Live & Local: Newman Center

This portion of the interview above has been edited for length and clarity:

Steve: What's fun about talking to Aisha Ahmad-Post at the Newman Center is the prospect that such a beautiful and refined listening environment is also a place where people can just get down and have fun. What have you done to the culture over there?

Aisha: I'm turning it up. We are bringing the masses.

Steve: You are, and you're bringing in great music with the '25-'26 season, which has just been announced. There are a lot of jazz groups to discuss, but let's hit a couple of the things that are off the beaten path for jazz audiences, like the world music, like the highly technical and 3D stuff that you're doing, hanging from the ceilings and all that.

Aisha: Highly produced.

Steve: You are stretching, I guess, the capabilities of the Newman Center.

Aisha: Yeah, I mean, one of the things I really enjoy is the use of spectacle as a way to bring people into the arts, right? Because there's a lot of flashiness that can happen. Obviously, we're not a Broadway size theater. We're not the Buell. We're not doing large-scale operas at the Ellie, but there's a lot of things that we can do. And so there's two shows that I'm bringing this year. One is Cirque Kalabanté, which I actually saw in Montreal, which is sort of the home of North American Cirque. And they were showcasing, so there wasn't any lighting, it was just sort of basic costumes, and it was just so electric and amazing, and I've wanted to bring them, and I just haven't had the chance. And then on the flip side is MOMIX, who many people might know is created by Moses Pendleton, who is also the artistic director of Pilobolus. And he has this fantastic imaginary Alice in Wonderland portrayal for his dance company. That just involves all sorts of props and rigging and all these things. So, there for the visuals, you can't get that just watching television or film. You have to see it live because it's just a completely different experience.

Abi: Wow, amazing. As the Executive Director, you get to take some of these experiences that you know will inspire the community and bring them back, and does these experiences inspire the community. I went to two performances last year at the Newman Center. My very first ones were more jazz leaning, but that gathering space right outside of the theater was popping after. People were having conversations, some of them were more community-oriented, like Dianne Reeves, and people were sharing stories. It really is an amazing way to experience the arts here in Denver.

Aisha: One of the reasons that I got into this side of the business is that I found that my favorite parts of the show were the ten minutes before and then the fifteen, twenty minutes after where people are talking and they're excited and they're sharing ideas and you can see their brains sort of making all these different connections. That's my favorite part. I mean, obviously, I love the art too, but that connection, that's why we do what we do. And the Joy Burns Plaza is that beautiful, large open space, and I just love that people have found a community by going to the Newman Center over and over, and they're getting to know each other, and now they're starting to build this network of folks who want to go see live music and shows.

Steve: We're talking about the Newman Center with its Executive Director, Aisha Ahmad-Post, who is also excited about new chairs. Some of us have been around for a while, and we remember when it was built. And so this is probably the first remodeling since.

Aisha: The University of Denver has put a lot of effort into making sure that the Newman Center remains a jewel in the city. And so I'm really, really grateful that DU has invested in making sure that we have brand new chairs in there. They're 23 years old, and over time, upholstery falls apart, foam gets compressed, and just logistically, it was easier to replace all of them. So that's going to happen this summer. When you come back in the fall, there will be new assisted listening technology that will work directly with Bluetooth. There will be brand new seats, and some new carpeting. We're going to zhuzh it up a little bit.

Steve: It's a great place already. So, to make it to go from great to OMG, I think is where you're taking us, Aisha.

Aisha: That's the goal.

Abi: OMG. Oh, well, OMG, to this list, because I'm seeing so much diversity in the acts. We talked a little bit about some of these productions, but you're also connecting the dots with different cultural presentations. Can you talk about some of those acts that are going to be on the stage at the Newman Center during the season?

Aisha: Yeah. One of my guiding philosophies is that everybody deserves a seat at the table. And there's a lot of things, amazing, multicultural and diverse and rich work happening in Denver. And there's other things that are happening outside of Denver that help us to infuse what we're doing with a little extra ideas and that collaboration that cross-pollination. So I'm really passionate about the Global Roots series because I think that the use of culture as a means of exchange and dialogue, and diplomacy, even is really important. So I'm really excited this year, we have Fatoumata Diawara, who is a singer from Mali. I'm bringing her because Vieux Farka Touré just popped off, and people were just so excited for that music. We have La Santa Cecilia, who is popular, crowd favorite, Mexican-American band. They're doing a lot of really fun, uplifting dance music in traditional Mexican genres. And then Sunny Jain, who speaks Hindi, he's worked in Pakistan in India and started the band Red Baraat, which is sort of this brass band in Brooklyn that I used to go and see. And so he's doing this fusion, it's called Wild Wild East, where he brings together cowboy music and Punjabi Bhangra and all this other stuff. And it is just such an incredible way of thinking about music.

Steve: I think you've captured our imagination. Wild Wild East. What a great name.

Aisha: Yeah. No, it's going to be such a fun time.

Steve: You have not left the jazz behind as you book the '25-'26 season at the Newman Center. Let's just go down the list one by one. There might be a sentence or a line or word that connects us to artists like Darcy James Argue's Secret Society.

