https://youtu.be/cdmbGxSQdko
Leon Breeden and The One O’Clock Lab Band presented a jazz clinic at TMEA in 1975. They made it into a record and I only heard of this album about a year ago. My friend, Roger Dismore, who was playing lead alto, remembers it well. This was the band with Lyle Mays on piano, and this band was the first college band in history to be nominated for a Grammy.
I heard a rough, unedited tape of Lab ’75 at Roger’s house in May of 1975, and that album (which was still months away from coming out) convinced me to go to North Texas and try out for the One O’Clock. There were going to be four out of five trumpet openings the next year, so I thought it was now or never for me to try it. I made second chair, 40 years ago this month, and was very glad I went. We went on to play the music from Lab ’75 most of the next year when I was there. The music on Lab ’75 was written entirely by one student, Lyle Mays. The band would get to vote on what music to put on their albums and that’s how good everyone thought he was. This is a great, historic college band on this record.