The Cincy Brass

Sometimes, simplicity is complicated. This formula is one of the best I've ever sampled. Ten dudes + ten cohesively-played instruments + Cincy-sass + choice covers + rabid fun = an entire set devoted to getting your dance groove ON. Seriously, people. No one instrument dominates this mainly-brass-and-sax group (grounded drums are present too) and players take turns with great solos and fun lines that wind all over and under the persistent beat, and when they meet back together, these guys run like clockwork again. Efficient and exuberant, I don't foresee a single stationary person during their set. And if I find one, I will just have to dance up on you. Do you really want that? - Midpoint Music Festival

Who's that brass-heavy ensemble on CityBeat's float in today's Opening Day parade? It's none other than The Cincy Brass, relative newcomers who present unique, N'awlins-style parade-band versions of traditional tunes and more modern Pop hits by the likes of Kanye West, Lady Gaga and others. Below you can check out a clip of the crew's arrangement of DJ Kool's 1996 Hip Hop smash "Let Me Clear My Throat"; the video has drawn over 30,000 views on YouTube. - Cincinnati CityBeat

The Cincy Brass
Hometown: Cincinnati

Genre: Soul, Funk

When: Friday,12:15 a.m.

Where: Arnold’s

Why I can’t wait: I have to give some local bands some love. I first saw The Cincy Brass at last year’s Clifton Heights Music Festival (this year’s is Oct. 1-2), and I was literally blown away. This group of talented guys has honed their talent in a fun, upbeat way, and the half hour I witnessed was a pleasure. I was by myself at the time I saw them perform, and I’m excited to get the word out to my friends so they can see what I’m talking about. They do an awesome cover of Deerhoof’s “Believe ESP,” and Montell Jordan’s “This is How We Do It.” Get ready to dance at this one.

– Daniele Pfarr - Metromix Cincinnati

The Cincy Brass
Hometown: Cincinnati

Genre: Soul, Funk

When: Friday,12:15 a.m.

Where: Arnold’s

Why I can’t wait: I have to give some local bands some love. I first saw The Cincy Brass at last year’s Clifton Heights Music Festival (this year’s is Oct. 1-2), and I was literally blown away. This group of talented guys has honed their talent in a fun, upbeat way, and the half hour I witnessed was a pleasure. I was by myself at the time I saw them perform, and I’m excited to get the word out to my friends so they can see what I’m talking about. They do an awesome cover of Deerhoof’s “Believe ESP,” and Montell Jordan’s “This is How We Do It.” Get ready to dance at this one.

– Daniele Pfarr - Metromix Cincinnati

Though I wanted to catch the end of J. Dorsey’s set at Murphy’s, I ended up back at Baba’s to see The Cincy Brass. Â I was skeptical how a 6-piece brass band could hold up in a lineup dominated by rock, indie and hop hop acts, but the band quickly proved me wrong with its New Orleans brass meets hip-hop funk grooves. Â Their cover of DJ Kool’s “Let Me Clear My Throat” was like watching a high school marching band if all the band geeks were replaced by Parliament, but it was their funky cover of Deerhoof’s “Believe ESP” that won me over. - Each Note Secure

Hometown: Cincinnati
Members: Paul Batchelor-Glader, Alto Sax; Jason Swann, Tenor Sax; Phil Hilger, Baritone Sax; Adam Machaskee, Trombone; Moe Tompkins, Trombone; Dominic Marino, Trombone; Eric Siereveld, Trumpet; Matt Anklin, Trumpet; Bob Muyskens, Sousaphone; Tom Buckley, Drums
Latest Project: writing songs for debut album
Sounds like: dance party brass band fusion

Cincy Brass is a collective of former and current CCM musicians. Headed up by Paul Batchelor-Glader – middle school teacher by day, band leader by night (and member of the hip-hop jazz group Eclipse) – the group expands the style of a traditional New Orleans brass band with hip hop and pop songwriting.

After playing a blistering set during the MidPoint Music Festival at Arnold's that got crowd members dancing, we spoke to Batchelor-Glader about the experience, the band's influences and the challenges of arranging songs for a brass ensemble.

What was the inspiration for Cincy Brass?
It was me and a couple other guys, we really enjoyed listening to some of the New Orleans bands, being brass players and sax players. That’s like one of the few (types of) bands that can feature instruments like that without vocals or anything.

What are some of the bands that you like?
Rebirth Brass Band, Young Blood Brass Band, Hypnotic Brass (Ensemble) out of Chicago, those bands were probably the most influential. I think I came across Young Blood Brass Band maybe first. They do a lot of original stuff, kind of like hip-hop brass band stuff. With Rebirth Brass Band, it’s more traditional brass band stuff. Also Dirty Dozen Brass Band out of New Orleans, they’re big too. … So we’re trying to do a big melting pot of all the brass bands that we heard before us.

Tell me about some of the songs that your group has written.
We did five originals in the set. We try to spread it out between ‘do an original, do a cover, do an original, do a cover.’ Towards the end it turned out to be all covers because we ran out of originals. (laughs) Most of the ideas have been mine. I’m trying to get them to do some more too, because I’m all about spreading out the responsibility. I thought the response at MidPoint to some of the originals was great too. People were still dancing and having a good time during those. Queen City Strut, that song is all about being funky and letting everyone see their own version of what they think the Queen City Strut is. That was a lot of fun to see people dance to that. Fresh Out of the Shower, that was another one.

