Small Jazz Ensembles to Perform at Williams College

Several small jazz ensembles coached by Andy Jaffe will perform on Thursday, Dec. 10, at 7:30 p.m. in Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall on the Williams College campus. This free event is open to the public and no tickets are necessary.Andy Jaffe is the Lyell B.Clay Artist in Residence in Jazz and Director of Jazz Activities at Williams College, as well as having served from 1999-2010 as Artistic Director of the Williamstown Jazz Festival. An active jazz composer, performer, and recording artist, Jaffe has been a leader in jazz pedagogy for over thirty years, having taught at the Berklee College of Music (1977-81); The University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Graduate program in Afro-American Music and Jazz (1994-98); the Institut Musical de formation Professionelle in Nimes, France (1984); Amherst College (1987-99); Tufts University (1992-93); Smith College (1997-99); The Tainan (Taiwan) National University of the Arts (2009), as well as at Williams (since 1988), where he directs the jazz ensembles and teaches courses in jazz ear training, theory/improvisation, arranging/composition, and on the music of Duke Ellington and John Coltrane. He is also on the faculty of the Jazz in July and Litchfield Jazz Camp summer programs.