Saturday night, the University of North Texas Coliseum will be packed with some of the university’s jazz stars.

The concert is the College of Music’s tip of the hat to two of the legendary jazz program’s luminaries: Neil Slater, who just laid down his baton as the conductor of the One O’clock Lab Band, and Jim Riggs, who retired from the bandleader’s block for the Two O’clock Lab Band.

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Neil Slater, who retired in August as a professor at the University of North Texas and chairman of the jazz studies division, also directed the program’s famed One O’clock Lab Band.

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“Neil Slater and James Riggs have brought our jazz studies program to a peak of excellence that we will strive to build on for the future,” said John Murphy, interim chairman of the UNT Division of Jazz Studies.

“Their leadership has set a standard of artistry that is a model not only for us but for jazz educators nationally. We invite alumni and friends of UNT jazz to join us to celebrate their achievements and to kick off the jazz leadership fund drive, which will support jazz studies scholarships for many years to come.”

Steve Wiest, who is the interim conductor of the critically acclaimed One O’clock Lab Band, said the jazz faculty got together after Riggs’ and Slater’s retirement and started talking about honoring the two men.

“We talked about what we could do that was fitting for both Jim Riggs and Neil Slater,” said Wiest, who teaches jazz composition, arranging and jazz trombone.

“We decided that the best thing we can do for them is to bring together their students for a concert.”

Wiest said it wasn’t an exercise in cherry-picking the few best players with the UNT College of Music on their transcripts. If anything, he said, there was a roster of famous students too long for an evening concert.

“Well, the fun thing about this is that pretty much anybody from this program is going to be, nowadays, some of the most important players out there,” Wiest said. “If you were here in the 1980s, and you were here in the alumni bands, you’re doing a lot on the music scene.”

UNT’s jazz studies graduates are versatile, too. They record music for films and television and back high-profile musicians who aren’t jazz musicians.

Wiest said the concert stands as an example of Slater’s and Rigg’s teaching talent.

“I think to celebrate what they’ve done actually showcases what they’ve done as teachers, and what their students have gone on to accomplish,” he said. “Students in the jazz program then and now know the standards. They’re really well versed in the music that defines the jazz tradition, but they also learn a lot of cutting-edge things in music.”

Under Slater and Riggs, the university’s top jazz musicians were constantly challenged to compose. Slater is a noted and noteworthy composer, and Wiest pointed out that lab band concerts and recordings almost always spent time on student works. “The student composition of new music is what this program has on just about any other jazz program in the world,” Wiest said.

Saturday’s event begins with a dinner reception leading into a concert that showcases the One and Two O’clock Lab bands. Alumni bands and ensembles will perform, too.

One of the alumni groups will perform a new work by Slater, a hint that retirement is a phase of the retired teacher’s life, rather than an end.

Slater is a Grammy nominee recognized by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) each year since 1987. A pianist and former member of the Stan Kenton Orchestra-In-Residence program, Slater has recorded and performed with such artists as Buddy DeFranco, Dave Weckl, Mel Lewis and Joe Morello. Before joining UNT, Slater founded the jazz studies program and established master’s and bachelor’s degree programs in jazz at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut.

Riggs has performed regularly with the Dallas and Fort Worth symphony orchestras and has appeared as a jazz soloist with the U.S. Navy Commodores in Washington, D.C. Riggs is the leader and founder of the Official Texas Jazz Orchestra. As a freelance artist, he has performed with Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Nancy Wilson, Henry Mancini, Nelson Riddle and others.

What: Concert to celebrate retired UNT jazz faculty Neil Slater and Jim Riggs

Where: UNT Coliseum

When: A reception for Slater and Riggs begins at 6 p.m. Saturday, followed by the concert at 7:30 p.m.

Details: Tickets cost $5 to $60. The $60 tickets include the pre-concert dinner reception. Call 940-565-3805, or 940-565-3743 for $20 and $60 tickets.

THE ROSTER

The concert stage will be full of notable jazzers this weekend, all of whom tended their craft in the halls of the University of North Texas College of Music:

• Trombonist Tom “Bones” Malone, a member of the CBS Orchestra on the Late Show with David Letterman and an original Saturday Night Live band member whose feature-film credits include The Blues Brothers

• Saxophonist Dan Higgins, who has recorded with Phil Collins, Cher and Randy Newman

• Composer/arranger Mark Taylor

• Trombonist Scott Whit­field, who has played with Nat Adderley, the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra and more

• Saxophonist Dave Pietro, who has toured or recorded with the bands of Woody Herman, Maynard Ferguson and more

• Trumpeter Frank Greene, who has played lead trumpet for Ferguson, the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni Orchestra and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, and for Broadway and film

• Composer Alan Baylock, chief arranger for the U.S. Air Force Airmen of Note and leader of his own big band

• Guitarist Kevin Brunk­horst, who teaches in the music department of St.Francis XavierUniversity in Anti­gonish, Nova Scotia

• Bassist Matt Wigton, a recent graduate who is active on the New York jazz scene.