The Slippery Rock University Jazz Ensemble celebrates a half-century of sound at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 18 in Miller Theater — a show for alumni, students and anyone who loves a good groove.
Slippery Rock University’s Jazz Ensemble is turning 50, and they’re throwing a concert that reads like a musical scrapbook. On Oct. 18 the Miller Theater will host an evening that ties together European tour favorites, longtime standards and newer tracks the band has recorded for digital release — all played by the current crop of students under director Jason Kush.
This isn’t a dusty retrospective. Kush has assembled a setlist meant to reconnect alumni with the songs they learned in band rooms and on buses, while giving current students a chance to own the material and shape it in their own voice.
Over five decades the ensemble’s sound has changed with the students who passed through it, and that changing voice is the real story behind the milestone.
The concert is also a tribute. Founding director Terry Steele started the university’s jazz program in 1975, and Steve Hawk — who led the ensemble beginning in 1998 — helped steer it through later chapters.
Kush, who became director in 2011, will lead the tribute while highlighting the program’s continuity: tours, recordings and a long-running commitment to performance-based learning.
Kush and the music department have partnered with Jared Negley from Bailey Library to create a visual display for the event. Attendees can walk past decades of concert programs, tour posters and photographs — artifacts that tell the story of a program that was built on campus curiosity and community support.
For many alumni, those physical mementos will be as powerful as the music onstage: proof that a college band can become a cultural anchor.
Audio documentation has been a through-line for SRU Jazz. Over the years the group recorded performances — some of which now live on the ensemble’s YouTube channel — giving listeners a way to trace how arrangements and interpretations evolved. It’s a reminder that jazz isn’t a museum piece; it’s a living conversation between players, past and present.
My take? Celebrations like this do more than honor names and dates. They remind us why music programs matter: they build confidence, create lifelong friendships and give students a real-world lab for teamwork and creativity.
A 50th-anniversary concert is as much about future musicians as it is about nostalgia. Seeing a university ensemble invest in both archival displays and fresh recordings says SRU values tradition and reinvention — which is exactly what jazz is about.
Practical details: the concert starts at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 18 in the Performing Arts Center’s Miller Theater. Tickets run $10 for general admission and $5 for students, and can be purchased at sru.edu/tickets.
Whether you’re an alum wanting to relive a setlist, a family member curious about campus life, or someone who simply enjoys upbeat, accessible music — this night promises to be welcoming and celebratory.
If you go, expect smiles, a few familiar melodies reimagined by a new band of players, and that warm community energy that keeps college music programs alive. And if you can’t make it in person, the ensemble’s recordings online provide a nice preview — and a neat way to look (and listen) back at 50 years of SRU Jazz.
