Not many people can bounce back the way trumpeter and renowned jazz educator Donald Byrd has. Though he suffered a stroke in the early ’80s, Byrd, 70, rehabilitated himself and went on to record several more albums, adding to his already hefty discography. Last Friday’s performance offered solid evidence of his continuing success as a performer.

Roughly three hundred students, faculty, prospies and other community members gathered in Finney Chapel for the concert celebrating 30 years of African-American studies at Oberlin College. Co-sponsored by the Conservatory of Music and the Department of African American Studies, the performance also featured The Freedom Jazz Sextet, whose members are Conservatory students.

Oberlin has a tradition of consistently high-quality music-making, especially in the jazz and classical realms, and Friday’s performance was no exception.

Each member of the well-rehearsed Sextet was given a chance to display his or her own particular talents. Among the first three numbers (which did not include Byrd), one of the highlights was the pianist junior Courtney Bryan’s own composition, “Freedom,” which came third on the program. Besides displaying her substantial compositional abilities, this tune also showcased her skills at the keyboard.

Martin Hundley’s tenor saxophone, junior Andrae Murchison’s trombone and junior Lech Wierzynski’s trumpet blended particularly well. Bryan delivered creative piano solos with hardly a glance down at her dexterous fingers.

Byrd, as well as junior Josiah Woodson on trumpet, joined the group just prior to the fourth piece, and after Byrd’s brief and amusing vocal performance of Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World,” the group hopped back into action again, performing number of works by Byrd himself, including “Fly Little Bird,” “Fancy Free” and “Bu Ala Haina.” The latter number, beginning with a fast, steroid-infused march laid down by the adroit Kassa Overall on drums, also featured an impressive solo by Woodson.

Byrd’s solos, though not flashy, had the maturity and precision of an experienced master, and Adkins’ responsive and sensitive playing complemented Bryan’s graceful and nuanced keyboard stylings. Another high point was Byrd’s humorously sung twelve-bar blues, which gradually brought in the rest of the band and was an undeniable crowd-pleaser.

Byrd, who served on the Oberlin Jazz Studies faculty in the early 1990s, is widely respected as a fine performer and a pioneer in the field of jazz education. He holds a Ph.D. in Music Education from Columbia University and also pursued composition, completing a course with the renowned teacher and composer Nadia Boulanger in 1963. Byrd has taught at Rutgers, the Hampton Institute, Howard University and North Carolina Central University. Over the years, he has collaborated with such luminaries as Sonny Rollins, Pepper Adams, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Max Roach, and Art Blakey, and has recorded albums for the Blue Note, Capitol, Angel, and Mosaic labels.

Maybe all the opportunities to hear jazz from artists like this did something to convince those prospies in the audience to enroll at Oberlin.