Live Report: Hypnotic Brass Ensemble.

Even before Stomptown Brass took the stage last night there was a lot of very comfortable bottoms seated in the Sugar Club warmly enjoying the ambiance of the most intimate venue in town. With not a seat to be had, the exiled stood along the flanks with a few shuffling shyly to the front of the stage. By the time Hypnotic arrived on stage the same bottoms were by now sufficiently wiggled by the joie de vivre of Stomptown’s Mardi Gras style extravagance and the flanks were bopping cautiously. You could tell however from the couple of pioneering rockabillys that had by now relaxed at the front of the stage and were now dancing like they were back in their spiritual home of the fifties that this was going to be a special night.

While Stomptown were warming up the crowd indoors, some of the brothers from Hypnotic Brass Ensemble were entertaining the smokers huddled outside in the sodden and cold smoking area with stories of their Chicago hometown and their passionate love for sharing Mary Jane.

“She’s my wife and she your wife too and I know she love you the way she loves me,” said the trumpet player Banji before leaving us that bit warmer than we were before.

By the time we came back to the stage, the few pioneering rockabillys had become stronger in number and with no seats, we went to the front. For a reviewer that so often encounters electronic music on the live circuit that at this stage believes that the sound of bass can only manifest itself through electronic circuits, the energy emitted from musicians actually engaging with instruments was bordering on a culture shock. From the first hit of the cymbal there was a rush to the front of the stage where the free space enjoyed by the pioneers were crushed by the ensuing huddle.

The group have played well over fifty shows by now in Ireland yet every one of the group had the infectious enthusiasm of a band that was on their first world tour. There wasn’t a person at the front of the stage that didn’t get some recognition from the band that being either a clap, a handshake, hug or knuckle touch. It was like one big happy family up the front so much so that at times one or another member of Hypnotic would get lost momentarily into the open arms of their exuberant fans. In fact Hypnotic Brass Ensemble is one big family, eight out of the nine members sons of the legendary trumpeter Phil Cohran once apart of Sun Ra’s legendary Arkestra.

At times the ensemble could sound like it had all the pent up energy of Rage Against The Machine using the combination of baritone, drum and bass to other moments of easy swaying rhythm of R&B to the casual swag of Hip Hop. There was no frontier to the range of sounds that these guys were producing last night.

As the gang got ready to play ‘War’, their hit song and used on the soundtrack to The Hunger Games, the bassist asked the audience to raise their hands, demonstrating the peace sign to any of us needing a reminder of which way to properly direct our fingers. Just over twenty-four hours after war had been declared on Syria, the convivial atmosphere encouraged even those reluctant few who refused to previously participate, to engage their hands happily in the air. Bomb after bomb would be diffused if even for a moment Cameron was placed up the front with the rockabilly couple and made dance the Lindy Hop to Hypnotic’s collated trombones.

For the fervent energy alone that these guys provided last night in exploring the threshold of American sound from jazz to R&B and rap and doing it with panache as well, it’s clear that the lineage to the jazz greats of the fifties and sixties is more than just hereditary.