Hypnotic Brass Ensemble

The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble comprises eight brothers on horns together with one unrelated drummer, pulling from jazz, funk, hip-hop, and multiple strands of world music. They first appeared performing on the streets of Chicago, New York, and additional cities, where they sold their own CDs and steadily assembled both a devoted audience and worldwide visibility. Youngest among 23 siblings born to different mothers yet all sons of jazz trumpeter and composer Kelan Phil Cohran—himself a Sun Ra Arkestra member and co-founder of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians—the lineup of Gabriel Hubert (trumpet), Tycho Cohran (sousaphone), Amal Hubert (trumpet), Uttama Hubert (euphonium), Saiph Graves (trombone), Jafar Graves (trumpet), Seba Graves (trombone), and Tarik Graves (trumpet) shared a Chicago childhood that included watching their father rehearse with Circle of Sound, performing in the Phil Cohran Youth Ensemble, and writing rhymes in the rap group Wolf Pak.

An older brother’s death in 1996 unsettled the family and drew scattered relatives back to their hometown, spurring the mostly teenage brothers to organize into a tighter, more professionally directed unit. They stationed themselves at Chicago streets and El stops to present their collectively written original pieces, which recall traditional New Orleans big-band jazz, echo the avant-garde angularity of their father and his circle, and draw equal inspiration from hip-hop’s rhythmic momentum and direct accessibility. Recording came next, beginning with the self-released 2004 Flipside (aka Orange) and 2005’s Jupiter (Green); because the band’s early discs share the same photograph and title, they are identified by sleeve color and featured tracks, and these editions ultimately moved hundreds of thousands of copies solely through self-promotion.

After moving to New York City, touring internationally, and appearing with Mos Def and Erykah Badu, the group drew the notice of Honest Jon’s Records’ Alan Scholefield during a London street performance, launching a sustained association that produced several singles plus live and studio collaborations, among them a session with Afro-beat legend Tony Allen and support dates for Blur. In 2009 Honest Jon’s issued the ensemble’s first widely distributed full-length, again self-titled and consisting chiefly of re-recordings of earlier material along with versions of Moondog’s “Rabbit Hop” and their father’s “Alyo.” Although several regular drummers have served over the years, among them Christopher Anderson and Gabriel Wallace, the majority of the rhythm parts on this album were supplied by like-minded British players Sola Akingbola (Jamiroquai) and Malcolm Catto (Heliocentrics).