My old school the University of Central Oklahoma is an amazing school for jazz education. The classical department is good, but not as good as Michigan, MSM, etc. I'm transferring from UCO to Oklahoma City University for my love of classical music, which is much, much better there. UCO, without a doubt has one of the best jazz departments in the nation. I know, I know it's in Oklahoma but let the mp3's of music on the jazz lab's website speak for itself.
There are 3 big bands and a few combos. I finished this year at the school in the first ensemble. We played 8 concerts this spring. Three of those were at the jazz lab. The last five were:
1. featured band at the Friends University (Wichita) Jazz Festival with IAJE vibe player Greg Carroll
2. featured band at the Muskogee Jazz Festival (Oklahoma) with Bill Watrous (it was amazing to play with this world-reknowned heavyweight!)
3. North Texas Jazz Festival (Addison, Texas). We ended up coming in first at this festival and opened later that evening for Roy Hargrove
(check out link: http://www.music.unt.edu/jazz/ntjazzfest/ )
4. Wichita Jazz Festival, closing university big band before headliner
5. Edmond, Oklahoma Music in the Park performance for residents of Edmond and Northern Oklahoma City
This kept me quite busy!
Here's the link for the jazz studies department and the jazz lab mp3's:
( http://www.ucojazzlab.com/recording/mediacenter.html )
The music that is recorded by the big band's are the best examples at the bottom of the page. They come from the 2 cd set that is available from cdbaby.
The mp3's to listen to are shown as: (Make sure to listen to Braggin' In Brass and Caravan)
Several tracks from the UCO Jazz compilation CD entitled "Live Big Band Jazz"
Introduction mp3 (1.7 MB)
Caravan mp3 (4.1 MB)
22 Cent Stomp mp3 (5.8 MB)
Braggin' In Brass mp3 (2.7 MB)
Festival De Ritmo mp3 (4.3 MB)
UCO is a great school to study jazz, just as North Texas and others are. North Texas has the advantage of being a very good jazz and classical school. It's more of a personal choice and money issue. Good Luck with your search and let me know if you have any questions!