That’s a great song title!
Yeah, I started humming it when I got out of the shower one morning, so I sat down and started writing it out. That’s how that one came about. And that one had like super funky bass line with kind of power horn licks on top, and people were going nuts for that one. And we wrote like song called Ocho Cinco, which is a dedication to Chad Ocho Cinco. I could just picture him dancing to that one.

In addition to playing original songs, you guys do covers. What are some of your favorite covers and are there challenges in translating them into brass band songs?
The Midpoint crowd was really, really great as far as the dancing and everything. It’s pretty funny, I pretty much do all the arranging in the band. Dominic, the trombone player, he wrote the one song that we did, Over the Vine, and a couple of tunes that people have written. But pretty much all the arrangement, as far as the pop tunes, I’ve done. So I guess some that would fun….did you hear our last one, Lady Gaga Bad Romance? That’s the first time we played it live. I had just finished arranging that one. It’s a pretty interesting cover. You wouldn’t think that we’d do that. And even when I took it to the band first, they were like “Oh come on. Give me a break. Are you serious?” (laughs). Lady Gaga isn’t something that you think would translate.

That’s almost the best, when you can do something sort of mind bending.
Oh yeah, you can really surprise people that way, like even the part where we start singing (in the song). Even in rehearsal, nobody wanted to sing out. But I was like “When we get this in front of a crowd, and they’re drunk, they’ll probably go crazy!” (laughs) So Lady Gaga, that’s a good one to do. And Crazy by Gnarls Barkley, that’s one of the first ones we ever did, and that one went over very well. Uh, then we did something like George Michael, his song Faith, which we played second. That one lent itself perfectly to—we completely change style and made it like a New Orleans second line song. So one thing I like to do when I cover stuff is to stay true kind of to the melody and how it sounded, but then I’ll completely change the style or completely go in a different direction with it. With Crazy, we started off with tuba, then we go into big drum solo, then we go off into a completely different section that was all written out by me, then at the very end of the tune, we work our way back into Crazy. I did that with This Is How We Do It as well. I have a lot of fun with these songs and seeing how we can make it our own.

On average, how long does it take you to work on a song before you decide that it captures the sound you want?
It depends, like "This Is How We Do It: is pretty simple. There’s not a whole lot going on in that song in the first place, but something like "Crazy" or "Bad Romance," those took a lot more time, because the songs in general were a lot more complex. I take a lot of time to make sure that I get down every detail that the original song has, and I fit that in there with the brass as well. Like background vocal parts that I hear, I’ll put that in a background horn part—so, it’s not just the melody and the bass line.

What were some of your MidPoint highlights?
I had a great time. Thursday, I actually played with Eclipse over at Mainstay. That crowd was all right—nothing like we had at Arnolds though. I saw Buckra over at Mainstay also. They’re always good. I’ve seen them multiple times. And then for the night at Arnolds, I came out for dinner and caught all the acts before, so I was hanging out. I really thought—Uncle Mountain, the first band that was playing, I really enjoyed them. They sounded great. They unfortunately had the between-dinner-crowd-and-the-midpoint-crowd slot, but I really enjoyed them. They had some great harmonies and clever songs.

I can’t resist asking, do you have any band camp stories from your youth?
Um, I mean I just remember accidents that people would have in marching band. This one time at band camp, I’ll start with that phrase (laughs). This one time at band camp, trombone player, you know, marching on the field and a flag hits the trombone and knock out his two front teeth. Yeah, so he had to put his teeth in a glass of milk and go to the dentist and everything. He couldn’t save his teeth, so he had to get some fake teeth. (laughs) - Metromix Cincinnati

After Frankl Project finished its set, I noticed a bunch of guys walking around the bar with brass instruments and black T-shirts that said, “The Cincy Brass.” Realizing that this was the next band on the lineup, I decided to stick around because I was curious how all these instruments were going to sound in a venue like Baba Budan’s. I am so freakin’ glad I waited. This was, by far, one of the coolest experiences I’ve had in the local music scene. I was standing toward the back when I noticed a bunch of guys gathering behind me with their instruments. They kept looking toward the front as if waiting for a cue to begin, which was precisely what happened after a few minutes. The band entered through the back of the crowd and took the stage, all 10 of them blasting beautiful brass band, New Orleans-style music through their trombones, trumpets, saxophones, sousaphones and drums. It was like a college marching band invaded the bar. When a couple trombones took a breather for the saxophones to play, they were dancing, shouting and smiling, and vice versa when the saxophones weren’t playing. Each member was charismatic and having a blast onstage. At one point, I realized I was standing in the middle of the room with a huge goofy grin on my face. People were screaming (literally) with joy, and dancing maniacs made the party all the more fun and sweaty. Oh, and it wasn’t just big band music they played either. For the hipster music geeks in the crowd, they played Deerhoof’s “Believe E.S.P.” It was so awesome. - Danielle Pfarr - Metromix - Metromix Cincinnati