Snapshots

Jazz Aspen Snowmass has announced the schedule of performances in its JAS Academy Summer Sessions. The Summer Sessions program, in its 12th year, brings young jazz artists, all on full scholarships, to the Roaring Fork Valley for master classes and seminars with master musicians, and public concerts. This year’s program, running Sunday, July 15, through July 24, features six bands from around the country.The Summer Sessions concert series opens Thursday, July 19, with Christian McBride, the program’s artistic director, joining with fellow bassist Edgar Meyer for a recital at Harris Hall. The concert is co-presented with the Aspen Music Festival. Also on Thursday, the JAS Academy Band Showcase will feature all six student combos in a free 9 p.m. show at the Cabaret Room of the Silvertree Hotel in Snowmass Village.On Friday, July 20, Argentinean pianist Pablo Ziegler and his Trio for New Tango perform at Harris Hall, in a show co-presented by the Aspen Music Festival. Also that night, at the Cabaret Room, McBride will lead his band in sets of acoustic and electric jazz in a free performance. Jazz Aspen’s annual summer benefit, JASummerNight Mambo, will be held Saturday, July 21, at the Aspen Base Operations building at the Pitkin County Airport. The event features dinner, drinks and music by Latin jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval & His Big Band. Later that night, JAS Satellite Mambo, with champagne, dessert and music by New York-based Pan-Latin band Yerba Buena, will be held at Belly Up.Closing the series July 2, is Ribs & Jazz, showcasing the six student bands. The event, at the Hickory House restaurant, includes dinner, dessert and music.For further information on JAS Academy events, go to http://www.jazzaspen.org, or call 920-4996.

Theatre Aspen’s Sunday Series will present Paige Price’s musical romance “The eX-Files” on two Sundays, July 15 and July 29. The 70-minute show was written by Paige and features a live band.”The eX-Files” weaves songs and stories to tell the tale of Price’s true-life former boyfriends, whom she specifies by name. The play centers around Paige’s career as a stage performer and how the unconventional life of show business and travel has affected her romantic pursuits. The music is a mix of Gershwin, Louis Prima and Bonnie Raitt, blues, folk, country and comedy. Paige has performed “The eX-Files” in New York City, New Jersey and Connecticut, and she has been featured on “The View.”Price, who has appeared in Broadway versions of “Saturday Night Fever,” “Smokey Joe’s Café” and “Beauty & the Beast,” is also featured this summer in Theatre Aspen’s production of “The Last Five Years,” a two-person musical about a failed romance. The show opens Aug. 9 and runs through Sept. 1.Also, Theatre Aspen will present its annual Carnivale on July 28 at the Theatre Aspen tent in Rio Grande Park. The event, a fundraiser for the Theatre Aspen School and its outreach programs, begins with a performance of the family musical “Little Red Riding Hood,” and includes games, food, storytelling, a dunk tank and more.For further information and a full calendar of Theatre Aspen’s summer season, go to wwwtheatreaspen.org.