Review quoted from http://www.audaud.com
Mr. Ho's Orchestrotica - Third River Rangoon CD
Percussionist, vibraphonist and composer Mr. Ho is really Brian O’Neill, and he decided to create a 22-piece band that could play this type of music live. He laboriously transcribed the music of Esquivel’s arrangements off the original LPs, but this CD is entirely music inspired by Esquivel but not his original selections. His current Orchestrotica consists of standard big band instrumentation plus four singers, steel guitar, extensive percussion, accordion, Hammond B-3 and bass flute, but this disc is mostly a quartet with a fifth member on oud.
This CD is the latest in Ho’s resurrection of some of the zaniest Esquivel-type new originals in the same style. The music has been a big hit in Mexico City as well as around the world. On the disc we hear a collection of updated pop, jazz, chamber and world music. The 11 tracks include a jazz waltz by Cal Tjader, Tchaikovsky’s Arab Dance, an Autumn Digging Dance featuring an oud solo, and an updating of the Hawaiian exotic sounds of Arthur Lyman. Get your lava lamp, bongos and black Russian and join in the amazing sounds.
Tracks:
Third River Rangoon,Thor’s Arrival, Maika, Colorado Waltz, Arab Dance, Phoenix Goodbye, Terre Exotique, Autumn Digging Dance, Moai Thief, Lonesome Aku of Alewife, Lyman ’59.
Product Code: Tiki002
