On November 29th the Fort Lewis College Jazz Ensemble, and our newest group, The Pan-American Ensemble will have you wanting to dance. The Jazz Ensemble will perform a varied program, highlighting a number of musical styles. Included on the program is March Majestic, a tribute by Bob Mintzer to the New Orleans jazz tradition, Dan Gailey’s Widow’s Walk, Thad Jones’s Big Dipper, and John LaBarbera’s classic arrangement of Cotton Tail. The Pan-American Ensemble is led by Dr. M. Brent Williams, whom you’ll recognize as concert master of the San Juan Symphony and upper strings professor here at the Fort. Williams had a passion to create this new ensemble, purchased some instruments, and the students flocked to the new group. Their first performance is divided into trhee mini sets, each representing a different genre. They’ll take you to Brazil with three Brazilian choros; Dixieland Jazz, Brazilian style! Staying in Brazil, they’ll perform four tropicalismo numbers; music born during the volatile 1960’s. Williams describes this style as musicians’ attempt at “musical cannibalism”. In other words, they tried to syncretize as many different types of music together during their sets [rock, jazz, classical, samba, choros, etc.]. A trip to the Andes is also on the docket with three pieces representative of the indigenous peoples of the Andes Mountains.