Referencing the exotica of Martin Denny, Milt Raskin, Tchaikovsky, and Shostakovich among others, Mr. Ho’s, Orchestrotica—as a vibraphone quartet—presents an original third-stream collection of updated jazz, chamber, and world music reaching towards the South Pacific via Asia, the Middle East, the Balkans, and Latin America. Led by, multi-percussionist, vibraphonist and composer Brian O’Neill (Mr. Ho) the group normally features bass flute/woodwinds (Geni Skendo), percussion (Noriko Terada), and acoustic bass (Jason Davis). While the "deliciously demented and entertaining" Orchestrotica (The Wall Street Journal) does perform classics by the original artists of the exotica style such as Martin Denny, Arthur Lyman, Les Baxter, Milt Raskin, and Cal Tjader, the group focuses on original music written by O'Neill that is highly influenced by his fifteen-year career as a multi-percussionist in symphony orchestras, jazz groups, and world music ensembles leading AllAboutJazz to say, "…If John Zorn is an exotica Picasso, O'Neill is his Georges-Braque counterpart [and] may be, in the long run, a stronger exoticist than Zorn."

In June 2011, they released their debut quartet CD, Third River Rangoon, which the Boston Herald called "…serious jazz and chamber-music writing…" and Lucid Culture called "…a lushly nocturnal collection…genius." The album continues their Exotica for Modern Living series, which opened with The Unforgettable Sounds of Esquivel , their 23-pc big band formation performing the lost space-age pop music of Esquivel. That album eventually reached #4 on the CMJ jazz charts and received 4 stars from the Sunday London Times.

The inspiration of mid-century Exotica music

Originally a mixture of jazz, latin, polynesian, and exotic sounds once popular in the 1950s and 1960s, exotica music became the lounge music of choice for armchair travelers, hi-fi lovers, cocktail-party hosts, and anyone else obsessed with modern living, tiki, polynesian-pop culture, and [sometimes imaginary] far-away places. While Les Baxter is often created with defining the original sound with his Hollywood-flair orchestral style, Martin Denny's smaller jazz-oriented combos became more well-known along with his vibraphonist, Arthur Lyman, who eventually had his own career as a bandleader.

The Orchestrotica has taken the classic vibraphone-quartet instrumentation of the original exotica ensembles, plus their flair for the imaginary, and put them in a modern, exotic, chamber music context.

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Live MP3	Listen	Description	Length	Free download
Third River Rangoon	Download the Flash player to preview clips.	By Mr. Ho	4:36	Download it free + 5 more MP3s
Autumn Digging Dance	Download the Flash player to preview clips.	By Mr. Ho	3:12
Colorado Waltz	Download the Flash player to preview clips.	By Cal Tjader	4:22	Download it free + 5 more MP3s
China Clipper	Download the Flash player to preview clips.	By Martin Denny. Live track, 12/2009	5:11	Download
Most of these tracks are from Third River Rangoon (May 2011). 6 tracks for free!

New album - May 2011

About the albums

The quartet’s debut CD, Third River Rangoon, is now available and is part of the group's "Exotica for Modern Living" series, which started in November 2010 with the release of the group's big band CD. For special events, Mr. Ho’s Orchestrotica swells to a 23-piece ensemble and is the world’s only performer of the space-age bachelor pad big band music of Juan Garcia Esquivel. The Sunday Times (London) recently gave their debut album 4 stars, citing it as having "…exquisite attention to details."

More photos on the press kit tab

• Mr. Ho (Brian O'Neill): Artistic Director, composer, vibes, percussion (crashandboom.com)
• Jason Davis: bass (Earthsoundsonline.com)
• Geni Skendo: bass flute, c-flute, shakuhachi (GeniMusic.com)
• Noriko Terada: percussion (Norikoterada.com)

Photo by Robin Holland. More photos on the press kit tab.

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Audio

Live MP3	Listen	Description	Length
Autumn Digging Dance	Download the Flash player to preview clips.	By Mr. Ho	3:12
Colorado Waltz	Download the Flash player to preview clips.	By Cal Tjader	4:22
Third River Rangoon	Download the Flash player to preview clips.	By Mr. Ho	4:36
China Clipper	Download the Flash player to preview clips.	By Martin Denny. Live track, 12/2009	5:11

Bio, 1-sheet, Contact

• 1-sheet (PDF) — view on screen
• Press quotes (PDF)
• Bio (PDF)
• Discography (PDF)
• Education/outreach programs (PDF)
• Musician roster (PDF)
• For bookings, contact Brian O'Neill at:
  info@Orchestrotica.com
  W: 1.347.482.1775