Sting will perform at the 2019 Jazz Aspen Snowmass Labor Day Experience, which JAS CEO Jim Horowitz called one of the top five performances in the festival’s history. The former Police frontman will headline the Saturday night of the Labor Day Experience.
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Jim Horowitz, founder and CEO of Jazz Aspen Snowmass, likened putting together the festival lineup Friday through Sunday to preparing a musical meal.
“My family was in the restaurant business,” he told the Aspen Daily News in an interview. “The food I make is for your ears, not your mouth. I look for variety. I look for strong flavors. I look for my favorite types of foods that are main courses. I look for appetizers, I look for things that I may not have had before that I think my friends would enjoy if they tasted them.”
The main course at JAS 2024 will be Sting, who performed at JAS in 2019, in what Horowitz called one of the top five performances in the festival’s history.
“Sting and his band were both on top form,” he said of the night. “Sting himself is a super charismatic artist and the show he put together exceeded everyone’s expectations musically. He’s both an international rock star and a yoga addict, so it really resonated with him. His whole demeanor was perfect for the audience. Sting really resonated here because people appreciated him on so many different levels.”
Once the weekend’s main course was done, Horowitz lined up two other headliners to complement the menu. With a legendary rock and roll artist headlining Saturday night, he thought Friday night would be fitting with a standout headliner: Brandi Carlile.
“Brandy straddles the line between rock and roll and country,” Horowitz says. “She’s never played the festival before, so she’s new to us. We’ve had success with rock-country bands like Chris Stapleton and Eric Church, and those are the two acts that immediately come to mind as artists that straddle that line. We know our audience appreciates these artists, so they’re a perfect fit for the menu.”
Tim McGraw was another artist who had never performed with JAS before, but who brought more of a country flavor to Horowitz’s musical menu. Unfortunately, McGraw was forced to sit out due to injury.
“In the music business and in kitchens, this is what happens,” Horowitz says. “As a chef, your goal is to find dishes that are similar to the dishes you have planned for the menu. In music, you try to find artists in the same genre with a similar profile. Dierks (Bentley, last-minute replacement) fit that bill perfectly. We’re confident it will be a great, high-energy final night performance that the audience will love, and the dishes will be perfect for our menu.”
Rock and roll heavyweight Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes will take to the stage at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Labor Day Experience on Sunday.
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For Sunday’s appetizer, Horowitz signed the band The War and Treaty.
“They’ve never performed on our stage before, so this is something new for us. They play a variety of genres of music, including country, blues and gospel,” he said. “And by pairing them with the Black Crowes, who are a powerful rock band, and then playing a great up-tempo country show, we felt we had a great musical menu for JAS Sunday.”
Horowitz said no matter what genre his band is in, there is one quality that is a staple in all of his performances at all JAS events.
“We book artists who have a reputation for putting on great live shows,” Horowitz says. “We’re looking for artists who really know how to connect with people. Whether it’s a JAS Cafe show for 150 people or a Labor Day show for 10,000 people, we want artists on our stage who know how to connect with people.”
When asked if the menu he created for JAS Labor Day had a name, Horowitz smiled and replied, “I’m calling it Tasty Tasty.”