Melbourne Ska Orchestra

2003

Overview | Music | Videos | Albums

Formed in 2003 the Aria award winning Melbourne Ska Orchestra is an orchestra with a difference. Comprising of up to 34 members it is a juggernaut with some of Australia’s finest musicians. The band can perform with as little as 14 members and as many as 34+.

His “idea was to get as many horn players as possible on stage at the same time playing ska skank, the accented upbeat that is typical of ska, the genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s

Albums:

Melbourne Ska Orchestra (2013)

Sierra-Kilo-Alpha (2016)

Saturn Return (2018)

Best of 20 Years Young (2023)

Genre:

Ska

And so the story goes…

The self titled Melbourne Ska Orchestra debut album was released to rave reviews in 2013 and picked up 2 ARIA nominations that year. Now, after more than a decade of sold-out shows and electrifying Australian festival appearances at Bluesfest, Golden Plains, Caloundra, Queenscliff and AWME the band have acquired an impressive, ever-growing and dedicated overseas fan base. MSO sold out their debut London show, appeared on the bill for the iconic Glastonbury Festival and played a headline set to a crowd 50,000 at the Montreal Jazz Festival during their 2014 tour, without blowing their own horn it is safe to say MSO are quickly becoming a household name!“

Drawing on the vast amount of musical legends that have shaped the genre from the Jamaican movement through to UK Two Tone and the present day Latino Ska, MSO demonstrate a unique Australian vision with the exuberance and freewheeling colour of contemporary Ska. The outfit have crafted their sound with unexpected arrangements and seductive harmonies, of powerful horns and foot-stomping drums. Each song is like a vignette from a Ska-infused storybook, full of cinematic colour and characters bursting to life from every verse.

The mighty Melbourne Ska Orchestra continue their feat for world wide Ska domination with a 2014 ARIA nomination for ‘Best Live Act’, the sophomore album ‘Sierra-Kilo-Alpha’ was released in 2016.

Melbourne Ska Orchestra won Aria award ‘World Album of the year’ in 2016