Esquivel

Esquivel! – Music From The Space Age! (Remastered) (2009/2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 38:10 minutes | 398 MB | Genre: Instrumental, Latin Jazz, Soundtrack
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla

No one can tickle those ivories the way Juan Garcia Esquivel can. He is effortless in style and grace. Esquivel was a Mexican band leader, pianist, and composer for television and films. He is recognized today as one of the foremost exponents of a sophisticated style of largely instrumental music that combines elements of lounge music and jazz with Latin flavors. Esquivel is considered “The King of Space Age Pop”, a style of late 1950s-early 1960s quirky instrumental pop known today as lounge music. His concerts in the fifties already featured elaborate light shows years before such effects became popular in live music. Included on this compilation are some of his most famous tunes, like “Mucha Muchacha”, “La Mantilla” and “Whatchamacallit”.

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Esquivel – Other Worlds, Other Sounds (1958/2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 35:27 minutes | 676 MB | Genre: Pop, Latin
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RCA Victor

This CD presents two classic Esquivel albums from early in his career, Other Worlds, Other Sounds + More Of Other Worlds, Other Sounds
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Esquivel – Latin-Esque (1961/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 30:39 minutes | 534 MB | Genre: World, Latin Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RitmoDisc S.A.

This album has several musical and historical significant aspects, making it Esquivel’s most desirable. First, it is one of only three or so truly great RCA Stereo Action (“The Sound Your Eyes Can Follow”) albums. The music is deliberately scored for channel separation, but there is more to the stereo gimmickry than the arrangements. Not counting layered-track (multi-dubbing) efforts, Latin-Esque was the first album recorded with total stereo separation — two separate orchestras in two separate studios performed, connected by headphones. The results are fairly fantastic. Latin-Esque also is Esquivel’s first stereo album in the Latin-esque style of his great first album, To Love Again. (“Jungle Drums” from that LP is updated here.) The artist’s jaw-dropping masterpiece of zany pop, “Mucho Muchacha,” is a highlight. “Carioca,” “La Paloma,” and several other standards also were well-chosen for this project. This album was essential to the renaissance of Esquivel’s popularity in the 1990s. – Tony Wilds

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