music Business course. He also oversees artistic and community programming for hundreds of children and teens as Artistic Director for Don’t Miss a Beat, Inc., a youth-empowerment non-profit founded by his family in 2008 in his hometown of Jacksonville, Florida.

Ulysses remains consistently in demand for new projects as an Artist, Producer, and Educator, remaining one of the most sought-after drummers and thought leaders of his generation. Yet what matters to him consistently is giving back and continuing to be grateful for a new day, to make a difference in the lives of others.

https://www.usojazzy.com

Sammy Miller & the Congregation

Saturday, June 26, 2021 | Shows at 7:15pm & 9pm

Belly Up Aspen

Sunday, June 27, 2021 | Shows at 10am & 12:30pm

NOLA Brunch – additional ticket required

Sammy Miller and The Congregation are on a mission, criss-crossing the country like a vaudevillian revival show with evangelic fervor for music. The seven-piece band is pulling people out of their solitary lives and putting them in the moment with a bracing dose of joyful jazz performed with infectious theatricality. The New York City-based, familial collective has captured its frenetic energy and unflinchingly optimistic songwriting on its debut album, Leaving Egypt.

Sammy Miller and The Congregation has been described as a mashup of the sensibilities of Ben Folds and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. The band freely mixes vocal and instrumental tracks live and on record, asking the audience to go along for the ride with the lead melody being carried by vocalists half the time, and instruments the other half. The seven-piece group is a community of adventurous and charismatic superstar musicians who are conservatory-trained but who have not lost their childlike wonder and awe for playing music. The band lineup is Sammy Miller, drums and vocals; Sam Crittenden, trombone; Ben Flocks, tenor sax; Sammy’s sister Molly Miller on guitar; Alphonso Horne, trumpet; Corbin Jones, bass and tuba; and David Linard, piano.

“We all went to Juilliard and have these credentials, but we didn’t like the insular feeling of the jazz scene. We were seeking warmth and connection,” Sammy says. These misfit creatives descended on venues around NYC where the genre was not played. “I wanted to find a new audience,” Sammy says. “We played in dive bars where people were scared of jazz.” Their live show grew to be something of a mix between a comedy troupe and a dazzling rock band that played a vigorously reimagined strain of jazz. “We let ourselves be free on the bandstand and we took the audience with us,” Sammy says. The band’s boundless energy, inclusive ideals, catchy songwriting, and revue style presentation made them a word-of-mouth buzz band. The septet expanded its reach through adopting the rock band philosophy of touring endlessly in a van to build a fanbase.

http://www.sammymillercongregation.com

Delvon Lamarr Organ Quartet

Friday, June 25, 2021 | Shows at 6pm & 7:30pm

The Little Nell

Saturday, June 26, 2021 | Shows at 9pm & 10:30pm

The Little Nell

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio was formed in the spring of 2015 by Amy Novo, Delvon Lamarr’s wife and band manager. She told her husband she would take over his music career and all he had to do was find the musicians, create and play music. They originally started with another guitarist and drummer. Within a year they brought on infamous Jimmy James. Immediately the chemistry between the three of them was undeniable. With Delvon’s soulful organ sound, and Jimmy’s explosive guitar sound and the former drummer’s perfect pocket drumming, they had the perfect blend of Soul, Jazz, Rhythm & Blues and Rock & Roll.

They started with a weekly Residency at The Royal Room in Seattle for the first year then self-released their first album, playing short tours from Idaho, Spokane, Seattle, Bellingham, Olympia, Portland, Reno, California, and tour in Europe.

Shortly after signing with Colemine Records they re-released their album on a 45, LP, cassette, CD and digitally. Several months later they signed with The Kurland Agency, a well-known booking agency out of Boston. The band has since gone from a local Seattle-based band to a national and international household name, traveling all over the United States and around the world.

The love, passion and devotion Amy Novo, Colemine Records and The Kurland Agency has for their music creates the perfect power team. Now, with Michael Duffy as their drummer, Delvon Lamarr Organ trio is ready to take their performance to new regions of the world, bringing their unique sound to fans across the globe.

https://delvonlamarrorgantrio.com/

Jamison Ross Quartet

Saturday, June 27, 2021 | Shows at 6pm & 7:30pm

The Little Nell

Jamison Ross is a vocalist and drummer that delivers messages of humanity through the medium of jazz.

A native of Jacksonville, FL, Jamison’s passion for music was realized while growing up in his grandfather’s church, where he realized the effectiveness of music. Jamison began his study of jazz as a high school student at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts and gained worldwide acclaim as a featured musician in the Tribeca Film Festival winning documentary CHOPS; a film that followed the school’s jazz ensemble as they prepare and perform in the renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington Festival competition.

In 2012, Ross’ career began to take shape after winning the Thelonious Monk Jr. International Jazz Competition for his drumming. This achievement afforded him a recording contract with Concord Jazz. Jamison recounts, “at the time, people knew me as a drummer; they didn’t know I could sing. I wanted to merge my gifts.”

His 2015 debut release, Jamison, introduced the world to his concept of rhythm and melody and also garnered a GRAMMY® nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album.

