OCTOBER 31, 2025 | ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT | By Polina Panasenko
The Wild Goose Jazz Collective performed at Louie’s Pizza, attracting groups of CC students with their jazz mastery on Oct. 26.
It is late evening on a Sunday, the lights are dim, and the murmur around the tables is lively. Josh Briley ‘28, Wild Goose’s alto saxophone player, opens the first set with “Alto Madness” by Jackie McLean and John Jenkins. The track dates back to 1957 but is given a fresh spin by the collective, a staple of their every performance.
“We really try to build dynamic and versatile sets that include influences from all sides of the music and really feel kind of new and exciting every time,” said Ben Bartlett ‘28, the band’s upright bass player.
Rory Brumback ’28 noted that his position on drums enables him to adjust the tempo or even the genre of the song the band is playing, which impacts their performance.
“We can start a tune in swing and then, cause I’m the drummer, I dictate the feel and, if I want to, I can change the feel from swing to bossa nova, to mambo, to funk if we so choose,” explained Brumback. “With our reputation, I think, the really important thing is that every time we play it, it’s completely different than any other time we’ve ever played it.”
The Wild Goose Jazz Collective formed in the fall of 2024 after Bartlett, Briley and Brumback met at the first rehearsal of the Tiger Jazz ensemble. The three described that night as a turn of fate. Since Brumback was on crutches at the time, they had to take a long walk from Packard to Mathias, and that time allowed them to have a great conversation that bonded them as friends and later band members.
“Josh came up to me and was like ‘hey, that felt really good’ and then on the way back we were talking like ‘hey, we could just keep doing this,’” said Bartlett.
While the band lineup formed promptly, finding a name proved to be a struggle. The options varied from Triple B, as a nod to the members’ last names, to On the Block, as a way to affiliate with CC, but none of them stuck.
The name “Wild Goose” was pitched by Briley, who grew up in Colorado Springs and often listened to various musicians perform at the Wild Goose Meeting House, a coffee shop that locals refer to as their favorite, as evidenced by posts on Reddit and whose Google reviews frequently include clips of musicians performing.
Briley, who shared the sadness from the Wild Goose Meeting House closing in fall of 2024, proposed the name as a way to honor a space full of music and community that inspired him to become a musician on his own.
The journey to their dream gig started at Sacred Grounds, where the band had their first solo performance, with only three people in attendance.
“We were playing for Acoustic Night, and we didn’t have a name. We were like: ‘What are we gonna do? We are just gonna do the Wild Goose Jazz, and we will change it later.’ And we never changed it,” said Briley with a smile on his face.
Sunday, Oct. 26 marks the second time the band has played at Louie’s Pizza—their first off-campus venue. “Ever since we started this group, we have always been like ‘We gotta get gigs. Oh my God, maybe one day, we will get a paid off-campus gig. That would be so, so cool,’” said Brumback.
This year, the band reunited on campus with a distinct goal of reaching beyond their fellow student audience. Without recordings or a website, it was tough to advertise themselves, so Brumback went from door to door in downtown Colorado Springs, asking if anyone would like to host a live student jazz performance.
The Louie’s Pizza store manager, Mike Steckley, was the first one to accept the offer. “He was like, ‘I really respect what you are doing, and I actually used to be a tour manager, so I totally understand young musicians,’” said Brumback.
“The music is great and the guys are really nice, we really like having them here,” Steckley said when asked about his impressions of the band.
The atmosphere of a pizza restaurant full of kids, sports fans and families pairs naturally with a local student jazz band. In between the sets, Bartlett and Briley talk to their friends, while Brumback chats with the customers as other visitors are standing nearby to ask their own questions about the band’s origins and thank them for the performance.
“It was a great set, it was a great night, and I’m looking forward to what the guys got going on next,” said Henry Schmidt ‘27.
The band members reflect on their work. “I think the primary goal amongst all of us is to share the gift of jazz. We are actual musicians, we are playing actual music and we are trying to make people smile and dance and have a good time,” said Briley.