KUVO Studio Club: Franny & the Jets | Aug 16

“Franny & the Jets” will entertain you on Wednesday, August 16 – 6 to 7pm from the Phyllis A. Greer Performance Studio. The band is comprised of young jazz musicians, several of whom have been recognized by KUVO as among the best jazz musicians in Colorado under 30 years of age. The band has performed in a variety of venues, including summer festivals, clubs, retirement facilities, fundraisers and other private events.  Of note is the band’s recording session of four original songs on The Denver Loft Sessions, a City and County of Denver production.  This session was broadcast throughout April 2017 during “Jazz Appreciation Month” on Comcast’s community access channel 8 and several other stations in Colorado.

Studio Club Members: Please contact Arvida arvida@kuvo.org to reserve seats for you and a guest. Not a Studio Club member? Learn more here.

Francesca Rubin – vocals, Francesca “Franny” Rubin has been a performing artist from childhood as a dancer, actor, instrumentalist and vocalist. As a high schooler, she performed in musicals as both an actor and featured dancer, and was a member of two adult Lindy Hop performance teams, 23 Skidoo and Swingin’ Denver.  In 2014, she was a semi-finalist (top 50) out of 10,000 entrants in the Don Was/Guitar Center Singer-Songwriter Competition.  At her high school graduation, she performed a solo song at Coors Event Center for an audience of 5,000. Now entering her junior year at the University of Colorado Boulder, she has served as co-captain of CU-Boulder’s improvisational comedy group The Spaghetti Confessions, and has performed in two CU-Boulder productions of The Vagina Monologues.  Her true love, however, is being the bandleader, vocalist and lyricist of Franny & the Jets.  Franny also performs with local R&B/jazz diva Hazel Miller, whom she credits with greatly helping her hone her craft.

Alex Heffron – guitar, Alex Heffron is a jazz guitarist located in Boulder, CO.  Alex studies at the University of Colorado Boulder and is entering his senior year there. He is a member of multiple bands around the area and has performed with many of the local legends. He has also performed with Corey Christiansen, John Von Ohlen, Marvin Stamm, Cody Moffet, Howard Levy, Donald Harrison, Chuck Lamb, Dave Roitstein, Brad Goode, and many others. He has been playing guitar since he was 9 years old and studied with the best in Denver and around the world. He is now composing his own music and leading his own band which has been gaining momentum around the Denver and Boulder area. Alex was also selected as one of 89.3 KUVO’s 30 musicians under 30 initiative, which highlighted young and upcoming musicians around the Denver area.  Alex continues to learn and study from the incredible tradition of jazz and classical music while refining his own voice in jazz guitar.

Gabe Rupe – bass, Gabe Rupe lives in Lafayette, and found his voice in the Denver Jazz scene. Throughout his time as a musician, Gabe has won multiple awards of excellence for his playing, including a recent award for Outstanding Bass, presented by Wynton Marsalis, at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington Competition. Gabe was selected for the 2016 Vail Jazz All-Stars, the 2016 Telluride Jazz All-Stars, the 2017 Jazz Band of America, the 2017 Monterey Jazz Festival’s Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, and was chosen as the 2017 YoungArts finalist in Jazz-Double Bass.  During the 8 years that Gabe has been playing, he has been fortunate enough to get to perform with and learn from a variety of artists including Eric Gunnison, Brad Goode, Paul Romaine, Shane Endsley, and Greg Gisbert.  This fall, Gabe will enjoy even more touring and learning experiences through a one year fellowship with the acclaimed Brubeck Institute.

B.K. Kahn – drums, Braxton “B.K.” Kahn is a drummer, born and raised in Boulder, CO. He has been playing drums, singing, performing original music and jazz standards since he was in elementary school. B.K. has been fortunate to study with some of the Colorado’s top jazz musicians including Art Lande, Brad Goode, Paul Romaine, Jim White, Jeff Jenkins as well as nationally recognized artists Colin Stranahan and Erik Deutsch. In 2013, B.K. was selected from a large pool of applicants to be part of the Telluride Jazz Festival Student All-Stars, performing on the main stage at the festival. In 2015, B.K. was chosen by Jazz89 KUVO (Denver’s premier jazz radio station) as one of their “30-Under-30,” a list of outstanding young musicians on the Denver scene. At CU-Boulder, he had the opportunity to perform with high profile jazz artists such as Paquito D’Rivera, Dave Douglas, Donald Harrison, and Henry Butler. Since graduating with a BM in 2016, B.K. freelances in the Denver-Metro area & performs in various nationally-touring bands.