The El Orbits profile picture

The El Orbits

Lounge, Swing, Oldies, and Gulf Coast R&B

About Me

The El Orbits began in 1997 as the Monday night house band at Houston's Satellite Lounge. The band outlasted the club and later took up residency as the Monday night house band at the Continental Club in Houston. The band has also played extended residencies at Austin's Continental Club, Flipnotics Coffeehouse, San Antonio's Casbeers and The Martini at Chianti restaurant (Houston). The band has backed up legends Big Walter Price, Chuck Berry, Big Robert Smith, Archie Bell, Andre Williams, Barbara Mason, Roy Head and many more. The El Orbits have four full-length CD's (available through TexasMusicRoundup.com) and have toured the west coast, midwest and areas around and throughout Texas. The El Orbits has gone through several different line-ups over the years which have included the following band members: David Beebe (Founder), Jim Henkel, Allen Hill, Thomas Escalante, Landis Armstrong, Chris Johnson, Eric Hughes, Steve Begnoche, Paul Beebe, and The Dazzling Pete Gray. The current line up includes Thomas Escalante, Jim Henkel, Allen Hill, Eric C. Hughes, and the Dazzling Pete Gray. For more info on the history of the group, please visit www.elorbit.com .

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 1/19/2006
Band Website: elorbit.com
Band Members: Thomas Escalante (vocals, percussion), Jim Henkel (vocals, guitar), the Dazzling Pete Gray (vocals, keyboards), Allen Hill (bass, vocals), Eric C. Hughes (drums)
Influences: Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Doug Sahm, Sunny Ozuna, B.J. Thomas, Roy Head, Archie Bell, Chuck Berry, Bobby Darin, Little Joe Washington, Grady Gaines, Mose Allison, Peggy Lee, NRBQ, Iguanas, Freddy Fender, Glen Campbell, Jack Jones, Nat King Cole, Herb Alpert, Chris Montez, Ray Charles, Big Robert Smith, Petula Clark, LeRoi Brothers, Gene Thomas, Charlie Rich, Sam the Sham, Roger Miller
Sounds Like: See above plus add some light rock and a few more classic country songs
Record Label: Freedom Records www.texasmusicroundup.com
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

Hello, this is Jim

Hi everybody! As most of you know, the El Orbits are in a period of transition. We have a new personnel lineup, new repertoire, and a decidely different vibe than the El Orbits you have known and love...
Posted by The El Orbits on Wed, 24 Jan 2007 02:23:00 PST

Turning this page over to the NEW band

Hey, ya'll- i'm transferring this page over to the guys (and girl) who are currently in the band so they can keep you updated, etc. If you want to speak directly with me feel free to catch me at www.m...
Posted by The El Orbits on Fri, 12 Jan 2007 01:11:00 PST

Green Bay, Detroit

We're on tour. It's fun, as usual. Jim, myself, and Eric drove to Detroit from Houston to back up the Black Godfather Andre Williams at a small club called The Belmont. Very cool place. The openng ban...
Posted by The El Orbits on Tue, 11 Jul 2006 09:01:00 PST

Man it's hard to keep track of each of these shows!

Gawd, it seems like although I feel like I'm determined to do a recap on all these shows there's just no way to find the energy to do it. I can tell you what the root fo the problem is, though. It's t...
Posted by The El Orbits on Mon, 01 May 2006 10:22:00 PST

San Antonio International Center, Friday 4/21

Jim and I drove the Brown Chariot to San Antonio Friday to play a three piece show with Chris on bass at San Antonio's International Center downtown. This gig was for the City of San Antonio's busines...
Posted by The El Orbits on Mon, 24 Apr 2006 08:17:00 PST

Monday 4/17

Man, our Monday night gig was fun this past week. I was dehydrated and wasn't even sure I was going to make it through at first, but muscled through with the help of some RC and Viet sandwiches before...
Posted by The El Orbits on Wed, 19 Apr 2006 09:25:00 PST

Back in Houston

Ok, y'all. So I suck not having posted jack for a long time. We've had a ton of gigs and they've been going pretty well. It's Lent, so I haven't been drinking beer-that probably makes us sound a lot b...
Posted by The El Orbits on Wed, 12 Apr 2006 09:45:00 PST

Cool new coffeehouse

Check it out- 1600 S Shepherd- no liquor license- BYOB! Chris Knudson, an old friend, tonight. Might be worth your while- David
Posted by The El Orbits on Sun, 12 Mar 2006 04:41:00 PST

Tuesday , March 7th Casbeers San Antonio

I started out Tuesday morning by going out to 45 and Gulf bakc to pick up the trailer from the trailer repair shop. New bearing grease, rewired lights and a bent wheel replacement was what I ordered, ...
Posted by The El Orbits on Sun, 12 Mar 2006 04:20:00 PST

Saturday, March 4th, American Shooting Range, MFAH party

We played a Museum of Fine Arts party and shoot at the American Shooting Range out along Addicks Dam last Saturday. We pulled up after Jim and I had finished playing the Allen Oldies Band gig at the H...
Posted by The El Orbits on Sat, 11 Mar 2006 03:59:00 PST