This was at UNT in 1976 at an informal concert in the band hall with the One O’Clock Lab Band. Clay was the jazz trumpet player in the band that semester.
With an into by Dr. Gene Hall (the founder of the North Texas jazz program, and 1st President and co-founder of NAJE), this was the first time jazz had been included as a part of this music education organization (Music Educators National Conference), and the start of NAJE (National Association of Jazz Educators, which became IAJE).
They were the guest band at a jazz festival in Illinois in May of 1970. I transferred this from an open reel tape recording this week. The tape had been stored for 49 years, and I wasn’t sure if it would still be playable. Fortunately it was, and also that my 43 year old TEAC tape deck stills plays!
This was at a jazz festival, and North Texas was the guest band, not a contestant. Leon Breeden was ill, so Ashley Alexander filled in to lead the band that day.