[Dixielandjazz] Slightly OT - The modern roots of jazz (as recently seen in the UK)

[David Richoux]

I have seen this group, they are taking early jazz & New Orleans Brass  
Band  of the 20th century in to the 21st, and I don't have any problem  
with that at all!

Dave Richoux
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/worldfolkandjazz/8004072/Hypnotic-Brass-Ensemble-Ronnie-Scotts-review.html

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble /Ronnie Scott's, review  - A joyous and often  
moving flavour of something ancient, as if it were being carried back  
to the roots of jazz.


As the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble slouched onto Ronnie Scott’s famous  
stage one’s first response was bound to be puzzlement. What on earth  
would they sound like, these eight brothers from Chicago’s South side?  
They look like any other bunch of street-wise guys in their baggy  
pants and baseball caps and shades. But the line-up is like a  
Salvation Army Band; four trumpeters on one side, trombonists and  
baritone on the other, the great curving bell of the sousaphone in the  
middle. There isn’t a lap-top or synth in sight; the only thing that  
sullies the purity of the all-brass sound is the drum-kit at the back.
First comes some street-wise banter. They have a truculent charm,  
these lads, and they’re soon getting us to shout bits of Chicago  
street argot. They even divide us into two rival gangs to test out our  
shouting skills (the band came out of gang culture, and though they’ve  
left it behind they’ve kept some of its habits).

Then at an invisible signal they’re off. Everyone dances as they play,  
the trombonists sweeping movements left and right, the trumpeters  
moving up and down (playing with one hand, just to show they can). The  
whole octet is in constant seething motion.
As for the sound, it’s a tightly welded knot that seems to dance on  
the spot. The sousaphone keeps up a constant repeating bass with  
unstoppable energy, like a bass guitarist with a particularly fruity  
sound. The trombonists and baritone set up their own hectic patterns,  
while the trumpets blast a narrow melody above.
Underneath the hip-hop ’attitude’, hints of a strange cosmic mysticism  
emerge, which remind us that these musicians are heirs to the mystical  
strain in bands like the Sun Ra Arkestra. But deeper than that is a  
profound sense of communal awareness. The tight mass of sound is  
constantly broken by solo breaks, but they’re quickly over, each  
player retreating to make way for the next. And the solos never have  
that soaring, virtuoso quality you find in jazz; the range is narrow,  
and the tone has a raw, speaking quality. One trumpeter in particular  
had the most extraordinary sound. Despite the jaunty banter and bursts  
of hip-hop, the music itself has a joyous and often moving flavour of  
something ancient, as if it were being carried back to the roots of  
jazz.