8 minute read
Band of Brothers
Yosh (Jafar Baji), one of the seven, sometimes eight members of the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble/HBE of brothers and fifth from the youngest. Our interview hadn’t begun, but the conversation surely had. The uprisings in Paris were a result of a police shooting on June 27th of Nahel Merzouk. The 17-year old of African descent had been shot and killed during a traffic stop in Nanterre, a Parisian suburb. Five of the tribe were able to join the call, as they are spread across Chicago, New York, and Paris. Brothers on the line drew connections between
George Floyd and the teen expressing their positions on the unfortunate events while being empathetic towards the plight of young adults and teens. It wasn’t too long before the conversation shifted towards the Canadian wildfires, the devastating impact of air pollution and the human displacement that comes along with disasters. We dove into discussions about their childhood, born into music royalty, the influence of hip hop and how being from Chicago seasons their sound and allows them to invite others to connect with their higher selves.
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Composed and Conscious
Their conversation is rhythmic like their music and to an outside ear it sounds like everyone is talking over each other but uniquely everyone is being heard. It’s quite fascinating to be an audience to them as they speak. Each is an embodiment of self-awareness inherited no doubt from their famous father Phil Cochran, watered by their mothers and pruned by the creative community that grounded and nourished them.
“The elevation begins. We always seek to bring anybody around us to their highest form of self, our music is designed to help you break through any barriers that stop you and help you to achieve your highest potential in whatever you do, or want to do” - HBE on FB
Paternal adoration is strong. “He was a pioneer in afro awareness, Black music awareness and health here in Chicago. Our father started the Afro Arts Theater on 39th and Drexel where artists like Chaka Khan, George Benson, Curtis Mayfield, members of Earth Wind and Fire and other well- known artists came to focus on Black awareness and the arts,” said Hudahhh (Gabriel Hubert). The 63rd street is called “Bongo Beach’’ because of Cohran’s influence. In the 1960’s he curated an event which celebrated Blackness through music and the arts; and was one of the founding members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians/ AACM. Not to mention that he was a member of Sun Ra’s cutting edge Astral Infinity Arkestra where he played trumpet, zithers, and harp. Even Pulitzer Prize and Illinois Poet Laureate Gwendolyn Brooks memorialized Cohran in her poem “The Wall” If afro awareness were a fabric, Phil Cohran was the needle and thread.
“Women in wool hair chant their poetry. Phil Cohran gives us messages and music made of developed bone and polished and honed cult.
It is the Hour of tribe and of vibration, the day-long Hour. It is the Hour of ringing, rouse, of ferment-festival. “
The Wall By Gwendolyn Brooks
All 21 of Cohran’s children are the next generation and members of the HBE inherited the charge of liberating minds through music. Hudah describes what it was like being raised by the pioneer and spiritual revolutionary. “We grew up vegetarian. Our mothers sewed our clothes and baked our bread. We were eating wheat bread before it was even available in regular stores. Kids at school would make fun of us calling it dookie bread, they had never seen brown bread before,” he shared. Their father was meticulous and curated a disciplined lifestyle. “We were up at 4 in the morning to practice on our instruments at five, we would go to school and come back and practice some more,” Hudah said. Culture came first in their household.
First Generation Dope
Their parents wished for them to be examples to their peers untethered to societal norms of holidays and capitalistic traditions. “We celebrated Kwanzaa in our home and never Christmas and on Halloween instead of asking for candy we were learning the origin. “We were expected to be beacons of light,” said Hudah. “It was also so that people could see that where we come from we aren’t all killers, thieves, and drug addicts. In the 80;s and 90’s kids from Chicago were seen as unteachable. We were the examples to the world,” chimed in Yosh, “that it wasn’t true.”
“Hypnotic started the first day our pops made us create a song,” said Yosh. He remembers being 9 years old having to perform an original piece after the brothers told their father they weren’t feeling his style of music. “We were playing our fathers music. When we became teenagers a lot of us put our instruments down for 3-5 years. We still played music in school, but we stopped playing with our father,” said Baji (Baji Hubert). One by one the brothers returned to their instruments and in the interim even had formed a hip-hop group, ‘The Wolf Pack.’
Some of the brothers began to play on the downtown streets of Chicago and the subway and would cover songs that you would hear high school bands play. Seba shares how it all began.
“ In high school we would create music in the back of the band room. In class we would play the curriculum the band leader had for us but afterwards we would stick around and compose our own works. Our brother Tyco was excited and insisted that we share our music on the street. We didn’t want to play on the street but ultimately he convinced us. We went outside with our horns and buckets, made a little bit of money but what was infectious was the community we formed around our music,” shared Seba (Seba Graves). “We were moving pass communicating with words and touching people on a level that language couldn’t penetrate,” added Hudah.
The brothers acknowledged that HBE is an evolution of their hip hop group ‘The Wolf Pack’ which was grounded in the philosophy and teachings received in the Phil Cohran Youth Ensemble.
