July 1, 1977: A wedding band called Fair Exchange

 

Aside from the cake, the most important part of every wedding reception.

July 1, 1977

Fair Exchange 

          The relatives have pushed their chairs back from the long banquet tables. The waitresses are clearing the last of the roast beef and pork dinners. A big white cake stands at the side, anticipating the newlyweds’ knife, but wait – that comes later.

          Right now it’s time for the mood to change from food for 300 to frolic for 300. That’s the order facing those musicians in front of the patriotic painting on the far wall of West Seneca’s Harvey D. Morin VFW Post hall.

          Moreover, this is not your average, everyday play-for-weddings group. They’re young, their equipment includes a synthesizer and they appear better prepared to play “Shake Your Booty” than “Sentimental Journey.”

          What gives them the edge over most other wedding bands is that they can do both. They can rock. Or they can take it slow. Ask them and they’ll tell you they’re one of the few bands around that can satisfy the older crowd and keep the young folks happy at the same time.

          The object at wedding receptions, of course, is to get people dancing. The jitterbugging bridesmaids need no invitation. The challenge is the aunts and uncles, freshly fed, inert in their chairs.

          To stir them, the band mixes fast and slow numbers for better than half an hour, rousing 30 couples for the last waltz before their break. Then somebody requests a polka. The group grins knowingly. That’s the turning point. They’re home free.

          The group is called Fair Exchange. They know weddings well. They should. They’ve been playing them steadily for more than a year. In fact, they met at a wedding.

          “We were all part of a large group that was put together to play,” says keyboardman Chuck Wysocki. “It was mostly older guys. Somebody asked for a disco song and the bigger band couldn’t do it, so they took a break and we did it.

          “We wound up playing overtime,” he adds, “and we thought to ourselves how good it would be to have a wedding band like this. We thought we could do a better job.”

          They hit all the familiar stops and then some.

          Wysocki, on occasion, will produce a trumpet and give a mournful, one-handed solo like the one which seems to flavor every wedding band under the sun. Likewise with the vocals on some of the standards, such as “Stormy,” which sometimes reach a bit beyond range.

          But aside from that, the quartet is tight and aggressive musically. The synthesizer adds some marvelous touches and guitarist Jim Jagodzinski clicks on his talk box to add a Peter Frampton touch to such non-rock items as “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”

          Like other wedding bands, they find work by placing an ad in the personal classifieds. They’ve averaged five receptions a month. June, of course, was hectic. Last weekend they did three in two days.

          It worked out fine for everybody last year. The money was good and nobody had time for anything more.

          Wysocki and Jagodzinski are finishing up at Cheektowaga High School, where both were members of its award-winning jazz ensemble.

          The two older players, bassist Rich Mechlinski and drummer Bob Graczyk, once members of a rock group called Okra, both have jobs. Mechlinski’s a third-shift machine operator and Graczyk’s an English teacher at Buffalo’s Corpus Christi Elementary School.

          But this summer they’ve vowed to end the honeymoon and get down to business. Namely, nightclub work.

          A call to J. R. Productions led them to a singer, Cindyann Marlow, daughter of the music director at St. Mary’s High School in Lancaster and, at 23, a veteran of six years on the road with Ceasar’s Children and other show bands.

          “Weddings give us more money,” Wysocki says, “but for the type of music we like to play most, clubs are the best. We’ve enjoyed playing weddings and they gave us our basic start, but you can’t really step out and perform at a wedding.”

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IN THE PHOTO: No captions in Gusto, so here’s an educated guess. Seated, Chuck Wysocki and Cindyann Marlow; standing, from left, Jim Jagodzinski, Rich Mechlinski and Bob Graczyk, although you'd think he's Chuck Wysocki because he's holding the trumpet.

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FOOTNOTE: Fair Exchange continued playing weddings until 1979. We first met bassist Rich Mechlinski and drummer Bob Graczyk in 1972, when they were in Okra, which was featured with a photo in TV Topics. That's why I'm pretty sure that it's really Bob Graczyk with the trumpet. 

          Rich played for many years with the Boomers and still performs around town. He also reunited with Fred Helbig from his 1960s group, Embassy. They do oldies as the Embassy Duo and profess to sound like the original five-piece band “through talent and technology.” His LinkedIn page notes that he also is a substitute teacher at various schools and a private caregiver.

          No luck at all Googling Bob Graczyk or Jim Jagodzinski. Look up Chuck Wysocki and all you find is the Americana painter. As for Cindyann Marlow, she may or may not be the United Steelworkers union official from Lancaster who shows up on Facebook.