Our beloved chewy brought up Esquivel in the vinyl forum, and asked if anyone else here digs him. I do, and I STILL need to find the album with him and the telescope on the cover. I have most of the other ones. Thoughs?

A fan here, but not an obsessive one. Dig him, but a little goes a long way for me.

I like him a lot - I once gave a lecture at Rutgers during which I played some of his stuff - my comment at the time was that "he has more imagination than taste - which is a good thing."

About ten years ago I bought a CD compilation of his on RCA called something like Space Age Bachelor Pad Music.

I enjoy it and can recommend it. But having that one, I've never been moved to get another.

I have this same CD, with Sentimental Journey as track 1. I put it on about once a year and enjoy it for about half an hour, then I reach the limit.

I spend a lot of that time imagining what it would have been like to produce that sound, and run that orchestra, and what it would have been like to see them play live.

Big fan. See It In Sound is one of my faves. Fun stuff. Crazy arrangements and some great sound.

I've always wondered why his stuff seems to be so hard to find. For example, the only Esquivel record I have is Other Worlds, Other Sounds, and it's beat to hell. I was always under the impression the stuff sold. Maybe not millions, but sold enough that in all the years of digging I should have seen more than one album.

I also really love the Three Suns, at least the late 50s to the 60s stuff. In fact, today I finally found a copy of Movin' and Groovin', my fave Suns album, which has proved to be really elusive also.

If you don't already have it, try to find their "Smoke and Fire" album on RCA, just as good if not better.

My earliest musical memory (from the early 50s) is listening to my parents' record of the Three Suns' Twilight Time.

My impression is that his stuff was commercially successful for a time, but then that time passed and Esquivel was relegated to the pop-culture dust bin. Kind of a fad, in other words.

I personally like his stuff, got a couple of CD's back in the day, but only listen to it in limited doses and at widely spaced intervals. I guess that much as I like the idea of Ellington-on-mescalin crossed with early Pere Ubu in the abstract, when I listen to it, the music (though fun as hell) can't ultimately shake the deadly clinging taint of "novelty music."

(In other words, he's more Raymond Scott than Duke Ellington. Not that there's anything wrong with that....)

the three suns are fantastic too

I think I have Smoke and Fire, I'll have to check. I know I've seen it dozens of times. Didn't they do one with King Curtis? That's another I've been on the prowl for.

Actually, most mood music LPs from that era DID NOT sell well, and the labels knew they wouldn't from the get go. The labels had to quickly create hi fi catalogs, and then stereo catalogs a few years later. The hope was for the records to break even, and if they made a few bucks, all the better. They were making their money off of hit singles and blockbuster LPs like "West Side Story."

Actually, I got the title wrong: Fever, Smoke and Fire. Don't know about the King Curtis.

I think Picasso said that taste was the enemy of creativity!

Wasn't Ernie Kovacs fond of using Esquivel material?

As far as taste v imagination, I can do business with one, have nasty sex with the other, but would only consider getting married to the combination.

It's been thirty years since I've seen it, but as I recall Kovacs did a trick photography thing of filing cabinet drawers opening and closing in rhythm to an Esquivel recording.

Kovacs used "Sentimental Journey," which was included on the "Space Age Bachelor Pad Music" compilation on Bar None.

When the first Esquivel reissues were being discussed in the early 90s, RCA had ZERO interest in releasing them, which was why they were released by Bar None. That first compilation ended up selling WAY MORE copies than the indie-pop crap that RCA was peddling at the time.

Knew the one you ment.

The King Curtis album is "Swingin' on a Star". Always been curious to hear that one.

It appears available with a blog search.

I bet it's not wholly unlike hearing Sam Taylor w/Raymond Scott's Secret Seven...

Ha! I THOUGHT I'd heard that somewhere before!

Serves them right, the dumb fucks.

Ernie Kovacs was perfect for presenting Esquivel's music. "Sentimental Journey" features a flatulent bass trombone, a whistler, Hawiaan guitar, a screaming brass section, and "zu zu" background vocals in incongrous rapid succession like no other arranger has dared since. I'm not surprised that Esquivel's music doesn't get respect from more than a cult following more than once every 25 years or so.

Like others before me in this thread, I consider Esquivel's over-the-top music in a class with that of Raymond Scott (Both made adventurous, outrageous music under the guise of "easy listening"). Esquivel even enjoyed the parises of Frank Sinatra during Esquivel's Las Vegas period. If you don't like well-executed corny music (done better only by Spike Jones), don't bother to check out Esquivel.

Here's a review of an Esquivel Album I posted on Rate Your Music 6 months ago:

<<When I was at Oberlin College 30 years ago the local radio station sold off unwanted LPs for 25 cents each. At that time, I was into campy lounge music. The best title I found was Billie Holiday's "Music for Torching". This gave me an idea. My buddy Mr. Inflammable Gass bought an acetlyne torch to conspicuously destroy the worst music we could find, in the center of campus. (Don't panic, we hadn't heard this one yet). We melted Mantovani, liberated the liberals from Liberace, and marinated "The Mariachi Brass with Chet Baker". I still don't regret any of that musical destruction. (Ironically, Liberace gave scholarship money to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, but he never cunsulted me or Mr. Imflammable Gass.)

'Twasn't until 2005 that I discovered the music of Esquivel. Mr. Gass and I had previously described Las Vegas lounge music as what a middle-aged obese Republican and his wife would enjoy listening to in the background while they drove their Buick to a steakhouse/buffet with cocktails. Our epitome of music befitting such a conservative couple drinking and pigging out was "A Man And A Woman" by Jo Basile's orchestra.

Now that I've been digging Esquivel for a couple of years, I can state that this music would stimulate the obese Republican couple in the buffet to incomprehensible acts. An average cocktail pianist might be satisfied with a four octave arpeggio. Esquivel makes it seven octaves! Whereas Mantovani was merely lush, Esquivel piants easy listening in contrasting, day-glo colors. Yes, the backround vocals (zu-zu-zu) are tacky. What's even more incredible are the incongrous sound palettes (harpsichord, Hawaiin guitar, and bassoon in rapid succession). Only Spike Jones had dared to do this before, and he sold his stuff as comedy music, but unlike Esquivel, never made it as a Las Vegas mainstay.

This CD is highly recommended for anyone who enjoys outrageous, over-the-top arrangements masquerading under the guise of mainstream.>>

"well-executed corny music"

sorry, I find this a real mis-reading of what really are very hip little musical gestures -

What I've always found interesting about Esquivel's music is that he's from Mexico, yet his music distills that whole postwar American futuristic optimism vibe more perfectly than any of his US contemporaries.

Good point.

The Three Sun's lp "Swingin' on a star" is my very fave of all their rca material. King Curtis swings and honks and does some nice ballads on this one.
Great lp cover, too, a guy and gal on a flying carpet, if I recall.

I think Esquivel and The Three Sun's were both great, and definately not a "Guilty pleasure"
As for my deep admiration for the antics of the Kirby Stone 4, well..........

This weekend I uploaded all of my Esquivel CDs into iTunes and have been listening non-stop. After you eliminate duplicated tracks, both the Bar None, Cabaret Manana, Warner/Reprise album, and stray tracks on "History of Space Age Pop" fit onto TWO CDs. Perfection.

The only album I have by Esquivel is Out of This World. I love the cover and the music is pretty interesting too. A friend sold it to me for a couple of bucks and I'm pretty sure it's a first pressing.

It's like the Bob Graettinger zygote split in the womb & Esquivel got all the humor, Graettinger all the seriousness and there was enough brass to go around for both.