Tuba Skinny

Thursday, June 24, 2021 | Shows at 7pm & 9:15pm

Aspen Art Museum

Sunday, June 27, 2021 | Shows at 6pm & 9pm

Wheeler Opera House – 2nd Floor

Founded in 2009, Tuba Skinny has steadily evolved from a loose collection of street musicians into a solid ensemble dedicated to bringing the traditional New Orleans sound to audiences around the world. Drawing on a wide range of musical influences – from spirituals to Depression-era blues, from ragtime to traditional jazz – their sound evokes the rich musical heritage of their New Orleans home. The band has gained a loyal following through their distinctive sound, their commitment to reviving long-lost songs, and their brainstorming live performances. They have released seven albums.

http://tubaskinny.com

Carolyn Leonhart

Sunday, June 27, 2021 | Shows at 5:15pm & 7:45pm

The St. Regis Aspen

A soulful singer of “stunning intelligence” with a voice that is “absolute magic” (Jazz Times), award winning vocalist Carolyn Leonhart has released four critically acclaimed solo albums which have been on Jazz Radio charts worldwide. Winner of Downbeat’s “Best College jazz Vocalist” as well as third place winner in the Thelonius Monk International Jazz Competition, Carolyn beautifully weaves the worlds of jazz and pop into every project she is a part of. In addition to headlining at jazz clubs, concert halls and festivals with her solo band, Carolyn has been a member of the iconic jazz/rock group Steely Dan for over a decade, appearing as a featured back-up vocalist on every album and every tour, including the multi Grammy Award winning “Two Against Nature”. Carolyn has toured and performed with Al Jarreau, Michael McDonald, Boz Scaggs, Enya, and The Charles Mingus Big Band, Hank Jones, Catherine Russell, and was recently featured at Jazz At Lincoln Center. In late 2017, Carolyn made her acting debut and received critical acclaim for her performance in the Off-Broadway musical, “Cross That River”. 

Paa Kow

Sunday, June 27, 2021 | Shows at 6pm & 7:30pm

The Little Nell

Having toured internationally, sharing stages with both African and American luminaries including Kojo Antwi, Amakye Dede and Victor Wooten, Ghana born drummer and composer, Paa Kow, (pronounced Pah-Ko), blends rhythm and artistry from his home with jazz and African roots creating his own Afro-Fusion sound. Dubbed “Ghana’s most artistic drummer” (Modern Ghana), he plays a custom, traditionally inspired Ghanaian drum set that is the only one of its kind in the world, guaranteeing an extraordinary cultural and musical experience.

Growing up in the small village of Enyan Denkyira near Cape Coast in Ghana, West Africa, Paa Kow began to play music and tour with his family’s concert band at a very early age. He has since grown to be widely recognized as one of the most remarkable drum set players to tour in Africa, Europe, and America. Paa Kow’s deep groove and prodigious talent reveal a unique ability to speak to listeners with his drums, inspiring a profound spiritual conversation and fulfilling his vision to spread the music and culture of his homeland by touring the world with his Afro-Fusion Orchestra.

https://www.paakowmusic.com

Badi Assad

Friday, June 25, 2021 – Shows at 6pm, 7:30pm & 9pm

Here House @ Local Coffee

Saturday, June 26, 2021 – Shows at 6pm, 7:30pm & 9pm

Here House @ Local Coffee

Brazil’s Badi Assad is one of the most innovative, passionate and talented Artists of all times and is lauded as one of the world’s most unique and cross-transcendental performance artists of this generation. She transcends traditional styles of her native Brazilian music with a mixture of pop, jazz and world/ethnic sounds from around the world. As a result, the extraordinary singer, guitarist, and percussionist is successfully forging an exhilarating genre of music that quite literally defies categorization.

What makes Badi Assad so unique is her hungry pursuit of performance experimentation that no other artist has done: She combines an extraordinary guitar talent, a unique mouth percussion, beautiful singing, combining a rhythmic body movement, to create an exciting, fresh music sound, and leaving spectators… simply… BREATHLESS. Indeed, watching Badi perform is like witnessing a spiritual phenomenon. How she does what she does all at once, and delivering an extraordinary performance, is quite unbelievable.

As a singer, Badi is vibrant and electric, responding to her inner passion with deft creativity. As a guitarist, she has inspired audiences and critics worldwide with a unique combination of technical mastery and innovation that has caused many to re-examine their notions about the instrument. Through it all, Badi’s adventurous spirit and buoyant personality have become an integral part of her music.

http://badiassad.com/en

Juanito Pascual

Sunday, June 27, 2021 | Shows at 6pm, 7:30pm & 9pm

Here House @ Local Coffee

Virtuoso flamenco guitarist/composer/improviser Juanito Pascual has been called “one of the hottest flamenco guitarists in recent years” by National Public Radio, a major accolade which in this case is just the jumping off point for the Minneapolis native’s musical style. His sound is a truly organic blend of a mastery of traditional and contemporary flamenco plus unexpected influences ranging from Jimi Hendrix and the Grateful Dead to Miles Davis and J.S. Bach.

