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It's nearly 9 p.m. on a July night, and Neil Slater is pushing his University of North Texas jazz band to the edge less than 48 hours before they will leave for a major European tour.
A scheduled two-hour rehearsal has stretched into a third hour, and Mr. Slater has called for a demanding piece that alternates between nuanced small-group vignettes and the full ensemble playing complex harmonies at near ear-splitting volume. Not surprisingly, the students are up to the challenge. Mr. Slater relaxes in his chair after the final chord fades and sends the group home until the next evening's rehearsal.
Standards are high at North Texas, which has become a Camelot where aspiring jazz musicians have come to hone their skills since 1947, when it offered one of the nation's first degrees in jazz, which the university originally labeled as "dance band," to minimize controversy. The One O'Clock Lab Band, the best of the college's nine large jazz ensembles, is the figurative Round Table where just 19 elite performers prepare for their future musical quests.
Mr. Slater, 77, is the lanky, understated leader who has ruled the jazz realm here for 27 years. He will retire this month after taking the One O'Clock band on a three-week trip during which it performed at some of the world's most famous jazz venues, including Montreux, Switzerland, and the North Sea Festival, in Rotterdam, Holland. The shows featured such legends as the fusion pioneer Herbie Hancock, the bassist Ron Carter, and the saxophonist Sonny Rollins
The tour was billed as a celebration of Mr. Slater's legacy and was similar to his first trip with the One O'Clock band, in 1982. While the ensemble's success is the most obvious evidence of Mr. Slater's leadership, the entire jazz department has flourished during his tenure. The number of jazz-faculty members has more than tripled, a master's degree is now available in jazz studies, and a lecture series has allowed students to hear and work with jazz luminaries, including the bebop trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, the pianist Billy Taylor and the bass player Buster Williams. The saxophonist Gerry Mulligan, the singer Jon Hendricks, and the trombonist Slide Hampton have been artists in residence.
Willie L. Hill Jr., director of the Fine...