This latest archival release is a unique one. For one thing these tracks have never been heard by anyone outside the members of Glass. And I mean NO-ONE. They were recorded in a one-off session that was actually a test reboot of the 2nd iteration of Glass, with Paul Black on drums. A few years had passed since our unofficial “retirement” in 1976(¹). Jerry had left, and Greg and I returned from our experience in New York(²) just wanting to “make some money playing music for a change.” So we swallowed our pride, took a huge step backward musically and started playing cover tunes in bars. Songs drunk people could sing and dance and drink to. Nothing cerebral, nothing too clever, just making money playing music that we didn't write. Now on the surface, one might ask “what's wrong with that?” But you must remember we had been creating our own original music and laboriously promoting it for over 9 years, barely breaking even in the process. After the New York disaster, we just wanted to be rewarded financially for all of our years of hard work. That basically landed us in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, playing 6 nights a week, 6 hours a night for Canadian fur trappers. Sure, we were “making money,” but at what cost to our souls? One thing we did gain was playing chops that were through the roof (witness our performances on “For Ursula Major”(³) done with only ONE day of rehearsal & recorded in ONE afternoon in Kaye-Smith Recording). How Jerry managed that whole experience is still a mystery to me considering he basically had given up the drums two years earlier.
(¹) therealglass.bandcamp.com/album/peninsula-college-ep
(²) therealglass.bandcamp.com/album/the-arcadia-tapes-remastered
(³) therealglass.bandcamp.com/track/for-ursula-major-and-sirius-the-dog-star

Anyway, fast forward ten years to 1988. I had moved to Southern California in 1983(⁴) and Paul Black had moved down here as well. Somehow－I really can’t remember the specifics now－we decided to give Glass a “test reboot.” We rented some time at the studio where our band The Chimes of Freedom(⁵) had recorded, and we just rolled the tape. Greg and I knew that one of Paul’s fortes was his ability to improvise on the spot, no matter what we threw at him. So these improvised jams and reworkings of some classic Glass melodies were laid down, without any pre-planning, in one long session in one day. On instruments belonging to the studio that we'd never played before. It was an adventure. You can hear Greg calling out the key changes as we improvised "Going Far Away."
(⁴) jeffreysherman.bandcamp.com/album/ulysses-returned-the-complete-works
(⁵) jeffreysherman.bandcamp.com/album/its-never-too-late

Listening to GFA now, I really like it! Why? Because it is SO different from any other Glass collection. It turned out to be a fun break, and kept the Glass pilot light burning.