Hypnotic Brass Ensemble (USA)
Formed on Chicago’s south side, these eight horn-playing brothers were taught by their father Phil Cohran, Sun Ra’s extraordinary lead trumpeter in the 1950s who later became a vigilant jazz educator for budding Chicago brass musicians. His youngest sons (from among Phil’s 15 sons and seven daughters, born from three mothers) would be woken at 6am for strict instrumental practise before school. At night they would slip on headphones to secretly groove to the explosive hip hop of NWA and Public Enemy. By 1999, after all the brothers had left school, they took to Chicago’s streets and subways to start busking, creating a new brassy style they called ‘hypnotic’, fusing the better parts of jazz, rock, reggae and hip hop in their own arresting compositions.
Website: www.myspace.com/hypnoticbusiness