Anastasio Heats up Aspen Festival

By David Frey, 3-27-06

Things were already looking up for this year’s Jazz Aspen Snowmass June Festival. Then Trey Anastasio, the emperor of the jam band universe, signed on. Phish heads, start swimming upstream.

Anastasio, the former Phish frontman, joins other luminaries. Also in the hopper: Elvis Costello & the Imposters with Allen Toussaint; Costello’s wife, celestial jazz crooner Diana Krall; funk master Maceo Parker and bluesman Delbert McClinton.

So does an Anastasio appearance in Aspen mean a Phish reunion? Not so phast, says JAS executive producer Jim Horowitz. "Not here. It is not a Phish show," Horowitz tells the Aspen Times. "I don't think the venue is so suitable for a Phish show anyway."

Big names (Bob Dylan, Widespread Panic, Neil Young) aren’t unusual for JAS, but the big-ticket venue is usually its end-of-summer blowout Labor Day Festival. The June festival is usually a little more low-key, a little more old-school. But the festival has been trying to pull in younger (bigger) crowds.

"It's definitely a different show for the June lineup," Horowitz told the Times. "We're in a place now where we've really broadened our programming enough to where it was possible to take a shot at (Anastasio). We want the June Festival to be relevant for a young audience also."

The festival is June 22-25 in Aspen’s Rio Grande Park.
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