Hypnotic Brass Ensemble

If you’ve never heard of the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, don’t feel badly, I hadn’t either until I stumbled across one of their videos on Youtube one night. After the first couple of bars of the song, I was SOLD. These young brass stallions of jazz playing on a New York City street corner were the real deal. I had to learn more!

I discovered that the eight brothers comprising this group are the youngest sons of trumpeter Kelan Phil Cohran, who once played with the Sun Ra Arkestra in the late fifties. Kelan Cohran fathered a total of 22 children!

If you read my earlier blog about Sun Ra, you will understand Mr. Cohran’s approach to musical education in his own family. From a very early age he had them rise at 5:00 a.m. for practice. After a break in the mid-90’s when they were fed up with playing brass, they began playing on the streets in their hometown of Chicago. Perhaps it was the rebelliousness of their youth; however they eventually returned to their roots in 1999.

Three of the brothers, Tycho, Seba and Tarik were playing downtown and received a better reaction to their music than they had expected. The money was good, so one by one, more brothers joined the band. Thus, the “Hypnotic Brass Ensemble” was born.

There have been overseas tours, three albums, and they have shared a bill with Ghostface, Aquilla Dalla and one of their biggest fans, Mos Def.

In their hiatus from brass, they found hip-hop—perhaps more of a reaction to the oversaturation of their jazz upbringing in their childhood. A good summary of the group is that they are a combination of their musical upbringing and their opposition to the same. Thus, the “Wolf Pak,” a rap project was born.

Whatever you call their style or whatever turns this group may take, the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble is one that commands you to stop, listen and pay attention. Their sound is fresh, inspiring and on the vanguard of jazz today. They have been described as “one of the most exciting in a movement gathering momentum stateside. That is, combining the funk and rhythm of credible hip-hop with the virtuosity and instrumentation of jazz.” They are presently touring mostly in Europe with some limited gigs on the east coast. If you have the opportunity to see this group, you might want to check them out.