Eight brothers – and one drummer – whooping up a brassy storm on the streets of downtown Chicago was quite a sight – and sound. No wonder Hypnotic Brass Ensemble caught the eye of a local politician, Barack Obama. But, as Gabriel Hubert tells JIM CARROLL, they weren't so keen to play for him
IT BEGAN on the windy streets of Chicago. Back then, the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble (HBE) were simply blowing their trumpets and saxophones so they could pass the hat and raise some cash to keep them from having to go find straight jobs.
Consisting of a clatter of one-time Sun Ra Arkestra trumpeter Kelan Phil Cohran’s sons, the HBE would play brassy, funky covers of whatever made people reach into their pockets. By 2000, there were eight brothers (plus one non-family member on drums) playing shoulder to shoulder, and it was apparent that there was something happening here beyond a mere street-hustle.
These days, HBE are swinging their way across the globe, playing at festivals (they were one of the hits at both Glastonbury and the Electric Picnic this summer) and filling clubs time and time again. The HBE takeover is in full effect as people catch the bug and enjoy their snappy, joyful, infectious sound.
Oldest brother Gabriel Hubert takes a break from HBE’s current Japanese tour to review the story so far and credits the band’s cosmic sound for their success. “We could be playing on the moon and you’d still feel our cosmic energy,” he says. “It’s not about where you’re playing, but what you’re playing and what you put into it.
“We used the streets as a way to push us and our music. We promoted ourselves on the streets long enough and hard enough until the world came calling. Now, we don’t perform on the street anymore because we don’t have to – we’ve done the groundwork.”
It was their parents who first put instruments in their hands.
“Their plan was for us to play at the World Cup, which was supposed to be coming to Chicago in 1986. That never happened, but they continued to make us rehearse and practise, and we developed as musicians.
“Our father was taught as a jazz musician, but after he played with Sun Ra, he noticed that music was more cosmic than what jazz can bring and has more of a universal appeal. He taught us the cosmic side of music, the style, rhythm and form, and when you get those components going on in your music, it takes you to a much different place than jazz or reggae or rock can take you.”
Inevitably, the brothers struck out on their own. “We wanted to create our own identity. When you come up and play someone else’s music and style, you haven’t really carved out your own thing. We didn’t want to be followers so we broke out on our own and put all these different influences into Hypnotic Brass Ensemble.”
Their apprenticeship on the streets taught them many things. “We found that we were promoting ourselves in a way that no-one else could do for us,” says Hubert. “The clubs? They were just marketing themselves. Every gig we played in a club made money for the club and promoter and not for us.
“We recorded three CDs and sold them on the streets of downtown Chicago or when we toured. If we just sat in a club and played, the only people benefiting would be the club. We started playing all around the United States and found a special place in New York City and we moved there.”
These days, you won’t find HBE playing on street corners that much any more. “It just doesn’t weigh out,” sighs Hubert. “After playing to thousands of people at festivals or clubs worldwide, you go back on the streets in New York and you have to deal with police officers, idiots who think they owe you something, all these people who hamper what we do. But because our profile has grown and strengthened, the need to keep playing on the streets has faded away.”
A hook-up with the London-based Honest Jons label has helped them to spread the word. “It just got too much for us to keep it all together so we licenced our music to Honest Jons. This way, we can still keep control with our music. We turned down a few major labels in the US because they didn’t see things from our point of view.
“Honest Jons had been watching us for two or three years and they knew we had a work ethic and a drive and a determination to make it. When they made the approach, they put it in a way that we couldn’t refuse.”
They’re not the only ones who’ve come up from the streets of Chicago’s South Side over the past decade. There’s also this skinny guy called Barack Obama who, like the band, moved from Chicago.
Hubert chuckles when Obama’s name is mentioned.
“We turned him down, believe it or not. Before he was Senator Barack Obama, we were playing at the corner of Michigan and Van Buren. He was walking past and we caught his attention and he hung out and dropped a few dollars in the bucket.
“A few weeks later, his campaign manager got in touch and wanted us to perform for his campaign because he’s from the south side of Chicago like us. Unfortunately, we turned it down. Before he came along, we did campaign gigs for other politicians, but never got paid so we were fixed on not doing any more shows for politicians because we had been stiffed before.
“Guess we should have taken a chance on him.”
Hypnotic Brass Ensemble play Cork’s Pavilion (Friday, October 23), Dublin’s Button Factory (Saturday 24) and Limerick’s Trinity Rooms (Sunday 23).
