[Cover photo credit to David Goddard]

Ethan Lipton & His Orchestra tend to write music based in 20th-century American traditions, including Jazz, Folk, Country, Blues, and Rock, but bring in modern subjects and aren’t averse to humor. The quartet has released four studio albums and created the musicals No Place to Go and The Outer Space, both produced by the Public Theater in Joe’s Pub. They have also toured the U.S. and Europe.  

Now they have announced the February 16, 2024 release of their fifth album, Did You Do The Thing We Talked About? and have shared the opening track, “Talking To Bonnie.”   

Lipton says about the track:

This is a song about a woman named Bonnie. She was a social worker, an administrator, a colleague and friend, a sister, daughter and grandmother, an activist and a partner, a traveler, a reader, a lover of art, and a wrestler of complications. She was also my mom. She had a great voice and a gift for being her whole self with people. I wanted to write a song specific to who she was, but one that might also evoke the Bonnie in your life, should you be so lucky to have had one. Some songs take a long time to finish writing. This one took a long time to start.

Ethan Lipton & His Orchestra have been a band since 2005 and features Eben Levy (guitar), Ian Riggs (standup bass), Vito Dieterle (sax), and Ethan on vocals. Ethan Lipton writes the songs and the quartet “arranges them via telepathy and Doritos.”

The band has been featured on Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and played venues including SF Jazz, Celebrate Brooklyn, MASS MoCA, the Flynn Center, The Green Music Center, Arts Emerson, Dublin’s Pavilion, the Gate in London, The Troubadour, Theatre de la Ville, Pitchfork Paris and ATP.  

Ahead of the release of Did You Do The Thing We Talked About? EL&HO will once again take over their home turf of Joe’s Pub for performances on January 25 and 26 at 7pm. Tickets are on sale now at the Joe’s Pub website.