WOMAD

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble

From United States

This band was formed on the south side of Chicago in 1986 as a family group known as "the Phil Cohran Youth Ensemble", the group consisted of eight horn-playing blood brothers led by their father and teacher Kelan Phil Cohran( co founder of AACM, Sun Ra's lead trumpeter, mentor to "the Pharoahs" later called Earth Wind and Fire). After years of honing their technique on stage the older brothers undertook music scholarships from universities abroad( Clark Atlanta, Langston Univ.), the younger ones took to the streets of Chicago earning money by playing music of their own.
In 1999 the brothers combined their efforts and began performing a new style of brass music they called "Hypnotic". After recording their first album "the Flipside" they won the 2001 CPS Young Author's Award for the title track on the cd "Satin Sheets". This success propelled them on to perform for "WNUA Jazzin at the Lake", "State street Live", and "Metamorphosis of Jazz" all on behalf of Chicago department of Tourism and Special Events. In 2005 Hypnotic released their sophomore album "Jupiter" reeling off the success of the freshman LP's 325,000 units sold independently (Merc Records). In the past few years, they have traveled all over the world playing for audiences of all genres; opening up for the B52's at Chicago HOB, Talib Kweli at Harold Washington Cultural Center, headlining along with Mos Def at Lincoln center in NY, and backing up Maceo Parker at Apollo Theater in Harlem. This talented family of performers wrote every song on their sophomore release while at the same time recording collaborations with artists such as GhostFace Killah and Tony Allen.
Since then the band of brothers has turned down two major label offers only to release their third LP independently with two 10 inch vinyls being distributed in Europe and Japan. Hypnotic's most recent performances include the Northern Sea Jazz festival 2007(Netherlands); Festival Musicas do Mundo (Portugal); Mouson Arts and Music fest (Germany); Brooklyn Academy of Music ( New York); and "Bread and Butter Barcelona 2007" (spain). Ending the year with a tour of London, Dublin, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam. (Short performance clips are available to view on Youtube) Every step taken by these ambassadors of brass has been to fuse the better parts of jazz, rock, reggae, and hip hop into a legacy that will shape the future of music.
(Biography supplied by artist management-2009)

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