The weather was finally good last night and it seemed like the whole world was out in the streets downtown. There was music everywhere. A chick singer in the subway, conga players in the park. All were made irrelevent by the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, working 14th St for hours.
Their mix of New Orleans funk, hip-hop attitude and genuine jazz chops stopped me cold in my tracks.
That was the key: a lot of these brass bands seem to be tapping into the “jam band” scene — and that’s fine. But what makes Hypnotic stand out is that they are definitely jazz artists. You can hear the influence of Charlie Parker in the riffs, of Gil Evans in some of the harmonies. One tune I heard was a Middle Eastern thing that sounded out of John Zorn’s Masada.
Hypnotic is from Chicago but they seem to’ve made NYC their new home. A quick look at their website tells me their leader’s old man played with Sun Ra. They’re playing next week at the Schomburg Center uptown — I’m gonna’ try & make it. . .and I’ll be playing the CD I bought off the street until then.
