Mr. Ho's Orchestrotica

ABOUT THE QUINTET
In the same way a chef de cuisine runs a kitchen, percussionist Brian O’Neill leads a team of five musical creators who deftly collaborate on instruments foreign and domestic to form modernist delicacies for hungry, curious listeners. From the high arts of jazz and chamber music to adaptations of mid-century exotica and pop art, the quintet version of Mr. Ho’s Orchestrotica renders O’Neill’s original compositions and curious arrangements of Bach, Gershwin, Shostakovich and John Adams into cinematic, layered music for armchair travelers ready to journey off road.

While the quintet eschews most of the musical forms, rhythms, and styles of the 1950s exotica sound that inspired O’Neill, it fully embraces the unique genre’s love of escapism, whether through deliberate, out-of-context use of global sounds or through jazz improvisation that doesn’t swing and deliberately imitates the rhythm of a skipping record. On the listener’s plate might be equal parts scratch and sniff, bongos with a fugue, and a cat fight at a piano recital. On the stage, the ensemble skillfully negotiates detailed compositions and arrangements of classical works while relying on listening and instinct to drive passionate improvisation.

"Anything but straightforward"
Washington Post

"Engagingly unique"
Boston Globe

ABOUT THE ESQUIVEL MEGABAND
Mr. Ho’s Orchestrotica—in its Esquivel Megaband ensemble formation—is the world’s only way to experience the lost space-age pop music of Esquivel, live. Via meticulous transcriptions from the original 1950s hi-fi recordings, the band has recreated this masterful musician’s lost arrangements and presents them in a program called, Sonorama: The Lost Music of Esquivel. Featuring the music of Billy Strayhorn, Cole Porter, Ernesto Lecuona, and others, the show exposes listeners to the wild, zany mind of Mexico’s king of space-age bachelor pad music. In stereo, of course!

"Deliciously entertaining"
—Wall Street Journal

"4 Stars - Exquisite attention to details"
—Sunday Times London

"Incredible musicianship"
—Downbeat

"Obsession in its grandest form"
—JazzIz