SP: I never survived. I lived like a king from day one.
MC: How’d you do that?
SP: That’s classified, but I was lucky. The people that we met early on in the Aspen-Snowmass area were the most gracious, lovely folks. I met some people from Wisconsin. We were housed in quite comfortable quarters but not what I was used to growing up. Some people came in and we entertained them. We wound up living in a $10 million house my first day. We’re all wonderful friends to this day. Music is the bridge to transcend multiple insanity. Pay attention and you’ll be fine.
WOODY CREEK, COLORADO--(Post Time News)--The death of CBS News "60 Minutes" correspondent Ed Bradley, a part-time Woody Creek resident, led to an outpouring of coverage about his life and career.
Aspen is a code word for elitism across the country and around the world, but is the word really justified when it comes to the arts that we get to see and feel? Or has the arts scene in Aspen veered inexplicably and inexorably toward kitsch and popular culture?
The beautiful thing about doing the iPod Shuffle is you never know what’s going to intrude on your subconscious. For me, the musician making the most of this particular moment inside my head is the immortal jazz pianist Art Tatum.
When you “discover” somebody anew, of course, it’s perfectly reasonable to ask the only question that matters: is he really as good as I think he is? But it took a “Name That Tune” session at the Aspen Music Festival and School to bring Art Tatum all the way home for me. Hosting a Critical Conversations Symposium Sunday at Harris Concert Hall, moderator Douglas McLennan of ArtsJournal.com told the story of how the great classical pianist Vladimir Horowitz “became fascinated at one point with Art Tatum.”
At the end of the day, on Sunday, there was no way I was going to make it back into Aspen for the Phishful Trey Anastasio, whom I had always wanted to see, and the former James Brown sideman Maceo Parker, whom I had always wanted to hear. By the end of the Jazz Aspen Snowmass (JAS) June 2006 festival, I was completely out of gas. But what a gas it was.
When the organizers of Jazz Aspen Snowmass (JAS) signed up Isaac Hayes to perform under the tent in June 2005, the soul man—“Shaft” is his biggest hit—wondered whether he should go to work on some jazz tunes. Not to worry, he was told, because it’s not that kind of festival.
JAS has managed to distance itself completely from jazz for the Labor Day 2006 festival September 1-4 in the Town of Snowmass Village. There are rappers and rockers, country music stars and reggae bands—and, yes, a Hasidic reggae rap star. But there is not a jazz musician to be seen among the stars of the festival.
I am ashamed to say I had never heard of the piano player Henry Butler of New Orleans, but I saw him in the best possible way—without knowing who he was.