Since the 2003 release of his debut solo recording “Cosas en Comun”, Pascual’s international touring schedule has brought him to venues including the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, New York’s Lincoln Center, and Blue Note Jazz Club, The Panama Jazz Festival and Madrid’s renowned Casa Patas. He has performed with a lengthy ‘who’s who’ of top flamenco artists including 2016 tour dates and invitation to appear in a documentary film with flamenco icon Jorge Pardo (of Paco de Lucia’s legendary Sextet, Chick Corea’s Spanish Heart Band) in addition to collaborations with a diverse range of musicians including Grammy-winning soprano Dawn Upshaw, bassist John Patitucci, pianist Danilo Perez (Wayne Shorter Qt), percussionist Jamey Haddad (Paul Simon’s group), virtuoso guitarist Grisha Goryachev, and many others.

His 2014 release “Juanito Pascual New Flamenco Trio” was included on NPR critic Milo Miles’ “Best World Music Albums” list that year and he is the author of “The Total Flamenco Guitarist” method book. In addition to touring and teaching workshops in 2020, Pascual is releasing two singles while recording his fourth full-length album for release in early 2021.

https://juanitopascual.com

New Orleans Road Revue:
Dumpstaphunk

Friday, June 25, 2021 | Shows at 6pm & 9:30pm

Hotel Jerome

Saturday, June 26, 2021 | Shows at 6pm & 9:30pm

Hotel Jerome

SEE DINNER MENU HERE: https://jazzaspensnowmass.org/new-orleans-road-revue-june-25-26-2021/

Dumpstaphunk stands out amongst New Orleans’ best, cementing themselves as one of the funkiest bands to ever arise from the Crescent City. Born on the Jazz & Heritage Festival stage, and descended from Neville and Meters family bloodlines, these soldiers of funk ignite a deep, gritty groove that dares listeners not to move. Their performances combine ingenious musicianship through complex funk, rock, and jazz arrangements accompanied by soulful melodies and Big Easy traditions.

Dueling baselines from Tony Hall and Nick Daniels III set off one of the dirtiest rhythm sections on the planet, while Ivan Neville lights up the Hammond B3 keys and cousin Ian Neville’s funky guitar riffs send the groove into overdrive. Dumpstaphunk tosses around lead vocals and four-part harmonies the way Sly & the Family Stone did, but with three studio albums under their belt, Dumpstaphunk stands on the merit of their own material. The band recently welcomed their newest members to the quintet, Devin Trusclair on drums and horn section Alex Wasily on trombone and Ryan Nyther on trumpet, rounding out a 7-piece arsenal. Dumpstaphunk’s most recent single and music video for “Justice” featuring friend Trombone Shorty, conveys a message to fight for equal opportunity and the right to a decent life for all humans. The band is currently in the studio working on their fourth studio album, with plans to release later in 2020.

New Orleans Road Revue:
George Porter, Jr

Friday, June 25, 2021 | Shows at 6pm & 9:30pm

Hotel Jerome

Saturday, June 26, 2021 | Shows at 6pm & 9:30pm

Hotel Jerome

SEE DINNER MENU HERE: https://jazzaspensnowmass.org/new-orleans-road-revue-june-25-26-2021/

George Porter, Jr. is best known as the bassist of The Meters, along with Art Neville, Leo Nocentelli and Joseph Zigaboo Modeliste. The group was formed in the mid ’60s and came to be recognized as one of the progenitors of funk then called R&B. The Meters disbanded in 1977, but reformed in 1989. Today the original group still plays the occasional reunions but the Funky Meters, of which Porter and Neville are still members, most prominently keeps the spirit alive.

Porter’s rhythmic work in the Meters in lockstep with drummer Zigaboo Modeliste was epic. Those pockets, the long notes and fat holes, provided the cushion for Leo Nocentelli or Art Neville to play or sing over and created some of R&B history’s most memorable grooves.

Porter has proven to be capable of the ultimate fusion of rock, funk and R&B, and has gained recognition as one of the industry’s elite bass players. He continues to be not only an in demand performing artist but an accomplished studio musician and producer.

New Orleans Road Revue:
Jon Cleary

Friday, June 26, 2021 | Shows at 6pm & 9:30pm

Hotel Jerome

Saturday, June 27, 2021 | Shows at 6pm & 9:30pm

Hotel Jerome

SEE DINNER MENU HERE: https://jazzaspensnowmass.org/new-orleans-road-revue-june-25-26-2021/

Jon Cleary’s love and affinity for New Orleans music goes back to the rural British village of Cranbrook, Kent, where he was raised in a musical family.  Cleary’s maternal grandparents performed in London in the 1940s, under the respective stage names Sweet Dolly Daydream and Frank Neville, The Little Fellow With The Educated Feet  – she as a singer, and he as a crooner and tap dancer.  

Cleary’s work pays obvious homage to the classic Crescent City keyboard repertoire created by such icons as Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, Art Neville, Dr. John, and James Booker – while also using it as a launching pad for a style that incorporates such other diverse influences as ’70s soul and R&B, gospel music, funk, Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Cuban rhythms, and much more.

https://www.joncleary.com