Jan 14, 2011 Boston - CD Release: Mr. Ho's Orchestrotica - 23pc Esquivel big band

"4 stars …exquisite attention to details…" - The Sunday Times London (Clive Davis)

Editor's Pick (January 2011) - Downbeat

Top CDs of 2010 & Jazz Favorite for 2010 - All About Jazz

"… something marvelous…The world needs more cool sounds like this…" - Ink19.com

VIP tickets are sold out! General admission seats still available. Get tickets now at http://orchestrotica.com - add a download or CD to your order for just $8 or $10 !

Mr. Ho's Orchestrotica
Third-Stream Exotica Quartet • Esquivel Big Band
http://www.orchestrotica.com
http://facebook.com/orchestrotica
Twitter: @orchestrotica

[ Edited by: Mr. Ho 2010-12-23 09:26 ]

[ Edited by: Mr. Ho 2011-01-10 12:58 ]

Wish I could be there to hear it - see it - "drink it in," so to speak.
Have a blast, Meestah Ho!

Just got a nice DOWNBEAT review for our new CD, which will be performed live by a 23pc big band this week! IF you are in the New England area, don't miss this very rare event. Plus, the exotica quartet will open up with a short "Advertisement" set for our Sunday Jan 30th date at Club Passim (Cambridge, MA). Tickets are going, but are still available ($20 + special package deals available!) - visit http://orchestrotica.com to buy (prices higher at the event).

BY FRANK ALKYER
Mr. Ho’s Orchestrotica Presents …
The Unforgettable Sounds Of Esquivel

For those who have been reading this column for a while, you may have noticed that I have a soft spot in my heart for the high art of musical camp, kitsch and humor. The Unforgettable Sounds Of Esquivel has it all—in spades—wrapped in the tight precision and over-the-top grand scale of Mr. Ho’s Orchestrotica (try saying that three times fast). The Orchestrotica is a 23-piece big band, complete with outrageous horns, cheesy (and I mean that in a good way) backing vocals, multiple wild percussionists, accordion, organ, bass, guitar and even steel guitar. The group bills itself as the world’s only ensemble dedicated to the space-age pop music of Juan Garcia Esquivel, a futuristic arranger in the ’50s and ’60s, whose arrangements had been lost. The Orchestrotica is the lovechild of Brian “Mr. Ho” O’Neill, a multi-percussionist from the Boston area. For the last five years, he has been painstakingly recreating Esquivel’s lost arrangements from recordings. To play them, he pulls in an all-star cast of New England’s best musicians such as Yaure Muniz (from the Afro-Cuban All-Star Big Band), Paul Perfetti and Ken Pope (from the Boston Pops), Chris Beaudry (from the Rhode Island and Rochester Philharmonics) and Russ Gershon (from Either/Orchestra). They launch into Esquivel’s finest work, such as “Andalucia,” “Night And Day,” “Take The ‘A’ Train” and “Sentimental Journey,” done as they had never been done before. The Unforgettable Sounds Of Esquivel makes you smile, laugh and want to do the cha cha—and then you start realize the incredible arrangements, musicianship and artistic direction underlying the set. I’m sure the only thing better than hearing the record would be seeing this group live. I haven’t had the chance, but if you’re in New England on Jan. 14, there will be a CD release party at the YMCA Theater in Cambridge, Mass. The full Orchestrotica will be headlining. And most of us will be stuck somewhere else, jealous.

http://www.downbeat.com/default.asp?sect=editorspicks201101#9

VIDEO: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150127065240752&oid=38362448336&comments - rehearsing for this weekend's big band CD release!

Some photos from the Jan14 Esquivel big band CD release and exotica quartet show!

Press shot: The Esquivel big band

Press shot: the third-stream exotica quartet performing tunes from May's Third River Rangoon album

Mr. Ho leading the band on percussion! Can't have space-age pop without bongos...

Singers! Paul Pampinella (tnr), Leenie Doran (alto), Jennifer O'Neill (sop2), Yolanda Scott (sop). Muchos muchachos! 

Rusty Scott takes a burnin' solo on B3-Hammond Organ -  Yeyo!

Mr. Ho conducts the winds; that's a 5-octave marimba btw, not a xylophone :wink: 

Esquivel probably wrote the first written steel guitar music. Tim Obetz makes it come alive! Tev Stevig covers the rest of the guitar book and is also heard on oud with the exotica quartet. 

Photos from the show by Kelly Davidson! 

Gorgeous photos!!!

I was getting a coffee the other day and heard exotic orchestrated music, andalucia, being played. Mr. Ho's orchestrotica on the video screen at Starbucks!
WOW ,it picked me up more than the coffee did!
Congrats! Tikicoma

Tikicoma,

Congrats, you just won a contest and a new CD or download :wink: Join our mailing list at http://www.orchestrotica.com and then send me an email with your address [email protected] and let me know which format you prefer.

You were first to find us playing in Starbucks!

Mr. Ho

Yea!!! I new it! I new that one day my 40 year addiction to coffee would reward me with more than yellow teeth! :D
Looking forward to hearing more of your wonderful music!
Thanks and aloha, tikicoma