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The JAS Academy, the renowned summer jazz program run by the Frost School of Music and music presenter\u00a0<\/span>Jazz Aspen Snowmass<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>(JAS) in Aspen, Colorado, offers fantastic musical enrichment to its elite college-age students: full scholarships, performance opportunities, and the invaluable Frost School practice of teaching career as well as musical skills.<\/p>\n Last summer, the\u00a0<\/span>JAS Academy\u00a0<\/span><\/a>began offering another unique opportunity\u2014the study of Afro-Caribbean jazz. Led by Frost School professor Etienne Charles, a Guggenheim Fellowship-winning Trinidadian native acclaimed for his explorations of Caribbean and African diaspora music and American jazz, the Afro-Caribbean Big Band session immerses young musicians in a rich musical arena largely absent from traditional conservatory settings.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was to create a greater understanding of Afro-Caribbean music and its place in the jazz idiom,\u201d said Charles. \u201cThere is a big void in not just jazz education, but modern music education, that leaves out the Caribbean.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a program that\u2019s not just geared to playing and improvising and composing, but to finding new avenues for your musical exploration so you can deepen the experience for your audience and your bandmates.\u201d<\/p>\n JAS Academy program director\u00a0<\/span>Charles Bergeron<\/a>, a bassist and jazz studies professor at the Frost School, echoes Charles\u2019s assessment.<\/p>\n \u201cThe importance of studying [Afro-Caribbean] styles is equally as important as the study of swing and be-bop,\u201d Bergeron said. \u201cThese styles have had a significant impact on the evolution of jazz music.\u201d<\/p>\n