Oranj Symphonette

There were many tributes towards the music of Henry Mancini because the composer’s death, but non-e have been about half as zany mainly because the Oranj Symphonette’s 1996 Gramavision CD Plays Mancini. Cellist/bassist Matt Brubeck (the band’s innovator and among Dave Brubeck’s sons) fulfilled guitarist Joe Gore and Ralph Carney (who takes on alto, bass sax, trombone and slip clarinet) while documenting a Tom Waits soundtrack in the first 1990’s. In 1993 they truly became a group with the help of drummer Scott Amendola and started playing in the SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA area on the part-time basis the next year using their primary purpose becoming to reinvent Henry Mancini tunes. With Pete Scaturro added on body organ and Diarmid adding zither playing and parrot calls, the music group tore apart twelve Mancini tunes on the frequently amusing Gramavision set; in addition they appeared in the 1997 Monterey Jazz Event, and a 12 months later released The Oranj Recording.