HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE (aka HBE, or Hypnotic, or The Bros) is a 8-piece, Chicago-based brass ensemble consisting of 8 sons of jazz trumpeter Phil Cohran (who is known most for his trumpet contributions in the Sun Ra Arkestra in Chicago during 1959-1961 and for his involvement in the foundation of the AACM). Renowned for their ability to capture an audience with only horns and a drum set, "Hypnotic" has traveled the world doing just that. Their musical style is a combination of all the better parts of many different musical genres, ranging from hip-hop to jazz to funk and rock. You can even find traces of calypso and gypsie music in their eclectic blend of sound they call "now music", or "Hypnotic". Reared in the teachings of music since they were children, some of them as young as 3 years old, they grew up on the stage playing as the "Phil Cohran Youth Ensemble". In many circles, theirs has been labeled the best live show and a definite must see. HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE have performed with Mos Def, Aquilla Sadalla, Phil Cohran, The Recipe, Nomadic Massive, Tony Allen, Wu Tang Clan, De La Soul, Prince, Femi Kuti, Gorillaz, B52's and at the North Sea Jazz Festival.They have recorded with names ranging from Erykah Badu to Ghostface Killah of the Wu Tang Clan to Maxwell and many more. They supported Blur for their Hyde Park reunion concerts on the 2nd and 3rd of July in 2009. They are also collaborators on a number of tracks from the third Gorillaz studio album, Plastic Beach. Their hit song "War" was featured in the box office smash Hunger Games. HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE tours consistently across the globe, performing at festivals and venues of all kinds. From selling out theSydney Opera House to rocking out at the WOMAD festival. Playing venues in New York, Chicago, and all over the USA. Sold out shows at the Blue Note, Joe's Pub, Highline Ballroom, Empty Bottle, Sheperd's Bush in London,, and they were the first brass band to perform on BBC Two's Later with Jools Holland. "The music that Hypnotic plays might best be described as highly composed instrumental hip-hop. If it is jazz, it's closer in spirit to jazz from a hundred years ago: accomplished and energetic music parcelled out in short songs designed for dancing. It stays in key for long stretches, and moves in easy-to-follow periods. In a typical Hypnotic song, the shifts in key and the emergence of themes happen against a sound of massed horn parts that provide a sense of solidity. The music stays rooted to the cycle of the beat and the riff" - www.newyorker.com