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Brass Rock, sometimes known as Horn Rock, was a huge phenomenon coming out of the USA in the late 1960s.
Driven by the success of Blood, Sweat and Tears and Chicago Transit Authority, there seemingly were dozens
of similar styled artists showing up everywhere in the US and Europe between 1969 and 1972. Already by 1973,
maintaining large ensembles of 7 or more proved to be too much to survive in a music industry driven by profits.
Brass rock can be a misleading term, as the implication is the lead instruments are strictly from the brass
family (such as trumpet, trombone, etc…) where as the reality is other lead instruments would include saxophone,
bassoon and flute. The use of woodwind instruments therefore leads to the preference of the more generic term of
Horn Rock. Horn Rock can best be described as a combination of straightforward blues rock with jazz components,
primarily in the instrumentation and the complex music charts. The music however rarely uses jazz as a foundation,
but rather the pop rock of the era is utilized. Beyond the groups already mentioned, excellent examples of horn
rock can be found in Brainchild (England), Heaven (England), Nicosia & C. Industria Musicale (Italy),
Officina Meccanica (Italy), The Second Coming (USA), Gas Mask (USA), Coley (England) and many others.
The style is currently seeing a renaissance in the late 2000’s and is fused with other popular movements
such as hard funk (Afroskull) and thrash metal (Little Brian).
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