Overview
Element Brass Band (EBB) is Sacramento's premier New Orleans-style second line brass band, founded in 2011 by trumpet player Ryan Robertson after a trip to New Orleans convinced him the city's parade-music tradition could and should travel west. The ensemble fuses traditional second line and jazz with West Coast hip-hop, soul, funk and R&B, performs as a flexible 6-to-15-piece configuration drawn from a rotating roster of Sacramento's best brass and rhythm players, and has won the Sacramento Music Awards "Best in Jazz" category twice. EBB founded Sacramento's annual Mardi Gras parade, which now ends every Fat Tuesday at The Torch Club. [1][2][3]
Founding and leadership
Ryan Robertson era (2011–2013)
Robertson founded EBB after a personal trip to New Orleans, recruiting classically trained Sacramento musicians and establishing the second-line repertoire and parade-style performance practice that still defines the band. He led the group for its first two years before moving to New Orleans in 2013 to pursue a music career inside the tradition. [1]
Anthony Coleman era (2013–2018)
Robertson handed the band off to Anthony Coleman, who led EBB for several years before he too relocated to New Orleans, this time for academic work. Both Robertson and Coleman wanted EBB to continue past their personal involvement, which set up the third leadership transition. [1]
Byron Colborn era (2018–present)
Baritone saxophonist Byron Colborn joined the band as a sax-section player and was given the band-leader chair around 2018 when Coleman moved. Colborn has described the role as "one of the biggest tasks I've ever had as a musician" — the work of leading EBB is largely the work of coordinating a 15-to-20-deep roster of in-demand Sacramento musicians around show dates. [1]
Roster
EBB operates as what Colborn calls "a rotating blob" — a core group that performs most weeks, plus a wider pool that fills in based on availability. A standard show is a 6-to-7-piece; major events scale to 15-20 members on stage.
Brass: Byron Colborn (baritone sax, leader), Justin Au (trumpet), Brandon Au (trombone), Nick Niebank and Aaron Smith (trumpet), Gio Antolin, Joby Morrow and Brother Perry (trombone), Reagan Branch and Ryan Coughran (tenor sax).
Rhythm: Benwar Shepard (sousaphone — also founder/executive director of Bigger Than Us Arts, described publicly as Colborn's "right-hand man"), Jose Ortiz (sousaphone), and a deep drum bench including Courtney Miller (also drums for The Philharmonik), Devoney Dean, Matt Gentry, Billy Maerdian and Miss Q.
MC / host: Dan Smith. [1]
Style: second line meets the West Coast
The second-line tradition is rooted in West African celebration and New Orleans funeral culture: the brass band marches first, the crowd that follows behind is the "second line," and the audience is treated as collaborators rather than spectators. EBB's distinguishing move is to fold West Coast hip-hop directly into the repertoire — Colborn has noted in interviews that "if you grew up listening to West Coast hip-hop, you can hear a lot of that infused into our music… you wouldn't really know unless you're paying attention, like, 'Did Dr. Dre just come up in that song?'" That blend is the EBB sound. [1]
Discography
- Self-titled debut (circa 2012)
- Cali Got A Brass Band (early 2018) — recorded at Clubhouse Studios (Sacramento). All-original material; cover art by Sacramento muralist Shaun Burner mixing New Orleans iconography with California archetypes. Album release party at Shady Lady on February 13, 2018, paired with the 5th annual EBB-led Sacramento Mardi Gras parade. Released on vinyl and digital. [2][3]
Mardi Gras parade
EBB founded Sacramento's annual Mardi Gras parade, in partnership with The Torch Club and other midtown venues. The route runs every Fat Tuesday at 4:30 PM from Mulvaney's B&L (1215 19th St) to The Torch Club (904 15th St) — free, all-ages, costume-encouraged. The parade has grown year over year since 2014. [1]
Venues and notable performances
EBB performs regularly at The Torch Club, Shady Lady, Ace of Spades, Concerts in the Park at Cesar Chavez Plaza, the Crocker Art Museum, and street parades through midtown Sacramento and Old Sacramento. Outside the region they've played The Fillmore (San Francisco), Fillmore Jazz Festival, The New Parish (Oakland), The Boom Boom Room, Starline Social Club, High Sierra Music Festival and toured to New Orleans, New York, and Atlanta. They've shared bills with GZA (Wu-Tang Clan), Blackalicious, The California Honeydrops, Big Sam's Funky Nation, A Tribe Called Red and Fishbone's Angelo Moore. [1][3]
Awards
- Sacramento Music Awards – Best in Jazz (two-time winner). [3]
Why it matters for Sacramento music
Element Brass Band is the only authentic New Orleans-style second line band of its scale on the West Coast, and one of a small number of Sacramento ensembles that exists because a founder traveled, brought the tradition home, and built infrastructure (a rotating roster, an annual parade, a city-wide partner network) so the form would survive successive leadership changes. The deliberate handoffs — Robertson to Coleman to Colborn — are unusual and tell the same story as Torch Club's Texeira-family handoff: a Sacramento music institution designed to outlive any one person. EBB's overlap with Bigger Than Us Arts (Benwar Shepard) and The Philharmonik (Courtney Miller) makes it a hub in the working-musician network, not just a performing band.
Sources
- The People are the Second Line: Element Brass Band's Sacto Spin on NOLA Tradition, Submerge Magazine, February 12, 2018. https://submergemag.com/the-people-are-the-second-line-element-brass-band/
- Element Brass Band, official website. https://www.elementbrassband.com/
- Element Brass Band artist profile, Davis Music Fest. https://www.davismusicfest.com/
- Element Brass Band channels New Orleans sound, Sacramento News & Review (2015).
- Element Brass Band on HIP Entertainment. https://www.hipentertainment.com/our-talent/element-brass-band