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Members:
Saji Villoth: Guitars, lead vocals
Jason Spottek: Bass, vocals
Linda Orlandi: Drums, vocals
Bo Johnson: Percussion, vocals
Ron Jones: Guitars, lead vocals
Mambo Surfers are a Milwaukee-based band performing all original music that pulls from a variety of musical genres while venturing into rock, blues, jazz and world sounds.
They call their intricate, energizing music
World Rhythm Alt Rock.
The Mambo Surfers can perform as a
duo, trio, quartet or quintet.
Ron is of Native American Hochungara descent. His lyrics reflect the storyteller’s tradition that comes from his heritage. He is fluent on guitar and harmonica and other stringed instruments as well. He is a guitarist who honed his chops woodshedding and sitting in with countless other players. He has worked with dance troupes, producers, and other musicians and toured the Far East with his band, Acoustic Warriors. A respected master luthier in Southeast Wisconsin, he counts among his clients many prominent local, regional and touring musicians.
Saji developed his lyricism and sense of melody listening to various types of music growing up in South India and Kuwait. He had long been aware that music is a powerful language, one that bridges many lands and tongues. Saji’s past includes time in radio, as a solo artist, and as band member in a number of bands in India, Kuwait and the US. From their first jams together, Ron and Saji knew that they wanted to write original music for discerning listeners. The band targets audiences that love diverse music and understand how music reflects emotion and thought in an exciting way.
Jason has taught bass through both private lessons and the classroom since 2003. Besides his gig with the Surfers, he also plays with the Kenosha Symphony, the City Festival Symphony, Four Guyz in Dinner Jackets, Dead Man’s Carnival and his own jazz groups.
Bo is very happy to return to playing with the Mambo Surfers after years of traveling down a different road. He was a full-fledged Surfer back when the band was first getting started and has extensive credits as percussionist and vocalist on the band's album "Mambo Surfers' twelve tales from”.
Along with playing around Milwaukee as a musician for the last thirty years, he is also an accomplished actor, having worked with the Milwaukee Rep, Next Act Theatre, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, First Stage Milwaukee, and many other local companies. In another lifetime, he was also a well established member of Milwaukee's improv comedy scene. He was a cofounder of the now infamous Dead Alewives Improv Troop. It was at one of those Alewive's performances that Bo first met Ron and Saji and the rest, as they say, is history.
Linda Orlandi grew up in Menoninee Falls, Wisconsin and went on to study music at Northern Illinois University, then lived and worked in Chicago for 20 years. She returned to the Milwaukee area in the fall of 2021 and teaches general music education to pre-school through eighth graders.
Years ago she played with Jason in the band The Lost Gypsies, leading her to eventually become a Mambo Surfer to fill out the current quintet.
Linda’s hobby is dancing to all styles of music, from ballet to jazz to Afro-Cuban. She competed in salsa dancing and says, “I love dance because it allows me to embrace music even more fully when playing it. I hope people feel like moving their bodies when I play."