1/18/2024 0 Comments Space age bachelor pad![]() ![]() release in 1967 and his last RCA album was released only in Latin American markets in 1968. ![]() "I have had many loves in my life: music, cars, women and the piano, not necessarily in that order," he once told an interviewer. His show was a favorite among Vegas insiders, and celebrities like Frank Sinatra regularly dropped in to listen. In 1963, Esquivel switched from studio work to live performance, creating a stage show featuring four svelte female singers, flashing lights, and choreographed routines and playing the Vegas-Tahoe circuit. For this album, he went to the extreme of placing his musicians in two separate studios, coordinating over an closed circuit with Stanley Wilson, who conducted the second group. The pinnacle of Esquivel's extravagant approach to stereo can be heard on "Latin-esque," his entry in RCA's great Stereo Action series. Darrell's beloved reel-to-reels lie rotting in attics and garages. Now listeners are abandoning dishonest rock 'n' roll in favor of Esquivel's "zu-zu-ing chorus" and "nauseous glissandos"-while many of Mr. There is at least some gusto in La Bamba, but for the rest, I'll take honest rock 'n' roll any day! The sounds emanating from an electronic organ and a zu-zu-ing chorus, the nauseous glissandos on various instruments, and the squalling brasses are, for the most part, intolerable. There is plenty of sonic sensationalism here, both in the frantically fancy arrangements and the spectacularly stereoistic recording, but almost without exception the crude effects cancel each other out. Odd-sound fancier that I am, I have to draw the line somewhere, and for me, Esquivel oversteps it in his complete disregard for musical taste and tonal attractiveness. A critic in Audio magazine in 1962 described it as "mayhem in Latin tempos." In reviewing the reel-to-reel tape release of "Infinity in Sound, Vol. Not all hi-fi buffs appreciated Esquivel's innovative writing for stereo. It's fitting that Esquivel's name was usually printed with an exclamation point: his trademark is the musical exclamation point, whether it's a "Pow!" sung by the chorus or a "zing" from a harpsichord. If Roger Williams uses a four octave run in his version of "Autumn Leaves," Esquivel would use six and split them among six different instruments, starting on the right channel and moving over to the left in the process. On "Latin-esque," he went to the extreme of channel separation by placing two orchestras in studios a block apart and mixing the result live in the booth. Most of Esquivel's recordings start with much the same big band with vocal chorus foundation as Ray Conniff and others, but his arrangements take every element to its limit. Esquivel was never happy with "Four Corners" and later said, "I wouldn't do it again if I had the chance." He was given five hours of studio time to record the album ("Other Worlds, Other Sounds"), but he finished the job with 90 minutes to spare and cut a second album, "Four Corners of the World," with a small combo. as "To Love Again." The label brought Esquivel to record in Hollywood in early 1958. RCA contracted with Esquivel in late 1957, first releasing one of his Mexican albums in the U.S. "He'd ask things like 'Can you play something that sounds like a Russian guy walking through China?' and somehow, I would do it," Esquivel later recalled. Much like Pedro Camacho, the soap opera writer in Vargas Llosa's "Aunt Julia and the Scripwriter," Esquivel honed his writing and conducting abilities providing the background music for a daily radio show starring the comedian Panseco. By 1940, he had formed his own band, with 22 musicians and 5 vocalists. Self-taught as a player, composer, and arranger, he proved a prodigy, and was soon leading the station orchestra. Esquivel's family moved to Mexico City in 1928, and by the early 1930s, he was appearing on radio station XEW. Died 3 January 2002, Jiutepec, Morelos, Mexico. ![]()
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