New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ I AM PR Agency) The urgency of hip-hop. The heritage of jazz. The soul of Chicago.
"...resonating off buildings blocks away." ~ The New York Times
World Famous Music presents
HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE
Bulletproof Brass Canadian Summer Tour 2011
* Thu July 7: Toronto, ON @ The Great Hall * Fri-Sat July 8-9: London, ON @ Sunfest *
* Sun July 10: Ottawa, ON @ Bluesfest * Mon July 11: Quebec City, QC @ Festival d'ete *
* Wed July 13: Montreal, QC @ Cafe Campus * (see below for more info)
Hypnotic Brass Ensemble are a phenomenon, eight brothers from Chicago who comprise one of the most original, relevant and compelling musical groups this generation has yet seen. Bridging seven decades of musical history, style and tradition, HBE have recorded and/or shared the stage worldwide with the likes of hip-hop pioneers such as Gorillaz, Mos Def and De La Soul, Afrobeat co-founder Tony Allen and many more. Their live performances are utterly joyous, cathartic and unforgettable. World Famous Music is honoured to present HBE's most ambitious Canadian tour yet, in support of their upcoming EP Bulletproof Brass (Choice Cuts).
"A nine-piece brass band sounds like a tough sell to an already booze-addled, sun-drenched crowd, but Hypnotic Brass Ensemble aren't your average wind section. Making dancing look positively effortless while playing a sousaphone is no mean feat, neither is imbuing a sense of devilish fun into an audience with just the occasional rap or yell of "boo-ya!". The band's secret weapon, though, is their drummer, proving that this is most definitely a band that does more than it says on the tin." ~ The Guardian (U.K.)
Links:
Live at Glastonbury 2009:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZd3ROxKCpE
New York Times interview:
www.nytimes.com/2006/09/04/arts/music/04hypn.html
Band MySpace:
www.myspace.com/hypnoticbusiness
Band Blog:
www.hypnoticbrass.blogspot.com
Tour Dates & Info:
Thurs July 7: Toronto, ON @ The Great Hall
1087 Queen St. W.
9 pm / $20 advance @ www.worldfamousmusic.net
Presented in association with Fusicology Toronto
Fri-Sat July 8/9: London, ON @ Sunfest
Victoria Park
Set times TBA
Sun July 10: Ottawa, ON @ Ottawa Bluesfest
Stage & set times TBA
Mon July 11: Quebec City, QC @ Festival d'ete de Quebec
9:30 pm
Lotto Quebec Stage (Place Metro, Place d'Youville)
Wed July 13: Montreal, QC @ Cafe Campus
57 rue Prince Arthur Est.
9 pm / $20 advance @ www.worldfamousmusic.net
Presented in association with WeFunk and Music is My Sanctuary
Tour coordinator:
Rob Reid, World Famous Music
613-853-9310 / [email protected]
Tour publicity:
Sebastian Cook, Cadence Music & Marketing
647-764-4418 / [email protected]
About Hypnotic Brass Ensemble
HBE are eight brothers from the south side of Chicago. They come from an extraordinary musical family. Other sisters and brothers are professional musicians, their mothers are singers, and Philip Cohran, their father, has roots running back to Mississippi, his time in the musical hothouse of 1940s St Louis, and his seminal role with Sun Ra in Chicago in the 1950s. When Ra left for the east coast in 1960, Phil stayed in Chicago.
By the time the members of the HBE were growing up, Phil's work as a musical activist and educator had led to the establishment of a space called the Sun Ark in a warehouse behind the family home above a furniture shop. At night when they went to bed the children would hear their father rehearsing with his band the Circle Of Sound. They were wakened at 6 a.m. for several hours' music practice before going to school. From an early age they were a central part of their father's Youth Ensemble.
Coinciding with this involvement in their father's ethos was a parallel passion. "At night we used to sneak under the covers and listen to NWA and Public Enemy. Ice Cube and Eazy-E were our heroes." Very young, they formed their first group, GWC (Gangsters With A Curfew), which morphed into Wolf Pak (Wolves on the Lookout for Pigs And Klansmen). "We used to hum. We used to all hum the same way that we play our horns now, everybody on beat boxes or making harmonies, and we'd pass the mike around and rap."
By the end of the nineties, with everyone out of school, they brought together their musicianship, their jazz roots and their hip hop sensibility, and made a living busking on the streets of Chicago. They came up up with their name after an incident on the El: playing on the platform, a man in a suit watched them for hours, missing train after train, till in the end he walked up to them and said, "You guys just hypnotized me".
Crucial to the mix was their burgeoning skills as composers, which meant the music they played really was their own. (They wrote all of the tracks on this album except Alyo, written by their father, and Rabbit Hop, written by Moondog.) Eventually the group transferred to New York City, and after playing out relentlessly, including gigs with Mos Def and Erykah Badu, and some particularly incendiary shows in Europe, they have come to be known as one of the hottest and most individual bands around.
