Dr. Sick
Dr. Sick is a widely respected musician, singer, arranger, composer, song writer, producer, bandleader, emcee, and all-around entertainer. His principal instruments are strings, mainly violin and guitar. Currently he is the musical director for the Squirrel Nut Zippers, who helped pioneer the swing music revival in the 1990s. He had the idea to form Obliquestra in April 2021 and promptly invited David to help scout for musicians and contribute to the wide variety of songs and styles. He has produced and directed burlesque and circus/side-show troupes since 2006, and has recorded on more than 100 albums. his favorite color is red, and he could stand to take a few dance lessons. His credos are “be the show you would pay to see” and “break it till it works”.
Susanne Ortner
New Orleans based German clarinetist, saxophonist, and composer Susanne Ortner is equally conversant in jazz, classical music, and various ethnic musics. The German Newspaper Augsburger Allgemeine states that she is “a musician par excellence, capable of moving you deeply.” Her desire to find the similar in the different has lead to the exploration of a myriad of musical traditions, as well as to collaborations and international concert tours with numerous outstanding musicians – mostly in the intimate duo or trio format – such as the Susanne Ortner Trio with Nahum Zdybel (guitar), and James Singleton (bass), with Belgium Gypsy icon Tcha Limberger, accordionist/pianist Alan Bern, First Concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic Noah Bendix-Balgley, multi-instrumentalist Vince Giordano, pianist Tom Roberts, with Dr. Sick and Obliquestra, and many others. She is the subject of the book “Living the Dream” – Für die Musik nach Amerika” (Wissner Verlag Augsburg, 2011), written by German Television journalist Helge Fuhst, and has recorded 5 CDs as a leader, her latest being “Last Stop Sehnsucht”, 2019.
David Symons
David C. Symons is an accordionist, singer, and composer, and accordion technician living in New Orleans since 2012. He has founded and led many bands, including Black Sea Quartet, Inner Fire District, The Brass Balagan (Vermont), and The Salt Wives, Klezervation Hall, and Accordianistan (New Orleans). He has performed and toured with numerous other groups such as The Painted Bird, The Underscore Orkestra, Debauche, and Ezekiel’s Wheels. He is a former musical director of Burlington Vermont’s Spielpalast Cabaret, and has worked as a composer for Vermont Stage Company, as well as acting in many plays, including originating the role of Hades in the original 2006 and 2007 productions of Anais Mitchell’s “folk opera” Hadestown. He is the founder of Brechtfest, an annual musical tribute to Bertolt Brecht. He operates Big Squeezy Accordion Repair and Tuning, wherein he rehabilitates injured squeezeboxes and returns them to the wild.
Stoo Odom
Bassist/ composer Stoo Odom inhabits the murk where psychedelia, jazz, and noise intersect. Best known for his rock/psych work performed on three continents with the Graves Brothers Deluxe, Thin White Rope, and Subarachnoid Space, Odom returned to his native New Orleans in 2013 and now pays the bills playing The Jazz. He has collaborated on tour and in the studio with members of Japanese institutions Acid Mothers Temple and the Boredoms, as well as ’60’s icons the Monks. His work appears in multiple TV and film works, most notably Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations.Locally, Odom performs with Obliquestra, the Sleazeball Orchestra, the Dapper Dandies, R. Scully’s Rough 7, and myriads of others. If cameras steal souls, his soul was gone a long time ago, and he needs to steal yours to satisfy his mounting debt to the cameras.
