Mike Orzek lives and breathes great music.  One of the most passionate and active musicians here on SoundCloud, Mike brings a deep understanding of music to everything he does.  And he's done a lot with many from around the world.  Serious on both the electric and acoustic guitars, Mike finds the right sound to fit in with many genres he records and performs.  A recent quote someone wrote during one of his fine solos was "Master Class" and that just says it all.  When serious musicians are discussing his chops and musical ability, that's a great sign of approval.  Happens a lot here.

Mike first approach me with a recording he had made with a funky tune I had composed Getting Down, asking if he could lay down some guitar on it.  Worked beautifully, and now we have done 5 things together - funk, blues, fusion, R&B...just about anything you throw at Mike he handles with ease.  

Mike's living in Atlantic City, on New Jersey's shoreline, but has developed a true world view of music.  A number of years in Texas helped shape his serious blues chops and now he's a gambling man.  

So sit back and enjoy our music....and let Mike know if he should change his SoundCloud stage name from Mike "Land of Orz" to Master Class Mike.  A treat Mike.

Check out and follow all the great music in Mike's gallery:  https://soundcloud.com/lando-orz

Thanks as always for your time listening and your shares.  

BUY JAMIE'S MUSIC

Master Class With Mike "Land of Orz" Orzek

Jamie Rhind – music, keyboards, production (@jamie-rhind)
Michael Orzek – guitar (@lando-orz)

I was very happy to come across Jamie Rhind recently.  Jamie is a true purveyor of the art of American jazz and blues music.  This tune really grabbed my attention with his performance of some really great Hammond B3 style playing.  Not to mention the spanking clavinet sounds.  I added some spanking telecaster sounds to go with it, and Jamie liked it enough to allow me to publish it here.  Thanks, Jamie!

Find his version here:  https://soundcloud.com/jamie-rhind/gettin-down

His description:  “Time to do something funky and thought this had the right amount of down home cookin'. Has that great Clavinet sound that guys like Billy Preston and Stevie Wonder pioneered, and then some tasty jamming with some Hammond and Vibes patches. This one grooves like the great Jimmy McGriff did back in the '70s and '80s with his organ led bands. If you dig this one, check out Jimmy's awesome groove oriented B3 playing here on SC or online.
Thanks as always for your time listening, your comments and your generous shares.”


Gettin' Down - Jamie Rhind (featuring Michael Orzek)

Here's another collaboration just packed with funk and great players from around the world.  Represented on this tune are musicians from Germany, Spain, Scotland, France and the US (3).  Pretty sure you will enjoy this one.  It's an original funk fusion tune that lets everyone here stretch it out a bit.  Germany's Mirko Borach (Stringburner) holds down the deep groove on bass, with Barcelona's multi horn player Santi-Caballero Mendez creating the head.  Solos from Mike "Land of Orz" Orzek with a fuzzed out wah guitar, Santi-Caballero smoothing it down on sax, Scotland's finest Ian Tait bringing it back up again with his signature electric funk guitar playing, France's wonderful keyboardist Julien Apelian on a great synth patch, and then New Jersey's fine jazz guitarist Stephan "Pinner" Lipinski bringing it home with his serious Scofield funk guitar style.  Wow.  So much playing here.  Great job guys!

Thanks as always for your generous time listening, for your comments and for your shares here on SoundCloud and on social media.  Please check out and follow these superb players. 

Funk The Blues   -  Stringburner, Land of Orz, Santi-Caballero, Ian Tait, Julien Apelian and Pinner

Delay Of Game is a soulful trio interplay between New Jersey's Mike Orzek's bluesy talking wah guitar, Germany's Mirko Borach's funky bass playing and my delayed Rhodes groove.  These guys found the pocket immediately, and together have turned out another fine one...just in time for your weekend listening pleasure.  

If you are not following them, head to their impressive galleries immediately - Mike https://soundcloud.com/lando-orz has a ton of great music across many genres, and Mirko's https://soundcloud.com/stringburner doing his serious funk and slap bass and fusion tracks with other world class guitarists.  

Thanks as always for your time listening, your comments and your shares.

Delay Of Game - with Land of Orz / guitar and Stringburner / bass

Mike Orzek and I thought we'd break out some blues here, and created this 12 Bar blues to let off a little steam.  (12 am Bar Blues).  It's the standard form for the blues, and we've got a lot of guitar and organ in this one.  Mike has done so many fine collaborations with people on SoundCloud, and his command and understanding of the blues is impressive.  Some of that is from his years living in Dallas, Texas, where he lived just a few blocks from a serious blues bar and was able to perform there regularly.  

Check out Mike's extensive gallery at https://soundcloud.com/lando-orz .  

Thanks as always for your time listening, your comments and your shares.

