Brass Mania

I've been on a brass craze lately and want to share two great bands I'm particularly grooving on.

The first, The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble is an amazing street band from Chicago & New York with loose, swinging progressions and latin echoes. I really enjoy them. Apparently most of the band are sons of the famous Phil Cochran who played with Sun Ra. A piece in the June New Yorker gives the background and a good description of this crew. Read HERE. Even though a street band they have been recording since 2004. Check out their myspace site HERE



The second video is Dave Douglas and Brass Ecstasy. It is sweet and sometimes sad - a more composed jazz virtuosity full of funkiness and humor and old time New Orleans jazz references. It also includes some interview time. The NPR "Tiny Desk concert" shown in the video (about 17 minutes) was my introduction to Brass Ecstasy - I had to get their new album ( from the library of course) called Spirit Moves. They totally grabbed me, jumping out from a bunch of concert podcasts I was surfing through on a long drive. You can download this Tiny Desk concert and other full length live concerts free in the podcast section of the iTunes store under NPR All Songs Considered.



Hope you like!