Folk festival keeps music coming

Sisters Folk Festival is following up on the tremendous success of its 21st annual event with two upcoming shows.

On Sunday, November 6, Darlingside with Frances Luke Accord will perform at the Tower Theatre in Bend. Sponsored by Birkenstock of Bend, the band will return Central Oregon after being fan-favorites at the 2014 and 2015 Sisters Folk Festival. The Boston-based band is on a national tour following the release of their album "Birds Say."

Darlingside fuses chamber pop with folk melodies for infectious and gorgeous music that is hard to categorize. Rolling Stone magazine says, "locomotive folk-pop confections so richly executed it's hard to tell if it's one voice or 12."

After performing at the 2014 festival, the band has been back twice, the last being a sold-out show in March 2016.

"The band has a special, inventive and deeply intriguing style of music that separates them from most. We wanted to present the show in downtown Bend to expose them to a larger market. We are continually being asked when they are coming back, and wanted to do something different this time, presenting them at the beautiful Tower Theatre. It will be a show not to be missed," says Brad Tisdel, creative director of Sisters Folk Festival.

Frances Luke Accord, an independent Chicago-based duo hailing originally from South Bend, Indiana, will open the show. Both dedicated multi-instrumentalists and meticulous songwriters, Nicholas Gunty and Brian Powers distinguish their music with genre fluidity, buttery harmonies and acoustic ensembles. Although prevailingly a modern folk band, FLA sips copious inspiration from Americana, jazz, soul, and rock.

Tickets for the November 6 show are available on the Tower Theatre website and are $24 advance, $28 at the door.

On Thursday, November 17, SFF presents the Chicago-based Hypnotic Brass Ensemble at the Sisters High School auditorium. The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble is a family band consisting of seven brothers who began their musical training by their father, jazz-trumpeter/bandleader Kelan Phil Cohran (Earth, Wind & Fire; Chaka Khan; and Sun Ra). The boys went on to form the Phil Cohran Youth Ensemble in 1990.

The family toured the United States performing complex originals written by Cohran and other greats such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and even the music of classical greats Bach & Beethoven.

Although the group's early musical training encompassed primarily elements of instrumental performance, the brothers were personally being exposed to the music of their own generation (hip-hop, rock, reggae to name a few) and absorbed these components into the cosmic jazz style of their father. By 1999, the band of brothers discontinued playing with dad in order to find their own sound, growing into the band now known as Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, or HBE.

The group's sound was best described by Fader Magazine's Edwin Stats, who called the band's music: "a huge brass bridge of hypnotic polyphony connecting the cosmic jazz of Sun Ra's Arkestra with the urgency of hip-hop and the sweeping emotional scale of a Curtis Mayfield blaxploitation opus."

News of the ensemble's sound spread throughout the industry, and after emcee/actor Mos Def caught a live HBE show, the brothers were asked to join him onstage as part of the Mos Def Big Band. The group has graced many stages around the globe including Jazzstage at Lincoln Center and Shepherd's Bush in London.

Together they have toured throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and South America playing with everyone from Prince, Mos Def, Mick Jones (The Clash), and Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz). They've performed at Coachella, WOMAD AU, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Sydney Opera House and Carnegie Hall.

The documentary film Brothers Hypnotic explores their music, work-ethic, life and experience being raised by their jazz-legend father. After screening in major cities and festivals, the film aired on PBS. Their song "War" was featured in the blockbuster hit movie "Hunger Games."

The band will provide a workshop for students at Sisters High School during the day.

Tickets for SFF Presents: Hypnotic Brass Ensemble are $15 adult and $10 for students and can be purchased at www.sistersfolkfestival.org/events, or call the festival office at 541-549-4979.

Shows start at 7 p.m.