Is it possible to make records with vocals based on "Pow! Pow!", "Zu Zu Zu Zu", or even "Boink Boink"? Can you take a disarmingly quiet piano passage and add an ungodly blast of brass on top of it? How can one best utilize such instruments as a crazed slide steel guitar or a unique invention called the "buzzimba"? If you're Juan Garcia Esquivel, you can do anything!

And that's just what he did. Big band leader, arranger, composer, wildly inventive engineer and blistering pianist, he made a string of critically successful albums for RCA and mounted a Las Vegas show that would last for several years. Along the way, he would grab songs from pop hits ("Lazy Bones"), bossa nova (Jobim's "Surfboard"), big band ("Begin The Beguine") or traditional Latin ("Baia" and "Anna"), and twist and wring them into unique arrangements that nobody else would even dare to attempt.

Take this set's opener, "Sentimental Journey"--it opens with bass trombone "blats", adds a high hat, then cuts in with that "buzzimba" instrument that sounds like PVC plumbing being slapped with rubber mallets, and gets a melody pickup from a whistling senor. Followed by blasts of brass, the aforementioned wayward steel slide guitar, and some appropriate "zu zu zu" vocals for the melody, and you have an instant classic Esquivel arrangement. (This is one of the few duplicate tracks that also appears on his RCA compilation CABARET MANANA.)

While he could be as ambitious as this, the bespectacled one could also carry a tune on his piano like nobody else. "Begin The Beguine", for instance, favors piano over arrangement, and it's literally drenched in glissando piano runs. He also composed his share of original tunes--the showpiece "Latin-esque", the corny "Mucha-Muchacha", and "Whatchamacallit". Cover versions on this disc also include "Music Makers", "Bye Bye Blues", "Who's Sorry Now?", and "Harlem Nocturne".

I'd recommend picking up at least one of his three compilations--this particular volume was the one that started the whole reissue craze for El Maestro. His LPs, long out of print, are collectors items, difficult to find, and expensive if you DO find them. Nonetheless, try to experience Esquivel any way you can. To some he may have been an eccentric--to others he was a genius. If you're like me, though, Esky's music slowly reels you in, and sooner than you can say "Pow! Pow!", you're hooked!

This CD is a follow-up to a previous compilation called Space Age Bachelor Pad Music. me. I "fell into" Esquivel's unique brand of musicmaking earlier this year upon finding a used LP of his, called Other Worlds, Other Sounds. I also happened to come across a slightly dog-eared copy of one of his early Mexican albums, Las Tandas de Juan Garcia Esquivel. And lately, I'd heard of the massive resurgence of interest in his music. To put it bluntly, I was curious.

Dropping that LP on the turntable was an experience unlike any other I'd had. "Granada" (which is on this CD) starts out with piano and a low bongo-powered undercurrent, followed a half minute later by a good couple of blasts from the brass section. "OK, neat", I thought. The second track, though, had me in stitches! ("Begin The Beguine", which appears on the disc above.) The Randy Van Horne singers appear, not singing regular vocals, but blurting out lines like "Zu-Zu-Zu-Zuuu" and "Oo-be-do-POW! POW!", plunked right down in the middle of a crazed-sounding Hawaiian steel guitar and spastic marimba runs! As the LP finished out the first side, I shook my head. "Whew, man, this cat is CRAZY!" An hour later, back on the platter it went! I was hooked.

Why, I don't know. One can say Esquivel was an brilliant genius, not content with the norm in music making, posessed with an ear for different (often clashing) sounds and textures. Another can say he was an eccentric, tossing oddly dissontant blasts and lunatic vocal lines into perfectly good pop songs. In the spirit of Esquivel, I'll offer that he's a Latin Spike Jones, politely spoofing and sending up popular songs of the day, not out of contempt but out of love for the music.

This CD's opening track, "Cachita", opens with some kind of rattling percussion (the sides of a timbale or snare drum??) that immediately brings to mind the City Slickers, with ol' Spike Jones himself smacking away on a washboard with drumsticks! "Third Man Theme" is a conglomeration of sounds--it starts out with a keyboard resembling a harpsichord and snapping fingers a-la the "Addams Family" theme, and proceeds into a two-sided big band blowout with that wonderful slide guitar punctuating a few of the beats.

