The slow tempo makes this blues head a lot easier than it looks! It's a riff head based on two off-beat hits with the rhythm section as a sort of "call" and a descending 16th-note line as a "response." This two-measure figure repeats to fill a chorus, though the line in the last measure is not always played. The out head adds a break on the last two measures, with a different descending line to a final chord. On this recording, there are two choruses of piano solo before the head, but our audio excerpt starts on the melody.
Click on the Solos tab for a description of Gene's solo.
"Boss Tenor" was recorded at the legendary
Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs.
The "
Boss Tenor" album is underrated in favor of its sequel, ""
Boss Tenors," which is among the best-known of the Gene Ammons-
Sonny Stitt quintet albums. Recorded in August 1961, "Boss Tenors" includes a slow blues,
Counter Clockwise, credited to Stitt and very much a response to
Hittin' The Jug. It differs from
Hittin' The Jug in having three hits in the beginning of the riff instead of two, with Ammons and Stitt alternating response lines; Gene's are a variation of the
Hittin' lines but Sonny's are improvised.
Hittin' The Jug has also been recorded by tenormen
Eric Alexander,
Grant Stewart and pianist Peter Zak, among others.
Gene's solo
is five choruses long. This is a more complex solo than some of his medium-tempo blues solos, as he fills the space at certain resolutions with 32nd-note bebop lines. The bluesier lines in this solo are also sometimes more complex, taking advantage of the slower tempo. He starts each chorus simply, and builds more rhythmic activity towards the middle and end of the choruses.
Our transcription has detailed dynamics and articulations for a close-up look at Gene Ammons' unique style. He uses all of his trademark phrasing and tone coloring in this solo, including side D fingering in the first and third choruses and his signature overtones and tongue muting going into the last chorus.
