[Dixielandjazz] The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble

[Steve Barbone]

Where there's a will, there's a way. How about this group of buskers, making
a living as street musicians.

Elazar and Tom, take note. :-) VBG

Note that the players rebelled and became vocal Hip Hoppers for a while
before returning to their instruments and brass band music.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone


NY TIMES - September 4, 2006 - By LILY KOPPEL

For These Street Players, Brass Runs in the Family

The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble seems to live up to its name. This eight-piece
band of street performers, seven of whom are the sons of the Sun Ra Arkestra
trumpeter Kelan Phil Cohran, recently relocated from the South Side of
Chicago to Queens. The young players perform daily outdoors and underground,
most often in Union Square, Times Square and Columbus Circle.

Their syncopated, often lyrical tone ‹ incorporating jazz, funk, soul and
hip-hop ‹ is produced by horns that now look like world-worn hand-me-downs.
Still, the instruments do the job, resonating off buildings blocks away.

³Our music has a special gravitational pull,² said Gabriel Hubert, 29, who
plays trumpet, during a recent interview with the brothers in their Ozone
Park bungalow. ³People can¹t walk past it. People always tell us, ŒI just
had to follow that sound.¹ ² Like all the band members, Mr. Hubert has a
nickname or two; his are Archangel or Hudah. ³The oracle² is what the
brothers call their father, Mr. Cohran, still composing at 79, who was a
founder of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, a
collective of musicians and composers dedicated to nurturing, performing and
recording original jazz and contemporary music.

Mr. Cohran has 15 sons and 7 daughters, and Hypnotic is composed of his 7
youngest sons, all very different in height, features and style. (Born from
three mothers, most of the youngest brothers have taken their mother¹s last
name.) The only outsider is the group¹s drummer, 26-year-old Christopher
Anderson, a k a 360, who was hired but is now virtually part of the family.

Starting when the boys were between 3 and 5, Mr. Cohran taught them to play
trumpet, tuba, drums, French horn, cornet and trombone. He would wake them
at 5 a.m. for practice in their room, lined with bunk beds. First the boys
were given just mouthpieces. Only when they could produce a pure sound did
they graduate to the body of the instrument.

³The main thing I tried to teach them was that they have access to the
universe just like everyone else,² Mr. Cohran said in a phone interview from
Chicago, where he still lives.

He often painted ancient signs and symbols on the walls of their childhood
home. The family logo was a double orange X. Saiph Graves, or Cid, 29, who
plays trombone and speaks for the group, said that ³our father is an
astronomer,² and then identified his place in Orion. Some of the children
are named after stars or constellations.

The ensemble is also composed of Tycho Cohran ( L. T., for lieutenant), 27,
who recently traded in his dented white tuba, which he calls his ³fairy tale
talisman² or ³museum piece,² for a new one; Amal Baji Hubert (June Body),
28, who plays trumpet; Seba Graves (Clef), 25, trombone; Dredded Jafar Baji
Graves (Yoshi), 26, trumpet; and Tarik Graves (Smoove), 22, trumpet.

The band, which supports itself with its music, has played on the streets of
numerous American cities, and plans a European tour this fall. It has three
independently produced albums, ³The Flip Side² (2001), ³Hypnotic Brass
Ensemble² (2005) and the recently completed ³Pay Up.²

The creation of Hypnotic in 1999, after a stint as a hip-hop group called
the Wolf Pack, represented the sons¹ return to their instruments and one
another after teenage rebellions, including quitting music for a period of
time, against their father¹s stern principles.

³As the sons, as the legitimate heirs, we¹re coming out here to reclaim the
sound,² Saiph said.