Brasswind is a great example of how, no matter how funky Gene Ammons got toward the end of his career, he always kept his bebop chops up. This song alternates a funky half-time feel on the A sections with a swinging 4-feel on the bridge. The funky sections alternate C minor and D♭ major chords. The head begins with fanfare-like stop-time figures for eight measures, followed by eight measures of funk with a simple riff. Next is a 16-measure bridge, swinging with a very hard-boppish melody. The changes here have several tritone sub II-V7s, starting on C♯m7-F♯7-Fm7 and ending up in G minor followed by G7 to get back to the tonic. The last eight measures of the melody repeat the stop-time figure from the A section.
Solos are on the same 40-measure form, with the funk groove replacing the stop-time sections. On the recording the out head is taken from the bridge, but you can also take the head out from A.
Our lead sheets show the top line of the piano voicings in the intro, which vamps the same funk groove. The coda also vamps and fades out, but on Cm7 only without the D♭maj7. On the recording, the tenor sax and piano solos use a 4-feel throughout, but the guitar solo chorus which follows has the funky half-time groove on the whole chorus.
This song is the title track of Gene Ammons' second to last album as the sole leader. His last, recorded in March 1974, was titled "Goodbye." (The backing horn section overdubs for "Brasswind" were recorded a month later than the "Goodbye" album, on April 26, 1974.) Between Ammons' two "Brasswind" sessions (the other was on February 13, 1974), he found time to record one last album co-led with
Sonny Stitt, released as "Together Again For The Last Time," in November and December 1973.
The instrumentation of this recording is not completely clear. On this album, Bill Green and Jay Migliori are credited as both playing alto sax, flute, and alto flute, with Jim Horn on baritone sax, flute, and alto flute. However, aural evidence suggests the presence of a tenor sax in the backing horn section on this song, more likely played by Green or Migliori than Ammons. It is not known which of these saxophonists plays the alto flute solo or interlude on the last eight measures of the guitar solo chorus.
