Why oh why didn’t I attend one of those colleges with a ferociously hip and funky marching band? On the contrary, I went the opposite route; my alma mater (which shall remain nameless) didn’t/doesn’t have a football team, and the whole of the band that we did have was literally able to sit in a seven-by-seven foot area of our gym’s bleachers. If we had commissioned the crowds at basketball games to uniformly beatbox, it probably would’ve been both more enjoyable and more audible.
To be sure, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble isn’t your typical kick-ass college marching band. For one, its members are probably a tad older than the age of your average undergraduate. And second, except for the subtle incorporation of drums, the band is, as you might gather from their name, comprised entirely of brass instrument players — they’re essentially a happening bugle corps, but without the reprehensible style choices. After an appearance on 2008’s Lagos Shake: A Tony Allen Chop Up, and after receiving well-deserved praise for their self-titled album released in 2009, the band has thoroughly cleansed their spit valves in preparation for Kelan Philip Cohran & Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, a collaborative album between the former member of Sun Ra Arkestra and, well, you know. It’s set for release via Honest Jon’s on June 6.
The collaboration itself wasn’t entirely unpredictable. The members of Hypnotic Brass Ensemble are all brothers from Chicago, and Philip Cohran is actually their father, who recently just turned 85. A belated happy birthday to him! Check out a preview of the new album below:
Kelan Philip Cohran & Hypnotic Brass Ensemble tracklisting:
01. Cuernavaca
02. Stateville
03. Frankincense And Myrrh
04. Aspara
05. Ancestral
06. Spin
07. Zincali
• Hypnotic Brass Ensemble: http://www.hypnoticbrassensemble.com
• Honest Jon’s: http://www.honestjons.com
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