himself, Brass had been in a City Colleges of Chicago program that funneled music students to University of Illinois in Champaign, but he didn’t look forward to the prospect of living downstate. Carter gave him a viable alternative closer to his South Side home, as well as an accommodating style that made him feel welcome.
“If you wanted to be in the band, you could be in the band and we’ll figure out what you can do. He just made it work, and if we had more than one bassist or drummer, he made sure everyone had a chance to shine.” “There were times for months we didn’t know what we would play that week at rehearsals,” Brass said. “He’d bring tunes and we just played. Same thing at performances. Let’s just play some things.
And even while it was still being sold in the campus bookstore for $6.50, “GSU Jazz Live!” was making waves. In 1976, Joliet native Steve Rodby, a graduate student at Northwestern University in Chicago, made the album a centerpiece of music camps he gave at University of Portland in Washington and University of Saskatchewan in Canada, according to a contemporary edition of GSU’s Faze 1 newsletter.
[Most read] Latest consent-decree report hits Chicago police leadership in key areas: Community policing and building community trustThere’s still jazz performed at Governors State University, but no jazz groups are based at the University Park school these days.