Saludos, amigos! Put on your coolest smoking jacket, pour yourself a martini, and plop an Esquivel LP on the hi-fi. It's time for some bachelor pad music!

Update 2/1/01: New Home for Esquivel! And Another Revival!! The dust is still settling, but we now have a permanent home for the Esquivel pages hosted at Rudy's Corner. Rudy's will continue to act as a "portal" site (after all, it IS the grand-daddy-o of all the sites that spun off of it), but now Juan will have his own spot within the Nipper's Place nightclub with all his fellow RCA artists. The "Esquivel!" page by Joe Holmes (of the old Space Age Bachelor Pad Music website) is still online, FYI.

R.I.P. Juan Garcia Esquivel, 1918-2002
It was never intended that my little "tribute" here be the bearer of sad news, but just today, I found out through good friend Jim McCollum at the A&M Forum that our dear musical friend Juan Garcia Esquivel passed away on January 4,2002 after two strokes, one in September and the other this past Dec. 30th. His contributions to musical landscape were many, including a fruitful recording contract with RCA, a stellar career as a bandleader in Las Vegas, and scoring countless music for television and movie productions. Rumor had it that Esquivel was also working with Combustible Edison's Brother Cleve on some material for a new album, which would have been interesting to hear in the new century. We'll post more information here as we find it out. In the meantime, hang tight. Your "webmaestro" has a full slate of projects he's working on, and really wants to flesh out this Esquivel discography properly, especially now that we're one of the few websites online that still feature The Bespectacled Juan's music.

New: CD Availability Index! Here is a listing of currently available Esquivel CDs from CDNow. Last updated Feb. 12, 2002. (Your purchases help support this website, and allow us to purchase the better anchovy-stuffed olives for our martinis.) Anyhoo, here's the list of what CDNow is serving up...

Domestic Esquivel CDs

• Cabaret Manana (compilation)
  
• Exploring New Sounds In Stereo/Strings Aflame (2-on-1)
  
• Merry Xmas From The Space-Age Bachelor Pad
  
• More Of Other Worlds Other Sounds
  
• Music From A Sparkling Planet (compilation)
  
• Other Worlds Other Sounds/Four Corners Of The World (2-on-1)
  
• See It In Sound (recently discovered unreleased RCA album!)
  
• Space Age Bachelor Pad Music (compilation)
  
• Infinity In Sound/Infinity In Sound Vol. 2 (2-on-1)
  

Import Esquivel CDs

• Four Corners Of The World
  
• Loungecore
  

Juan Garcia Esquivel began his career in Mexico as a youth, playing piano and leading a band for one of Mexico's largest radio stations. Beside being a wizard on the ivories, Esquivel is also known for his rather unorthodox arrangements. Nobody beside Spike Jones, or even Weird Al Yankovic, had more fun with the music than Esquivel. This section Rudy's Corner takes a critical look at Esquivel's recordings. Not all of the sections are complete by any means, as Esquivel LPs are hard, and expensive, to find. But what we've got here is enough to whet the appetite of anyone who's interested in Esquivel's brand of space-age pop music. Also, musician and track listings, where available, will be added in the coming weeks for the albums reviewed here.

"Boink Boink" went the chorus. "Zu-Zu-Zu-Zu"? "Sorry!" Interesting thoughts, instantly recognizable to fans of a certain gentleman from Mexico who made instrumental pop music quite unlike any other. One reviewer called him a "walking contradiction--a pop avant-gardist", while Variety referred to him as "the Mexican Duke Ellington", explaining that "Esquivel is to pop music approximately what Aaron Copland is to serious music or what a John Coltrane is to jazz".

Chester Santon, in Audio magazine, stated: "Each album by Esquivel, the Mexican Madcap, is apt to leave the listener wiht the impression that the limit of instrumental ingenuity has now been reached. This feeling, as we have learned over the years, persists only until the release of his next collection of mayhem in Latin tempos."

Juan Garcia Esquivel, born in Tampico, Tamaulipas in Mexico on January 20, 1918, taught himself piano and arranging, and by 14 was a featured soloist on Mexico City's most popular radio station. By 18, he was arranging, composing and conducting his own 22-piece band, fronted by five vocalists, eventually garnering himself immense popularity in his homeland on radio and TV, and also in theaters and nightclubs. In 1958, under contract to RCA Victor, Esquivel landed on our shores and grabbed the musical public.

His arrival coincided with the dawn of stereo recording, and as one of his producers (Johnny Camacho) recalled, "Esquivel is one arranger who really writes for stereophonic sound". He was also a relentless perfectionist, spending RCA's money in studio time to get his creations perfectly onto tape. His most ambitious use of a studio came with his Latin-Esque album, where he placed one half of his orchestra in RCA's Studio A with the other half in Studio B; joined by click tracks, Esquivel conducted the "A" orchestra, while guest conductor Stanley Wilson conducted the other half in Studio B. He was so intent on getting the perfect take, that he was often heard to say, "That was good...(a slight pause)...let's do another." Esquivel albums were expensive to produce, but with RCA willing to pay for the sessions and Esquivel pursuing the perfect take, the listener is the ultimate winner.

Thanks to the continuing interest in his music, there are three compilations CDs (or LPs for vinyl hounds) which provide a satisfying look at the musical legacy of Esquivel. Also in this report are the details of two album reissues on CD, and quick looks at the LPs in Rudy's collection so far. Keep checking back here, as I'm sure there'll be more Esquivel goodies gracing these pages in the coming weeks.

What's better than a dry martini for the holidays? Some Esquivel Christmas music on the hi-fi! Tracks from this CD are pulled from a couple of various sources, including an RCA Victor Christmas compilation. There is one long-lost track included on the album that Esquivel himself forgot that he had recorded! The album opens and closes with the group Combustible Edison, featuring narration by El Maestro himself! It's be the perfect companion to dry martinis and chestnuts by the fireplace as you recline on the bear-skin rug under the mistletoe, daddy-o.