12 (am) Bar Blues - with Mike "Land of Orz" Orzek

Rock Me Baby is one of the classic blues standards and we've gathered my favorite blues players here for a huge SoundCloud Blues Explosion. Thanks to everyone for your contributions on this tune and on the many others we have done together.

You will recognize each of their distinct sounds, and I love how each has interpreted the music differently, bringing their own unique voice to the jam. I'm excited also to have our son Tyler joining Johnny and sitting in on Tenor. Check out everyone's galleries here - and follow each of their great sounds:

Vocals - bigmamaDee and Martin Jones (Netherlands and US)
Tenor Sax - Johnny Pugh and Tyler Rhind (Spain and US)
Harp - Johnny Pugh (Spain)
Piano - Julien Apelian (France)
Organ - Jamie Rhind (US)
Guitar - Alan Schulman, Tom Adams, Mike Orzek, Joe Bongiovanni, Justin Valente, Kev Steier (all US except for Kev - Australia)

This tune was made famous by BB King in 1964, and was recorded by so many greats including Jeff Beck, The Rolling Stones, Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Robin Trower, Frank Marino and Johnny Winter.

And as always, thanks for your time listening, your comments and your shares.

Rock Me Baby - The Global Soundcloud Blues Explosion

Here's a slow blues created by Tom Adams with an invitation to join.  So Mike Land of Orz Orzek and I jumped on it to add some rhythm and solo guitar and organ.  Tom has the first and third guitar solos, Mike has the second and I have the organ solo.  Fun as always playing with you guys - such fine musicians - and thanks to Tom for including others again in his music.  

Thanks as always for your generous time listening, for your comments and for your shares.



My Old Friend - with Tom Adams and Mike Orzek guitars

Michael Orzek is simply a great guitar player and musician.  A true artist.  Like Escher.  Asked him to join me on this uptempo modal blues and look where he took it!  So many know him for his collaborations on SoundCloud with the finest players all over the world, and he jumped in here to elevate this original track and bring his hands, mind and heart into it.  Love what he has done and hope you do too.  

You can find and follow Mike great music "Land of Orz" Orzek at https://soundcloud.com/lando-orz .  Highly recommended.

Thanks so much for your generous time listening, your comments and feedback, and for your shares.

Hand Of Orz - with Mike Orzek / guitar

This is the 10th tune coming from my 13 song suite called ''Celebrating life'' that I composed and interpreted by the last 4 months of 2012. As you know, I am reposting all these songs (only 3 left :) with a new guest collaborator and rename the suite ''Celebrating life with friends'' 

For this posting, I have two wonderful collaborators: Jamie Rhind and Michael Orzek and also known as Land of Orz . They are two brilliant musicians! Michael is a polyvalent guitarist which is very performant in the blues/rock/funk musical environment. Jamie is a superb Funk/blues/Jazz/Fusion keyboard player. I call him the funky man! :-))) As you might notice he is a very active collaborator on SC

Both have performed fantastic solos but I would like you to take a moment to focus on their rhythm section performance. You will see that they are in fusion with Band In A Box Basses and drums (I used three different basses and three different drums for this track! eheh!!!). Each of them is playing in sync with each other or playing in between each other!

Oh! Before I forgot, this is the first time that I organized a disorganized ending! So imagine a band which is playing this song very tight (which it is true in this song) then the drummer miss the ending break and suddenly all the musicians try one after the other to end the song (first the Michael, and the bassist) than the horns try to take the lead with a good ending but the pianist put his own ending with a weird chord… All that organized in purpose by me! :-)))

Here is the story behind this tune: 

Oxy is not the name of the bear!:-) It is the three first letter of one of the chemo medication called oxyloplatine (not a good word for a title). This medication had two very bad side effect: first, I could not approach any cold environment (I was not allowed to go in the fridge without mittens) or eat cold food and beverage ( bye bye White wine, Rosé, milk and Ice cream and so on… in July) 

But the worst side effect (especially for a clarinetist) was that I could not breathe properly! I was always out of breath, so much that my oncologist told me after examination (scan), I was developing a chemical pneumonia and if I do not stop this medication I could die! So I did not hesitate  and it was BYE BYE OXY with the result of BYE BYE BLUES! :-))) this is why my sonority a bit shaky on this original recording ;-)

 I hope you enjoy this song as much I did while doing this collaboration

You can visit Micheal’s cloud at @lando-orz and Jamie’s cloud @jamie-rhind for great music


Bye Bye Oxy , Bye Bye Blues - Celebrating life with friends - feat Michael Orzek and Jamie Rhind

Excited to release this heavy fusion tune with the always superb Mike Orzek on electric guitar https://soundcloud.com/lando-orz.  Mike is such a talented player and has a unique ability to find the right sound and mood and note selection for whatever is put in front of him.  I just love what he has added with conception and playing to Creeping Around, his ability to bend notes and sound and to complement the other instruments.  This is our 9th tune together and a really exciting one for me.