RCA signed Esquivel back at the dawn of stereo, and dubbed Esquivel's music "sound the eyes can follow". Some of his recordings utilized two complete big bands; Esquivel placed each band in a separate studios, and conducted both via closed-circuit television and a click track, with the end product resulting in the surreal stereo separation of a separate band in each speaker. "Third Man Theme" has this in spades! One RCA exec had also commented that Esquivel arranged his music for stereo recording. A lot of his other mixes feature instruments fanned out over the complete soundstage, while some of the sound effects and percussion were panned back and forth, in motion across the speakers.

"All of Me" is covered here as well, in typical manic Esquivel fashion. In the first several seconds, we're treated to frantic drums and bass, punctuation from the horns like splotches of dripping paint, a dizzying marimba run followed by a slide guitar lick, two throaty blasts from the horn section, and vocals compliments of Randy Van Horne's--"All of me, zu-zuzuzu-zu-zuzu". And once this flies, the arrangement breaks into one mean mambo beat. And through the whole tornado flies Esquivel, tickling the ivories as only he can. A very inventive arrangement indeed, one of the high points of this disc.

His use of horns, percussion and vocals is unique and original, and very inventive. To explain further is pointless--you either love and appreciate his music, or you don't.

As for packaging, this CD wins major points. The first disc, Space Age Bachelor Pad Music gives a complete history and biography of Esquivel's career. This second release offers thoughts from the people he worked with, as well as a current note from El Maestro himself, now 77 years old. The sound is nothing special. Compared to my RCA LP, it's nowhere near as clean or detailed. The bongos on "Granada" are buried low in the mix to begin with, and the CD loses the sharp attack. The whole CD sounds "processed" with a touch of phony echo, and is buried beneath a slight haze.

You have to hear this music--it's funny, weird, jarring, unique, clever...space-aged! You won't be "hip" until you've spun some Esquivel!

I can't resist adding the technical note from the case: "This album should be audiophonically reproduced with a stabilized, calibrated, two-channel optic scanner, traversing the disc surface radially from the outer perimeter towards the center. Using this digital storage medium with any other reproductive configuration is very, very uncool." (Incidentally, CDs are scanned from inner to outer perimeter--maybe this CD is some futuristic space-aged variant?) The final touch on this CD is the CD's silk screened label, which kindly gives us a view of all four of Esquivel's wives.

By now, you must think I'm missing a few wires in my circuitry! Another Esquivel CD? Well, as fans of El Maestro's music know, one's mind does tend to short-circuit when exposed to Esquivel! It must be all of the space-aged music blaring out of the speakers, visions of Jetsons dancing in my head.

After Bar None released two CD compilations of Esquivel's music, RCA itself dug into its own vaults to find some more gems for space-aged ears. Whereas the previous CD I reviewed, Music From A Sparkling Planet, had a couple of giggly, hilarious moments, this CD leans a little more toward the serious. (If one can say that about Esquivel's music.) More emphasis is place on his unique arrangements of pop standards. We have here a dynamic version of "Night and Day" with a few snippets of the original vocals, an otherworldly cover of "Harlem Nocturne", a quirky swinging arrangement of "Sentimental Journey" (complete with trade mark "zu zu zu's" from the Randy Van Horne singers), and a decidedly unique treatment of "Take The 'A' Train" with blaring brass, plinking marimba and a few vocal "POW POW's!" thrown in for good measure. Can you imagine "Lullaby of Birdland" in Esquivel disguise? You have to hear it!

True fans will appreciate the five tracks from Juan's last RCA Victor album, ESQUIVEL 1968, which had only been released in Mexico and Puerto Rico: "El Cable", "Todavia", "Yeyo", the totally groovy "Mini Skirt" (covered by Combustible Edison), and "Guanacoa". Also, there are only a couple of duplicate tunes on this CD and Sparkling Planet. But the bonus here is that the sound on this CD is far better than what Bar None is offering on their reissues--it is much cleaner and, I presume, at least a generation or two closer to RCA's original Living Stereo master tapes. And the liner notes provide a suitable chronological account of his recording and performance career.

Due to an injury, Juan Garcia Esquivel is confined to a bed. (A broken hip combined with a recurring spinal injury has kept him off of his feet for a couple of years.) But El Maestro still says he'd like to record again, and bring to life some of the ideas in his mind. Esquivel fans can hope he'll do at least one more set, which should be well received given his recent rise in popularity. If not, these compilations should keep us company for a long time coming!