In her six-year span as Jazz Band director, Susie Jones has managed to catapult MHCC’s previously thriving band program into another musical stratosphere altogether.

A former student here in the mid-1970s, Jones eventually went on to the University of Portland and earned a bachelor’s degree in musical education and a master’s in musical composition. She brought her skills back to Mt. Hood in the 1980s, teaching part time in the music department, leaving once again to teach full time in the David Douglas and North Clackamas school districts, lending her musical dexterity to both David Douglas and Rex Putnam high schools.

Seven years ago, she was offered the lead band directing position at MHCC, and hasn’t looked back since.

“My role here is to help students chase their dreams and reach their potential,” she said. “You learn how to motivate and help students develop their pride and confidence.”

While at the college, Jones has enhanced the recording of the Jazz Band’s annual CD by linking them with Sea Breeze Jazz, a record label dedicated to distributing “the finest instrumentalists and the freshest vocals in today’s mainstream jazz.” Before Jones arrived, the college mainly put out the CD independently through the school.

Jones has also added the first international band trip to the colleges’ repertoire with a stint overseas last spring in Portland’s sister city, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The Mt. Hood band was invited to go overseas by the City of Portland to help celebrate the Chinese New Year and annual lantern celebration. The city also makes it a point to invite a band from Kaioshung to participate in the Rose Festival each year.

“It was incredible taking them all to Taiwan,” said Jones. “For the students it was a great experience both professionally and educationally because they were taught about another culture and history.”

Jones hopes to travel abroad again this year. She thinks it would be another great event for the jazz band to participate in.

She also believes there is a strong chance that the band may be invited again if solely because of their extensive reputation for excellence across Oregon and the Northwest.

“We have two great jazz bands, a good symphonic band, and we still remain strong every year,” she said.

Jones said the reason the band stays so above par each year is because of the overall character of the school and the number of students that join the program every fall. Although numbers have declined slightly since the 1970s, Jones said the band is in no danger of being cut due to a top-notch recruiting program and a continually sizeable enrollment.

“The music department is more or less the same since the seventies, except for the fact that we used to have a huge program. We don’t have quite the numbers we used to have, but the quality is still above most schools,” she said.

The recruiting program mainly consists of reaching out to the community in various ways, whether playing a concert at a high school, contacting directors and having them speak out to their students about Mt. Hood, or hosting musical festivals that attract sometimes thousands of possible students to the campus at one time.

“We are going to have a good band this year,” said Jones. “We lost at least half of our students from last year, but I know that enough high quality students are coming in (due to recruiting) that we are going to be just fine.”

Jones, a professional saxophone player and mother of a high school senior, said she enjoyed her time playing the sax in the MHCC Jazz Band when she was a student, but isn’t quite sure whether teaching or playing is more rewarding.

“When you’re teaching, there is always that pressure for quality,” she said. “But it really depends on my age. If I was a student again, then great, I’d play again. Those were pretty exciting times for me because the band is always strong no matter what year you are in it. It’s really an honor to be a part of it.”