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Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2002 09:36:51 -0500
From: <lousmith@pipeline.com>
Subject: (exotica) Esquivel obit from NYTimes
January 11, 2002
Juan Garcφa Esquivel Dies; Pop Composer Was 83
By JON PARELES
Juan Garcφa Esquivel, a composer and arranger whose meticulously outlandish pop instrumentals from the 1950's and 60's sparked a lounge- music revival in the 90's, died on Jan. 3 at his home in Jiutepec, Morelos, Mexico. He was 83.
Mr. Esquivel wrote television and movie scores, but most of his music was released from 1957 to 1968 by RCA Victor on what were considered easy-listening albums, with titles like "Other Worlds, Other Sounds" and "Exploring New Sounds in Stereo." He called his style sonorama.
It was anything but background music. A reviewer in Audio magazine in 1962 described Esquivel's music as "mayhem in Latin tempos." Orchestrating standards or his own compositions, Mr. Esquivel often started with Latin rhythms and built three-minute extravaganzas that gleefully showed off the era's newfangled hi-fi stereo equipment.
In flashy arrangements that changed texture every few seconds and ping-ponged from speaker to speaker, brassy big bands were laced with sliding steel guitar, skittering xylophone, buzzing electronic instruments like the Ondioline and choruses belting syllables like ooh- wah-wah or pow!
Mr. Esquivel was born in Tampico, Mexico, in 1918. At 17 he formed a band to play his arrangements and it grew into a 22-piece orchestra with five singers. He was popular across Mexico in the 1940's and 50's, performing on radio and television, touring clubs and theaters and appearing in films.
He made a dashing star. In an interview with The Wire magazine, he said, "I have had many loves in my life: music, cars, women and the piano, not necessarily in that order." Mr. Esquivel was married six times, most recently in May to his 25-year- old health care aide, Carin Osorio. He is survived by her and by a son and two sisters.
RCA Victor in the United States discovered Mr. Esquivel with his third album, "To Love Again," which had been released by that label's Mexican subsidiary. RCA Victor released the album in 1957 and took Mr. Esquivel to the United States, where he recorded with studio orchestras.
Arrangements of "Jalousie" and "Sentimental Journey" from his 1961 album, "Infinity in Sound, Vol. 2," were used by the comedian Ernie Kovacs for a noted television sketch featuring dancing furniture. For his 1962 album, "Latin-Esque," Mr. Esquivel achieved complete stereo separation by having each half of his orchestra record in studios a block apart.
As rock began to dominate the pop market, he returned to nightclubs, taking a revue to Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe.
He also wrote soundtrack music for the Universal Studios music library that was heard in programs including "McHale's Navy," "Magnum P.I.," "Baywatch," "Battlestar Galactica" and "Law and Order." He wrote music for the Disney film "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and commercial jingles. Mr. Esquivel also composed the fanfarelike theme heard when the Universal logo appears on television shows.
He returned to Mexico in 1979 and wrote songs for a children's television show, "Burbujas." By the 1990's he was retired.
Meanwhile he was being rediscovered by record collectors and avant- garde musicians. Perhaps initially drawn by his period-piece album covers, they soon became fans of his quick-changing music. In 1994 his manager, Irwin Chusid, compiled a selection of Mr. Esquivel's RCA recordings that Bar None Records released as "Space Age Bachelor Pad Music," and it sparked a revival.
His music returned to parties and lounges; it was also heard in the soundtracks to films including "The Big Lebowski," "Four Rooms" and "Beavis and Butt-Head Do America." His original albums were rereleased along with other compilations and an album of unreleased recordings, "See It in Sound" (1999, Buddha). The Kronos Quartet commissioned and performed a string arrangement of Esquivel's 1967 composition "Miniskirt."
A film about Mr. Esquivel, starring John Leguizamo and directed by Alexander Payne, is being developed by Fox Studios.
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Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2002 18:09:59 +0000
From: alan miller <alan.miller2@ntlworld.com>
Subject: (exotica) the new easy?
> but I ve been noticing a lot of
> press about lounge and exotica music which has been overhauled and found
> anew by calling it "Easy Listening" the new Collections magazine, has mor=
e
> than one article on this "easy listening" revival, as well as funky
> soundtracks etc. Collections is an offshoot of Mojo magazine, I believe, =
and
> is geared more toward collectiing records and their prices (in pounds as =
it
> is a british mag)
The above statement is definitely true. But I think that in the British
music press at any rate, the growing interest in obscure, neglected and
forgotten (or derided) genres of the past has been a much more gradual, and
more genuine one. Consequently it is less a fadish "revival" and more of a
gradual movement into the contemporary musical landscape of a more permanen=
t
nature.
Over the past few years the mainstream music press has taken more and more
of an interest in the types of music discussed here on the list. Most
likely this has been due to the popularity in dance culture of "sampling"
elements from old releases. Initially I don't think people were that
interested in the fact that a bit of a popular record - say by artists like
David Holmes or Fat Boy Slim - came from some old soul 7" or obscure moog
record.=20
However there were those DJs who took this opportunity to link different
genres (and decades) in their sets, jumping from house & bigbeat into soul,
blaxsploitation & funky easy without missing a beat. Clubs like the
Heavenly Social in London and DJ acts such as Tim "love" Lee, Bentleys
rhythm Ace, Mr Scruff (and he's Madonna's favourite DJ!) and the like got
loads of coverage for this new "eclectic" style of DJing. Being into many
different kinds of music was gradually becoming cool AND useful, as having =
a
knowledge about way-out music ment you had an exclusive pot of material to
sample and spice up your recordings.
Notoriously David Holmes played a DJ mix on BBC radio with only retro music
