The Brass Machine : Mardi Gras Weekend

Mar 2

The Buffalo born brass band, The Brass Machine, is hitting the slopes of Ellicottville, in a matter of speaking, when they play two upcoming festivals in March.

You’ll find them living it up at Ellicottville’s Mardi Gras Weekend as one of the acts performing at this year’s celebration, Saturday, March 11 at Villaggio. Sticking around for another big celebration the following weekend at the Rail Rider Jamboree at Holiday Valley, The Brass Machine will bring their sound again as part of the festival Saturday, March 18. I recently had a chance to talk with Kyle Yagielski, founding member of the group, about the upcoming Ellicottville shows and the band.

Named “Best Funk Band” in WNY for three years in a row, they started out in 2015 from the University of Buffalo’s Marching Band a group of friends decided to put together a brass band and see where it went. Since then they have played all across the nation, as well as Canada.

“We have so many members now that you will rarely see the same set of players at any show,” said band leader and trumpet player Yagielski. “That’s something that is unique to this band. The crew we have for the Ellicottville weekend is myself, Jon Lehning, Owen Burke, Griffin Kazmierczak, Joe Roscetti, Peter Heuer and Mike Johnston.”

Usually playing around 110 shows a year, mostly every Friday and Saturday nights, keeps them busy. The fact that there are so many festivals and music venues in these areas allows them to share their music and party atmosphere with a growing fan following.

We talked about some of their favorite places to play, where the craziest shows have been and the big name international artists they’ve opened for, which you will read about in the following conversation. These guys love music and are excited to get to Ellicottville and get the party going. “We’re looking forward to celebrating with the people of Ellicottville and everyone else that comes out to see us… so let’s go!”

For more information on Ellicottville’s Mardi Gras weekend, go to ellicottvilleny.com. For Rail Rider Jamboree tickets, head to railriderjamboree.com or holidayvalley.com. For more information on The Brass Machine visit thebrassmachine.com.

A CONVERSATION WITH KYLE YAGIELSKI

HULICK: We’re looking forward to Ellicottville’s Mardi Gras, where you’ll be playing.

YAGIELSKI: Yes, we’re excited to play there!

HULICK: You are also going to be there the following weekend for the Rail Rider Jamboree, right?

YAGIELSKI: Yes! We’ll be there for both weekend celebrations.

HULICK: How did the band come to be?

YAGIELSKI: We originally started back in 2015 with the University of Buffalo Marching Band. Then it just went through iterations… like I moved to Albany for a year, so I started the same group and then I moved back to Buffalo. So I had two groups to pull from… there’s a lot of overlap between them but it really is just a big conglomeration of people now. So every Brass Machine show has different instrumentation and so on.

HULICK: Is this a full time gig for you?

YAGIELSKI: Yes and no. I run a business outside of the band… I have other bands as well.

HULICK: How many members do you have in the band and where do you get the music you play from? Are they original songs, covers…

YAGIELSKI: We do a mix. We have a lot of covers and originals, and a lot of tunes that stream from one to the other. So we are all over the place. Brass band standards, pop covers, jazz tunes, originals… As far as members there's probably 50 people that have played with the Brass Machine. It depends on the show and where it’s at. It’s a rotating cast.

HULICK: You guys go all over the U.S. and Canada.

YAGIELSKI: Yes. We’ve been to Toronto a couple times and Southern Ontario and Welland. We’re in Pennsylvania a lot, Massachusetts and Vermont, as well as all over New York.

HULICK: How did it go for the band during the pandemic?

YAGIELSKI: That was actually during the year I was living in Albany. We got through it because the beautiful thing about being a brass band is you don’t need power, we didn’t need to plug in. A lot of times we would get together at the park in Albany and play little impromptu shows because we didn’t need amps… we could just kind of stand or sit outside - socially distanced - and make music with each other and then people would come and listen to us. So we were able to deal with it better than a lot of other artists or bands.

HULICK: That time made you really realize how important music is to your daily life.

YAGIELSKI: Yes, I agree. It put things in perspective for sure.

HULICK: What were you studying at U.B.?

YAGIELSKI: I was doing musical studies and digital media production, but the rest of the original members were studying engineering, occupational therapy… we were all over the place as to what we were studying.

HULICK: Have you played at Mardi Gras before?

YAGIELSKI: Oh yeah! We play there every couple years and we also do Jazz Fest there as well. We do mini tours around the area.

HULICK: (laughs) It’s funny… there was a news clip I saw of Mardi Gras the morning after and the streets were covered in confetti and stuff. Then all of a sudden you see the head of one guy walking by the camera really slow and looking around with a look on his face wondering where he was and what just happened.

YAGIELSKI: (laughs) Oh yes… I’ve been in that situation many times.

HULICK: I’ve never been to Mardi Gras.

YAGIELSKI: It’s a must see of how unique it is. You just have to go.

HULICK: Do you have a favorite place to play? A city, state or venue?

YAGIELSKI: We love playing Buffalo to be honest. That’s the place we love. Jack Rabbit in Elmwood Village is kinda like our home base of operations. We also have a Rochester spot called Abilene Bar & Lounge. There’s a place in Albany that’s called Lost & Found that we play every time we’re there.

HULICK: I would imagine you have quite a following by now.

YAGIELSKI: Yes, we get great turnouts where we play.

HULICK: Do you have any shows that were just over the top crazy?

YAGIELSKI: We’ve opened for Earth, Wind & Fire twice now and opened for Jefferson Starship… that was cool. We’ve also opened for some of the really big bands in New Orleans. If you want me to name a really crazy show we’ve done I’d have to say anytime we play the one place I just mentioned... Abilene Bar & Lounge in Albany after the Jazz Fest there. It’s a tiny bar and we do like an after party… and we absolutely push it full of people, and sometimes the artists that played the Jazz Fest that day will come and sit in with us. One time we were up there playing on the tiny stage - six or seven of us - then the entirety of Panorama, which is a great New Orleans jazz band with three trombones, all walked in the door and walked right up on the stage and started playing with us. There was also a cool experience we had at Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls, Canada where we served as the horn section for BJ Thomas. He packed the place! He’s the guy that did (singing to me over the phone) “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head”. He’s a great songwriter and he has all these amazing songs you would know that other artists recorded and made famous. He was a super nice guy.

HULICK: He was a nice guy. I had the pleasure of interviewing him and meeting him years ago and he was super interesting to talk to because of all the music history he’d been a part of.

YAGIELSKI: Oh for sure!

HULICK: This has been fun talking with you Kyle, and I wish you the best on your upcoming performances in Ellicottville. They always draw a lot of people when they have their festivals.

YAGIELSKI: Thanks Melanie. We’re going to have a lot of fun and we’re excited to be a part of it.

Melanie Hulick