Aisha: For Darcy, I'm going to say complex and experimental, but in the best way, sort of drawing on the styles of Maria Schneider. And that's also going to be a great collaboration with Lamont.

Steve: So you've got room for a few instruments on stage.

Aisha: There's going to be a lot of instruments on stage. A good eighteen. Yeah.

Steve: Oh, okay.

Aisha: Yeah. Full big band.

Steve: At the other end of the spectrum, Branford Marsalis Quartet. Yes. It's been a while since Branford's been in.

Aisha: Yeah, it's been a long time. No disrespect to Branford, there's just so much stuff out there, and it's hard to figure out the line between bringing people back and elevating the new, but an icon and a master. And one of the most gracious people in jazz.

Steve: Your holiday show performance is with Bria Skonberg, a discovery, if you know you know, if you don't, great trumpet, great voice.

Aisha: Yes, she's multitalented for sure. And it's a holiday show. It's a nice way to sort of rethink about the classics. I always think it's important to investigate those songs that are tradition and to think about new ways of interpreting them.

Steve: That's what we like about Bria Skonberg and the way she does her music. Abi, are you a big Grateful Dead fan?

Abi: I do like The Grateful Dead.

Steve: Because this Blues for Allah tribute is going to be special. Don Was, the president of Blue Note, started out as a musician, is still a musician. So what's he planning for us?

Aisha: So he has this amazing ensemble called the Pan-Detroit Ensemble. And of course, Don Was also has a really long relationship with The Grateful Dead. And so this kind of came out, and at first I was sort of like, I don't know if I quite get it. And then I heard some of it, and it is just incredible. And I think it's the perfect Colorado show because obviously we have a huge history of Grateful Dead fans. But then also, I mean, that band is just as good as it gets.

Steve: I just clicked on a couple of Blues for Allah tracks, looked at the cover. Wait, I own that. That's the only Grateful Dead album I own, is Blues for Allah. And there are a couple of jams on there, straight up jams.

Aisha: Absolutely.

Steve: That's right in the, we call it "American improvised music" that inspired The Grateful Dead to do their thing.

Aisha: Yep.

Steve: We've got some new music fans of Meshell Ndegeocello who are just out of their minds that she's going to be at the Newman Center.

Aisha: I love her. I mean, I don't know what else to say. She's been doing a lot of work with James Baldwin's writing, and she had that album, but this is going to be more sort of an overview of some of the music that she's been doing. So there might be some of the James Baldwin tracks in there, but it's wide. It's some of the new music and also her classics.

Abi: She's had such an explorative career, so to be really cool to see that variety on the stage.

Aisha: Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. She really brings it.

Aisha: She does.

Steve: You finish the '25-'26 season with Ranky Tanky and Lisa Fischer, that's another one of those if you know, you know. They bring this Gullah Geechee, South Carolina roots thing to life. I mean absolutely to life. And everybody can get on board.

Aisha: We had their singer, Quiana, come and did our Musical Explorers Program for second graders and taught them about Gullah music, and the way that these students all just connected so immediately to her. And the duality of having her and Lisa on stage is just going to be mind blowing. I mean, I saw Lisa back in January, and she holds a room in her hand, and there's nothing else that exists.

Abi: Man. I'm really excited about this season and just the amount of depth that you have. I love when two art forms come together, and I see you have dance with Latin music. Can you talk about that piece?

Aisha: Oh, I'm so excited about this. So Ephrat Asherie is a B-Girl. She was born in Israel, but she grew up in Brooklyn, and she has all of these friends from all over the place. She's doing a lot to sort of preserve club and break dancing. But then she's also this brilliant, brilliant thinker. And she met Arturo O'Farrill, the Afro-Latin jazz pianist. And they were just, I mean, it's like fireworks, right? Their brains were just working in this incredible way. So I saw a snippet of what they're doing. It's being premiered later this fall, but the combination of her break dancing style and her improvisation with this Afro-jazz quartet is just, I mean, it's unlike anything else. And I'm so excited to bring both of them. I love them both so much.

Abi: It sounds electric.

Aisha: Yes. That's a must see.

Steve: As the Executive Director of a venue in a city like Denver, I think some of these artists that connect and things start to combust, and they say, "What if we... yeah, but where are we going to stage this?" And you and other planners and directors around the country are looking for, I think, artists that stand out, that tell a really interesting story in a really interesting and dynamic way.

Aisha: Well, right now, I think it's really important to think about really listening to the whole of the United States and thinking about all those different voices that are at the table. I think sometimes we think in these sort of large buckets based on race or gender or whatever. But the reality is, is that a lot of people like Ephrat, like Sunny Jain, are working in a lot of different styles and a lot of different disciplines because it's porous and people like to collaborate. And they take influences, and then somebody else is inspired by what they're doing, and then they bring that to the table in another way. And so I love that approach to music making. And I also think, again, it just makes things a little bit more human.

Steve: Humanity on stage at the Newman Center. I like it. When we produce this, we usually end with the words of our guest. And what a great conversation. Thank you.

Abi: Really. Thank you so much.

Aisha: Yeah, thank you so much. And we're so grateful to KUVO for all of your partnership over the years, and we look forward to seeing you in the Joy Burns Plaza.