Music REview

Lake Street Dive

With the NEC Trumpet Ensemble, NEC Chamber Singers, NEC Gospel Ensemble, NEC Jazz Orchestra, and NEC Philharmonia Strings

At: Jordan Hall, Thursday

The New England Conservatory kicked off its 150th anniversary celebration Thursday evening with performances by various aggregations of current students joined to the return of four alumni — Rachael Price, Mike Olson, Bridget Kearney, and Mike Calabrese — who, as innovative soul-pop classicists Lake Street Dive, have emerged as one of the current “it bands’’ in popular music.

Their return featured an exhilarating set of their music, drawn primarily from their latest (and strongest) release, “Side Pony,’’ along with stories and collaborations to mark the occasion.

Singer Price confessed at the start that she had always been nervous when she was on the venerable Jordan Hall stage, and that she was nervous still. It did not show. What was evident, instead, was a band full of confidence and in the groove, putting its inventive songwriting, sterling playing, and marvelous singing and harmonizing on display, and clearly thrilled to be able to do so as the centerpiece of the evening’s events.

The band took the stage with the NEC Gospel Ensemble for an emotive rendition of the well-chosen Price composition “What I’m Doing Here,’’ and then reeled off another hour’s worth of music. They started with the soaring northern soul of “Call Off Your Dogs’’ and the power-pop confection “Stop Your Crying,’’ wound their way through another 10 songs, among them the ebullient, tongue-in-cheek “Spectacular Failure,’’ the frenetic start-and-stop of “Seventeen,’’ and a cover of Prince’s “When You Were Mine’’ (with a marvelous, extended bass solo intro from Kearney), and ended in the jumpy, signature LSD sound of “You Go Down Smooth.’’ In between songs, all four told stories, often teasing but genuinely affectionate, about how they met and their time together during their college years.

Then, after an intermission, it was collaboration time. With faculty member and bandleader Ken Schaphorst at the helm, the Jazz Orchestra and Philharmonia Strings combined forces with Lake Street Dive on a couple of standards (“God Bless the Child’’ and “Angel Eyes,’’ the latter a lush, torchy, string-laden tour de force) and three more LSD songs. The Orchestra’s horns served to accentuate the soul on “I Don’t Care About You’’; the Philharmonia’s strings gave new twists to “Godawful Things.’’

The evening came to a close with a genuine encore, when Lake Street Dive re-emerged for a spare, acoustic version of its “Neighbor Song.’’ It was a lovely coda to a set of performances that put on display what the New England Conservatory has been, what it is now, and what can emerge from the training it provides — a perfect way to mark an anniversary.

Lake Street Dive

With the NEC Trumpet Ensemble, NEC Chamber Singers, NEC Gospel Ensemble, NEC Jazz Orchestra, and NEC Philharmonia Strings

At Jordan Hall, Thursday

Stuart Munro can be reached at sj.munro@verizon.net.