Inside the Paul JAS Center, Aspen’s Newest and Hottest Music Venue

Most Coloradans associate Jazz Aspen Snowmass with its Labor Day Experience, where the likes of Stevie Nicks, Weezer, and Kanye West have played to massive crowds in Snowmass Town Park. The music education nonprofit, however, also runs year-round programming that includes the 15-year-old JAS Café concert series. “It’s not 10,000 people in a field—it’s 200 people in a nightclub,” says JAS founder Jim Horowitz. Since the series’ first events, held in an underutilized room in the basement of the Little Nell, JAS has hosted intimate jazz performances in venues across town, including the Aspen Art Museum.

But when the floor above the legendary Red Onion restaurant downtown became available in 2018, JAS took the opportunity to secure its own stage. With funding mostly from private individuals, including local businessman and JAS board chairman Andrew Paul, JAS meticulously turned the second-story space into the Paul JAS Center, a multifaceted, music-centered destination.

Here’s how the organization intends to get 300 days of use per year out of the venue, which publicly debuts on December 20 with a performance by jazz-funk band Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue.

1. Nightclub

Trombone Shorty. Photo courtesy of Jazz Aspen Snowmass

Working with a sound consultant, JAS designed the center’s lounge for acoustic harmony. “You want a certain combination of surfaces that enliven the sound and reflect it, and then other surfaces which absorb it,” Horowitz says. “It’s part art and part science.” The space will seat around 150, with food available from an on-site commercial kitchen run by Aspen’s Epicure Catering and drinks from a full bar. JAS expects 45 nights of shows—mostly on winter and summer weekends—in the first year that feature jazz and related genres (think: blues, soul, funk, world music, and gospel).

2. Recording Studio

At stage left, a glass wall offers a glimpse into the JAS Center’s state-of-the-art studio. During live performances, sound engineers can watch artists play and adjust levels in real time while recording. The rentable tech-filled space, which is adjacent to the green room, also includes mixing and finishing equipment.

3. Classroom

Since its founding in 1991, JAS has generated more than $10 million for Colorado music education programs that reach youth across the Roaring Fork Valley. In addition to using the studio to teach students about the production side of the music industry, “the building will be available for performances,” Horowitz says, “which will be exciting for a kid, to be on the same stage where professionals play.”

4. Event Space

Two people looking at art on a brick wall — Rendering of the gallery at the Paul JAS Center. Photo courtesy of Charles Cunniffe Architects

Horowitz has visions of hosting special events—perhaps a cooking demonstration tied into the Food & Wine Classic or a TED Talk–style salon during the Aspen Ideas Festival—but JAS also plans to rent the center out for birthday parties, wedding rehearsal dinners, and business meetings. With its skylight and 600-square-foot terrace overlooking East Cooper Avenue, “the fact that it’s a single, turnkey venue will make it very unique in Aspen,” Horowitz says. “The word to me that sticks out, especially in our post-COVID world, is ‘gathering’; creating a place people are going to enjoy together.”