Check out Mike's deep gallery of solo work and collaborations at https://soundcloud.com/lando-orz   

Thanks as always for your most generous listening time, for your comments and for your shares.  

Creeping Around - with Mike Orzek / guitar

Let us look to the future with optimism and hope.  Many thanks to Mike "Land of Orz" Orzek and Mirko "Stringburner" Borach for helping me build Future Opportunity.  It's my 10th recording with Mike and 23rd with Mirko, and always a thrill when we complete these. It's great to have Mike's great sound back again after a few months away from SC, and whenever we look for deep fusion bass, Mirko is filling the part so well:
https://soundcloud.com/jamie-rhind/sets/messing-around-with-mike-land
https://soundcloud.com/jamie-rhind/sets/stretching-it-out-with

Check out their outstanding SoundCloud galleries to hear more of their superb music.
https://soundcloud.com/lando-orz
https://soundcloud.com/stringburner

We thank you as always for your generous time listening, for your comments and for your shares.

Future Opportunity - with Mike "Land of Orz" Orzek / guitar and Mirko "Stringburner" Borach / bass

Some heavy jamming with the very fine guitarist Mike Orzek and bassist Mirko Borach on our original, Summer Storm.  Mike's got such a great blues inspired rock guitar sound - aka Pink Floyd and Clapton - and Mirko's so solid on his slap bass.  Love what these guys do.  Mike and I have over 10 tunes recorded together and Mirko and I almost 60.  Check out and follow their galleries:
https://soundcloud.com/lando-orz
https://soundcloud.com/stringburner
And for the extensive collections of music we have recorded together:
https://soundcloud.com/jamie-rhind/sets/messing-around-with-mike-land
https://soundcloud.com/jamie-rhind/sets/stretching-it-out-with
Thanks as always for your generous time listening, for your comments and for your shares.

Summer Storm - Michael Orzek / Mirko Borach / Jamie Rhind

The SC Master of the Telecaster Mike Orzek joins me here on our original, A Mic for Mike.  Mike brings a strong blues and rock sensibility and some great rhythm playing.  Check out and follow his extensive and creative gallery:  https://soundcloud.com/lando-orz

Thanks as always for your generous comments, for your likes and for your shares

A Mic For Mike - Michael Orzek / Jamie Rhind

Mirko Borach, aka "Stringburner", takes a super nasty, funked up groove here with his slap bass extraordinare.  Our original, Slap It, also features the wonderful Mike Orzek on guitars.  Follow these guys and their terrific playing
Mirko Borach:  https://soundcloud.com/stringburner
Mike Orzek:  https://soundcloud.com/lando-orz

And for playlists with our expansive music together:
with Mirko:  https://soundcloud.com/jamie-rhind/sets/stretching-it-out-with
with Mike:  https://soundcloud.com/jamie-rhind/sets/messing-around-with-mike-land

thanks as always for your generous time listening, for your comments and for your shares.  And remember please - Social Distancing saves lives

Slap It - Mirko Borach / Mike Orzek / Jamie Rhind

Some heavy original blues.  Joined by the wonderful guitarist Mike Orzek.

Follow his fine blues and blues rock music:  https://soundcloud.com/lando-orz

And for a collection of the tunes we have recorded together:  https://soundcloud.com/lando-orz

Thanks as always for your generous time listening, for your comments and for your shares

Get Out Of The Kitchen - Mike Orzek / Jamie Rhind

Jazz/Fusion keyboard player, composer and producer.  Marketing, advertising, publishing and sales career.  Originally from Chicago, where I developed a strong appreciation for the blues and classical, and moved to New York, where jazz and the fine arts are so deep.  Key musical influences include Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Jimi Hendrix, Joe Zawinul and Weather Report, Chick Corea and Return to Forever, John McLaughlin and the Mahivishnu Orchestra, Stanley Clarke, Scott Henderson and Tribal Tech, Jeff Beck and Jan Hammer, Mike Stern, John Scofield, Pat Metheny, Emily Remler, McCoy Tyner, Bill Evans, John Coltrane, Jimmy Smith, Joey DeFrancesco, Larry Young, Buddy Guy, Santana and Earth Wind & Fire.   Former classical clarinet and piano player.  Unless noted, my music on SoundCloud was composed, recorded and performed using only keyboards.  An avid photographer.  Many covers here are my shots.  To see my photography look for Herbiejazz on Instagram or search for Herbiejazz on Google.  And a big thumbs up to SoundCloud and the SoundCloud community, and so many friends who have joined me to create.  Thank you all.