Welcome

Welcome

The Mesilla Valley Jazz & Blues Society is a registered nonprofit organization. It was established in 2006. Listeners as well as musicians are welcome.

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The Society meets the third Sunday of each month. Due to our mission to promote Jazz and Blues, we feature a live music performance at each meeting. There is a fee for the meeting and moneys are paid to the band.

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The Society promotes talented musicians through our scholarship funds which are: the Mesilla Valley Jazz and Blues Society Bob Burns Scholarship and the Mesilla Valley Jazz and Blues Society Helen Sachs Helder Vocal Jazz Scholarship.

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We look forward to seeing you at our next meeting!

Meeting
Sunday, September 19, 2021
7:00 p.m.

The Mesilla Valley Jazz & Blues Society is pleased to announce that our ongoing concert series is resuming. On Sunday, September 19 we have a great group to kick us off, The Soledad Canyon Jazz Ensemble. The group is led by bassist Arnold E Schnitzer. Below is a short bio from each of the group’s members.

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Arnold E Schnitzer was raised in the New York Suburbs. He became involved in music at a young age, beginning on saxophone then switching to bass as a teen. After high school he received a Conservatory degree in music and composition, then had a career in jazz and popular music before shifting into stringed instrument making, for which he is world renowned. Among his teachers were the esteemed bassists Dave Holland and Michael Moore. He has lived in Las Cruces for 4 years, where he continues instrument making and occasionally plays at local jazz venues.

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Las Cruces based Derrick Lee is a professional freelance percussionist, composer/arranger, and music educator active throughout NM, TX, and the Southwest US, with over 20 years’ experience in public schools, live performance, studio/session work, and private instruction in the region. He recently served as nightly jazz radio host and programmer the local NPR station KRWG from 2012-2019. Derrick currently sits on the New Mexico Musicians Relief Fund artist collective, and the New Mexico Music Commission through appointment by Governor Michele Lujan Grisham, He is the founder of New Mexico’s first and only Juneteenth Jazz Festival. 

Dr. Marcos Cavalcante is a Brazilian-American guitarist, composer and arranger. He plays Classical, Brazilian, Jazz and Bass Guitar. Dr. Cavalcante has a Doctoral Degree in Music-Classical Guitar Performance and Literature, a Master's Degree in Music-Jazz Studies from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and a Bachelor's Degree in Music Composition from Universidade Estadual de Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil. Dr. Cavalcante has performed with many excellent and well-known musicians in Brazil, Japan and the USA. Dr. Cavalcante currently serves as a General Music Teacher at MacArthur Elementary School (Las Cruces Public Schools), after serving the Española Public Schools and as a Choir Teacher at El Camino Real Academy in Santa Fe, New Mexico during the Fall of 2018 and the Winter of 2019.

Josh Carter is a tenor saxophonist from Alamogordo NM. He studied music at New Mexico State University and graduated in 2016. He just finished his Master’s degree at SUNY Purchase College in New York where he studied with the great baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan. He is currently playing gigs around the Las Cruces/ El Paso area. 

Please note, that many of our attendees are older so protect them and yourself by being vaccinated and wearing a mask.

When:     September 19, 2019

                    7:00 Meeting

                    6:30 p.m. Dessert Social (Free to all attendees)

                     It will be hosted outside on the patio.

Where:  First Christian Church  

                   1809 El Paseo 

                   Las Cruces, NM

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Cover:  $  5.00 Members

                $ 10.00 Non-Members

                $ 1.00 Students with ID