The Roswell (New Mexico) Jazz Festival takes place throughout the town mid-October. The beloved festival draws visitors from all over the U.S. and from overseas. Musicians who usually appear on the larger stages in New York City, New Orleans, or Kansas City come to the small town in the middle of the high desert. How is that possible?
It all started in the aftermath of the terrifying days after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005. People were trying to find shelter and leave the drowning city; among them was legendary jazz pianist and two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee Roger Dickerson.
While the art communities of metropolitan cities such as New York and Los Angeles offered safe haven to many of the celebrity performers, Roswell’s own Frank and Carole Schlatter opened up their home to Dickerson. Roger and Frank had became friends while serving in the military overseas.
The first small festival was organized with the help of several Roswell jazz fans in 2006, such as the late Roswell Daily Record publisher Cory Beck, a jazz fan; Michael Francis, musician and editor of the Vision Magazine at the Daily Record at the time and member of the board of directors of the newly formed festival; organizer Paula Grieves; the late Frank Schlatter; the late Hugh Burrows, pastor at the First Presbyterian Church of Roswell; and musician and singer Tom Blake—all were original supporters of
