Jazz Aspen Snowmass & Jim Horowitz

Horowitz took a circuitous route to a career in music.

He originally studied to become a lawyer but ultimately found the study of jurisprudence less interesting than his sideline playing jazz on piano. For ten years or so, he made his living in jazz, either as a player or an agent representing fellow artists.

In the latter role, Horowitz booked pianist Monty Alexander for the 1989 edition of Jazz in Marciac, a festival in a small southwestern France community that had gained a sterling international reputation. Attending with Alexander, he fell in love with the event at first sound and quickly began musing about where he could stage a similar shindig in the United States that would celebrate the excitement of jazz at its best in a surprising yet undeniably beautiful setting.

It didn’t take long for Horowitz to realize that Aspen was the perfect location. He grew up in Miami Beach, Florida, but his family made annual trips to Colorado to beat the summer heat. Two weeks after Jazz in Marciac, his parents just happened to be in Aspen, and during a visit, he made an appointment to see Robert Harth, then the president of the Aspen Music Festival, a long-running celebration of the classical genre. Harth eventually agreed to rent Horowitz the Aspen Music Festival tent for his event and wished him good luck.

The first Jazz Aspen festival took place in 1991,

starring performers such as Nancy Wilson and the Modern Jazz Quartet. But while the inaugural version succeeded artistically, it wasn’t a huge moneymaker, and its 1992 sequel also failed to break the bank. At that point, Horowitz, who was living in Washington, D.C., considered giving up on his dream. But before he could, he received an offer from representatives of the town of Snowmass, Colorado, who offered financial support if Horowitz would move the fest there. It was then that he decided to personally relocate to Colorado.

Progress followed. The first two years in Snowmass, the main JAS shows took place in June under another tent, and the party vibe was infectious. Then, in 1995, Horowitz launched a three-day, open-air festival over Labor Day weekend in breathtaking Town Park, the largest flat space in Snowmass Village. He also broadened the music on offer; headlining were blues giant Buddy Guy, country legend Willie Nelson and New Orleans heroes the Neville Brothers. The combination proved to be a smash.

The Labor Day festival’s popularity fueled the diversification of Jazz Aspen Snowmass. The June production, dubbed the JAS Experience, was supplemented by the JAS Café summer season, featuring multiple presentations at the gorgeous Aspen Art Museum. Meanwhile, the JAS Academy came to fruition in 1996 as an immersive program offering participants full scholarships to learn about the art and business of jazz from true masters such as Grammy-winning bassist Christian McBride and Guggenheim Fellowship recipient Etienne Charles. The alumni of the Academy, affiliated with the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, include famed pianist and composer Jon Batiste and keyboardist and Grammy nominee Gerald Clayton.

Another focus is JAS Local Education Initiatives,

whose offerings either complement existing public-school music programs or replace ones that had to be cut for budgetary reasons. Thanks to over $10 million generated by JAS over a thirty-year period beginning in 1996, the initiatives have provided free instruments, along with many other benefits, to students living in the Roaring Fork Valley and along the Interstate 70 corridor.

The Labor Day concerts are the main funding engine for JAS, and their profitability increased dramatically in the early 2010s, when entertainment giant AEG Presents got involved in the booking and promotions. Horowitz credits AEG’s Chuck Morris, Colorado Music Hall of Fame’s founder and an inductee himself, for helping to facilitate the partnership, which has attracted major acts such as 2025 headliners Imagine Dragons, Lenny Kravitz and Luke Combs.

With the Paul JAS Center, named for generous benefactor Andrew Paul, Jazz Aspen Snowmass has gained a permanent home – another benchmark for one of Colorado’s most fascinating and accomplished music institutions.

By Michael Roberts