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Mesilla Valley Jazz and Blues Society will bring Plaza de Las Cruces to life with jazz music in partnership with the New Mexico Juneteenth Jazz Arts Festival at 7 p.m. on Sunday, June 22.
The jazz and blues society is a nonprofit organization in Las Cruces dedicated to promoting jazz and blues music and creating opportunities for musicians in southern New Mexico.
Because of their sponsorship, this year’s New Mexico Juneteenth Jazz Arts Festival, running June 13 – 22, will close out with a performance by local group the Footprints. The night will also feature a special performance by jazz bassist Nat Reeves.
“Between the main event and our group, I think we’re going to have a really good variety of music,” said Pancho Romero, director of MVJBS and Footprints trumpeter. “Including some Latin jazz, some bebop, some straight-ahead jazz … we’re going to have a lot of good music to offer.”
Romero said he enjoys hosting monthly concerts and meeting musicians in the area. His close musical partnership with the Juneteenth Jazz Arts Festival organizer, Derrick Lee, led to MVJBS contributing to this cultural event.
The federal holiday Juneteenth, recognized on June 19, commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. Since 2021, Lee, a musician and educator, has made it his mission to celebrate and raise awareness of this day in Las Cruces with an important musical genre to Black American culture – Jazz.
This free, yearly festival relies on grants, donations and volunteers to continue and annual membership dues. For more information: Visit online at www.mvjazzblues.net or on social media @MVJBS.