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The Rhythm of a Revolution
“Our religion is music. If we aren’t playing music I know that each one of us feels a void in our life,” said Hudah. The generational divide between the brothers and their father is exactly the tensions many families experience. How does one allow themselves to be rooted and grounded in the established teachings while building a relationship with expression that is in alignment with who you are? HBE has mastered balancing finding their own rhythms while led by the legacy of their father. “All of our music we play is from the spirit,” said Baji but their interpretation and translation was indeed different from their dad’s as young Black men in the era of crack and gang culture on Chicago’s Southside.
“Putting it into layman’s terms, pops came up during the time where jazz was more relevant and the music of the streets. But we come from a time where hip-hop was more relevant and that was more influential. You must learn how to evolve and move with the time and as artists. 90’s hip hop music was a pivotal part of our creative expression, we were heavily into NWA,” said Hudah. The brothers laughed when invited to drop a few bars to freestyle, but hip hop is in their heart and is the canvas to their musical art, yet they are rooted in the knowledge bestowed upon them by their father. Their influences from the golden era of hip hop are plenty, and their features and collaborations are even more impressive. They have performed with Phil Cohran, Wu Tang Clan, De La So0ul, Prince, Gorillaz, The B-52’s; and recorded with stars like Erykah Badu, Maxwell, Childish Gambino, and others. Their celebrity is not in question. Covid created a new space for each of them and an evolved vision for the next revolutions around the sun.
Of stardust and southside vibes
“A lot of hip hop fans defer to 90’s hip hop when it wasn’t so commercial and not all about money. There is something missing from the music now. Once money flushed into the industry it feels like the artistry disappeared,” said Seba. The commercialization of rap music has left some feeling hip hop is dead, even though this is the 50th year of Hip Hop. While the brothers’ banded together as a hip-hop group their evolution beyond lyrics gave them access to connect with listeners beyond the lyrics and wrapped in the rhythm of their horns. The brothers’ global reach while a testament to their success may leave many wondering why they are not as well-known at home.
Chicago’s music scene is for sure diverse but there is more to the story at least from Hudah’s’ perspective. “We never really had a U.S. agent. Shows here in Chicago have been mostly one offs and through acquaintances,” said Hudah. Don’t get it twisted when they do pop-ups the fans pull up as noted by their 2021 August show at the Promontory in the Hyde Park that sold out, “We were and are still dead set on not being categorized as a “jazz band,” shared Hudah. They are firm believers that their vibes are all encompassing and cross genres. Yet commercialization of sounds requires categorization as one genre or another. The classification of music creates a hierarchy of preferences and consumers for the most part, are marketed music via genres; “Music appreciation is different here in the United States more than other countries,” Hudah believes. There is only one continent Hypnotic has not performed on and that is Antarctica and while touring the world brings their sound to the masses, Bodi expresses the challenges and realities beyond being known…it’s being away from home. “A frustration with touring and being a band is that we have to move around and be away from our families. Our tours are stretched for months at a time,” - Bodi. T
The band has performances scheduled in the UK, France, and Europe for the rest of 2023. “For our live performances people get the novelty and the special sauce when they see us perform,” says Bodi. Their familial comradery has been their calling card. But they are working on translating the live experience through modern ways like using social media. All the brothers are thrilled at setting up a Chicago base for re-establishing their roots and carrying forth the legacy of the House of Kelan with an exciting new release and collaboration.
A Hypnotic Joint
The first hypnotic installment was released about seven years ago. The concept was simple and designed to create space for others to sing, rap or recite… in essence to catch a vibe…to be hypnotized. Curating a project that invites listeners to add flavor of their own was well received, so much so that they followed it up with a second installment comprising 11 songs. “We already have released a few songs with videos earlier this year and we’ve decided to go a different route since Yasin Bey {also known as Mos Def) has different legs and it is a dope song,” said Hudah. “We want that Grammy reach,” added Yusef. The track is called, “Space,” has been released on streaming platforms along with visuals and is available for downloads for creative jam sessions and fly vibes.True to their intention they wish to reach as many people as possible and are looking to inspire and get as many voices heard as possible. At the moment the band is finishing the final touches working with local Grammy award winning poet J. Ivy and while they are heavily rooted in jazz, hip hop, funk, soul, house, blues, reggae, samba, calypso they are making sure they stay true to their Chicago flavor.
• Members are: Gabriel Hubert (“Hudah”)trumpet
• Saiph Graves (“Cid”) - trombone
• Amal Baji Hubert (“Baji” or “June Body”)trumpet
• Jafar Baji Graves (“Yosh”) - trumpet
• Seba Graves (“Clef”) - trombone
• Tarik Graves (“Smoove”) - trumpet
• Uttama Hubert (“Rocco”) - baritone horn
• Hashim “Hash” Bunch - bass
• Kevin “Vo Era” Hunt - guitar
• Christopher Anderson - drums[3]
Check them out: https://youtu.be/vDU9-m1Epo0 https://youtu.be/MazALw2cC8s https://youtu.be/Sg9shWegoWU
