The saints will go marching in three days early with the help of some jazz music and Penn State President Graham Spanier.

On-campus jazz group Centre Dimensions will celebrate Fat Tuesday at 8 p.m. this Saturday with a show featuring Spanier and Penn State School of Music faculty in the Bravo! Mardi Gras Concert in Esber Recital Hall. Tickets are $4 for students and $10 for the general public.

Spanier, who regularly plays the washboard with the State College band Deacons of Dixieland, performed with the jazz band a few years ago, said Dan Yoder, director of Centre Dimensions.

"He does a pretty good job of it," Yoder said. "He has a good time with it."

Spanier will perform two songs during the concert with an ensemble of faculty from the School of Music.

Some of the faculty members, including trombone professor Mark Lusk, will also be featured soloists during other pieces performed by Centre Dimensions.

Lusk will perform "Watch What Happens" with the group. He described the song, which was arranged by Yoder, as a standard tune.

The music professor is glad Spanier will support the School of Music by participating in the concert.

"He's got a great sense of style in pretty much everything he does whether as a musician, a speaker or an advocate," Lusk said.

Although one or two faculty members are usually featured in each Centre Dimensions concert, Yoder said the opportunity to feature seven performers -- and both students and teachers -- is unique.

"This is a mix of the students being featured, and the faculty being featured," he said.

Lusk said the ensemble will feature two songs, "Five Foot Two" and "Alabama Jubilee," that cater to Spanier's dixieland style.

"Those are great, classic early jazz tunes," he said.

Lusk also explained that Spanier's instrument of choice, the washboard, comes from a time when technology was not sophisticated enough to record some standard instruments.

"They couldn't quite record things like drums, piano and string bass...and so they would use things like spoons, banjo and tuba because they were able to record those instruments better," he said.

Corey Wallace (senior-music), a trombone player with Centre Dimensions, said the audience should enjoy the array of performers and talent featured at the concert.

"I like the fact that the professors we don't normally have playing jazz are showing off their improvisational skills," he said.

Yoder said the Mardi Gras theme, complete with decorations and a street parade through the aisles of the hall, will encourage a fun evening filled with great music.

"I sort of planned the concert around more upbeat, party-type music," he said. "For example, the band is not doing a ballad, and I almost always have a ballad."

Wallace said the audience can relax and encourages dancing and shouting if the music moves listeners to do so.

"The audience will definitely have a good time," he said.