The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble are a bunch of eight brothers, joined on tour by a drummer, who play – well, hypnotic brass. They are the sons of jazz trumpeter Phil Cohran, who played with the Sun Ra Arkestra, and they grew up under his tutelage in Chicago; theirs, though, is a different approach from that of their dad – more rhythmic, punchier, harder, tougher; it’s like jazz and hip-hop combined, with the various brass instruments – trumpets, trombones, sousaphone, baritone horn – taking it in turn to "rap". It’s a recipe that’s won them friends in high places: last year they supported Blur at their Hyde Park reunion gigs, and they also feature on the new Gorillaz album, Plastic Beach.
I have to say that on disc their music is fun but not exactly the kind of thing to get the floorboards rattling. It’s fine and rich and energetic, but there are times, especially on the slower tunes, when it resembles the music from an American TV cop show from the 1970s. Here, though, in a set that lasted for perhaps an hour, and admittedly with the advantage of playing to a crowd who had been thoroughly warmed up by the Afro-funk of the Soul Jazz Orchestra, they were terrific, bringing an irresistible physicality to their music with their synchronised swinging and their jumping around. There is something deeply attractive about watching brass instruments being played, something to do with both their shape and sheer shininess, but when they are handled with such dexterity as they were here, it’s fabulous to witness.
And there was no piddling about with self-indulgent extended solos: this was tight and focused, a concentrated burst of power, driven by the funk rhythms of drummer Christopher Anderson but also powered by the emphatic sousaphone of Tycho Cohran, whose role was essentially the same as that of a bass guitar in a conventional band – locking into the drummer’s groove, providing a bridge between rhythm and melody. Around this fulcrum, the rest of the players worked their patterns and riffs, displaying a well-honed togetherness that can come only from years of playing together.
Apparently the band got their name when they were busking (which is how they started out) on a train platform in Chicago. A passenger went up to the ensemble and said he’d let several trains go by because they had “hypnotised” him. I can see exactly what he meant: there was something about the circling riffs and repeated refrains that induced an almost trance-like state. The crowd - egged on by snippets of rap and by that old crowd-pleasing chestnut, “Which side of the audience can shout louder?” - lapped it up, and by the end a good proportion (almost all of them female) had ended up on stage with the band, bouncing along. Delirium.
As for those notes: well, “war” and “party” referred to “War” and “Get This Party Started”, two tracks from last year’s album, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. And what was “dum dum da dum dum dum” all about? Frankly, I have no idea.
- Hypnotic Brass Ensemble are on tour until 1 May.
- Find Hypnotic Brass Ensemble on Amazon
- Check out what's on at Scala London
