From: owner-exotica-digest@lists.xmission.com (exotica-digest) To: exotica-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: exotica-digest V2 #555 Reply-To: exotica-digest Sender: owner-exotica-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-exotica-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk X-No-Archive: yes exotica-digest Thursday, November 25 1999 Volume 02 : Number 555 In This Digest: RE: (exotica) Re: this week's finds: Ken Nordine's COLORS (exotica) The Doopies (exotica) Quadness... Re: (exotica) Quadraphonics Revisited (exotica) Los Angeles Tiki Shows Dec 3 & 4 (exotica) Tiki night, SF, Dec 2 Re: (exotica) The Doopies Re: (exotica) Quadness... (exotica) black and very white Re: (exotica) The Doopies Re: (exotica) black and very white Re: (exotica) Jaded Re: (exotica) Ketchup Catching Up (exotica) Michel Polnareff (exotica) Incredibly Strange Score Re: (exotica) Jaded (exotica) Re:Jaded Re: (exotica) Incredibly Strange Score (exotica) Re: Experiment in Terror-H. Mancini (exotica) FWD> ESQUIVEL'S LOST MASTERPIECE IS FINALLY RELEASED... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 24 Nov 1999 16:59:56 -0800 From: "Mark Wasiel" Subject: RE: (exotica) Re: this week's finds: Ken Nordine's COLORS > Kevin wrote: > > >Just stumbled upon Ken Nordine's COLORS on CD at Border's..... > >WOW. > >Any thoughts? You are very lucky as this title has just been deleted from Asphodel records. Grab it while you can folks! Unfortunately someone stole my old copy and I've procrastinated repurchasing it. Hopefully, I'll be able to dig one up before they are all returned. Mark http://www.newmusicmachine.com home of the newmusic calendar & the pizzicato five discography # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Nov 1999 09:59:33 -0800 From: "Ponak, David" Subject: (exotica) The Doopies The Doopies record is indeed wonderful, and has a connection to the exotica list that everyone may be overlooking. The mastermind behind the Doopies is Yann Tomita (not to be confused with Tomita, the electronic classical guy). Yann produced parts of Martin Denny's "Exotica 90" album, as well as originally being part of Japanese exotica revivalists Watermelon. He's gone onto to do such solo projects as "Music For Astro Age" and a 3 disc box set (I'm blanking out on the title) about a year and a half ago. His solo material is much more experimental than the Doopies, with long, ambient tracks, Sun-Rah covers, and odd guest appearances by folks such as Grandmaster Flash. # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Nov 1999 13:35:08 +1100 From: "Keith E. Lo Bue" Subject: (exotica) Quadness... Surely there are more enlightened folks than I out there regarding quad systems, but from what I recall, they required a quad needle on the turntable, and a quad amplifier to direct the signal to the four speakers. The needle apparently had four contact points to the groove...anyone else remember this? I heartily agree that I'm missing something meaningful by not hearing these quad releases in their glory....I even had one track by Perrey/Kingsley in quad on a sampler LP...oooo... Keith ******************************* http://www.lobue-art.com The Artwork and Workshops of Keith E. Lo Bue ******************************* # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Nov 1999 23:06:06 -0500 From: "m.ace" Subject: Re: (exotica) Quadraphonics Revisited Quad info available at The Surround Sound Discography Home Page: http://personal.riverusers.com/~manderso/ Here's a shortcut to their history of various formats and how they work: http://personal.riverusers.com/~manderso/quaddisc/quadfrmt.htm And a Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who's celebrating it (or those who are not). Don't eat too much turkey. Or is that... Don't eat too much, turkey. m.ace ecam@voicenet.com OOK http://www.voicenet.com/~ecam/ # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Nov 1999 00:05:03 EST From: Ottotemp@aol.com Subject: (exotica) Los Angeles Tiki Shows Dec 3 & 4 Please join Otto & Baby doe in celebrating 2 exciting new Tiki art shows UltraTiki: Rum Induced Art Concoctions by Trader Van & Dave Burke Fri, Dec 3 7 - 10 pm at Cacao tiki Coffeehouse 11609 Santa Monica Bl @ Federal West Los Angeles 310-473-7283 Leeteg Tribute Show featuring Tiki art and original Leetegs for sale Booksignings by John Turner "leeteg of Tahiti" Martin McIntosh "Taboo: The Art of Tiki" and art from so many artists we can't list 'em This is the grand opening of the new Tikified Copro/Nason Gallery 11265 Washington Blvd Culver City 310-398-2643 www.copronason.com Sat, Dec 4 8 - 11 pm of course both events are free! * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * This mailing list is brought to you by Slick.ORG at http://www.slick.org to remove yourself from the list, send e-mail to majordomo@slick.org and include the words "unsubscribe tikievents" in the message (not in the subject). For web-based help, go to: http://www.slick.org/cgi-bin/majordomo * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Nov 1999 00:04:52 EST From: Ottotemp@aol.com Subject: (exotica) Tiki night, SF, Dec 2 Li Lo Lounge 18th & Connecticut on Potrero HIll Thursday Dec 2 9 pm - 1:30 am FREE Disc Jockey Otto spins while Martin McIntosh signs Publisher/gallery owner Martin McIntosh freshly in from Australia will be signing his new book "Taboo: The Art of Tiki" Meanwhile Otto will provide maximum Exotica listening pleasure by plyaing any and all requests from the crowd A press release for the book follows: PRESS RELEASE..... Taboo: The Art of Tiki ISBN 0-646-37731-0 $24.95 (soft cover - 96 pages, 64 full color) Distributed by Last Gasp of San Francisco Edited by Martin McIntosh, Introduction by Sven Kirsten, Essay by Boyd Rice "Taboo: The Art of Tiki" features tiki inspired art from 36 artists (many Southern Californian based) including Robert Williams, Coop, Mark Ryden, Shag, Jeffrey Vallance, and Mary Fleener. The art featured takes the form of paintings and drawings, sculpture, carvings, photographs, and computer generated images. Taking inspiration from both authentic Polynesian tikis and faux American tiki culture (a.k.a. Polynesian Pop - a term coined by introduction author Sven Kirsten) that flourished throughout during the 1950s and 60s and saw rise to tiki themed bars, restaurants, and apartments all erected in honor of the then new American god of recreation and leisure - Tiki! The art featured details a myriad of evocative images - ancient stone Tikis on South Sea Islands, Hawaiian Luaus with native dancers, scenes of tiki bars replete with Tiki torches and tropical cocktails, and Tiki gods in lush exotic locales. "Taboo: The Art of Tiki" is the perfect compliment to that Mai Tai cocktail and Martin Denny record - it will transport you to an other-worldly paradise. The book is the first release to be published by Australian based Outr Gallery Press. The book is being distributed by Last Gasp of San Francisco. Outr Gallery Press was founded in 1999 by Martin McIntosh, 26, as an extension of his gallery of the same name dedicated to exhibiting alternative and pop culture based artwork from around the world (though with an emphasis on Southern Californian alternative / Juxtpoz style artists). Originally from Germany, urban archaeologist Sven Kirsten is now based in California, and will have a book "In Search of Tiki" coming out in 2000, to be published by Taschen Books. Southern Californian born Boyd Rice co-authored the RE/Search publication "Incredibly Strange Films", and has recorded and performed under the name NON since the mid 1970s. A long time advocate of past forgotten fads and styles, Rice was an early enthusiast of exotica/lounge musician Martin Denny, and helped generate interest in the resurgence of Denny's music. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * This mailing list is brought to you by Slick.ORG at http://www.slick.org to remove yourself from the list, send e-mail to majordomo@slick.org and include the words "unsubscribe tikievents" in the message (not in the subject). For web-based help, go to: http://www.slick.org/cgi-bin/majordomo * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Nov 1999 13:47:37 +0900 From: Jan Fornell Subject: Re: (exotica) The Doopies Ponak, David wrote: > > The Doopies record is indeed wonderful, and has a connection to the exotica > list that everyone may be overlooking. The mastermind behind the Doopies is > Yann Tomita (not to be confused with Tomita, the electronic classical guy). > Yann produced parts of Martin Denny's "Exotica 90" album, as well as > originally being part of Japanese exotica revivalists Watermelon. He's gone > onto to do such solo projects as "Music For Astro Age" and a 3 disc box set > (I'm blanking out on the title) about a year and a half ago. His solo > material is much more experimental than the Doopies, with long, ambient > tracks, Sun-Rah covers, and odd guest appearances by folks such as > Grandmaster Flash. I was just about to write something to the same effect, but you said it already. Yann Tomita must be (at least) in his late 40s, so I don't think the Doopies can be decribed as "young" (although the singer was 13, I believe). I used to recommend the truly wonderful Watermelon album "Cool Music" about once a year on this list, but never got any response whatsoever. (Now, THAT is an album you should buy when you get here, Jill, if you don't have it already. It's been reissued on CD too.) But Yann Tomita is very interesting. I have an amazing "Special Exotica Issue" of a fashion magazine from 1990 which contains colour photographs of 106 essential exotica albums selected by him and he definitely knows his stuff. Last year I met him at an art gallery where he had an installation of recording-related artifacts: stacks of multi-track tape, broken-and-glued-together LPs (a la Christian Marclay) which he used as backing loops, and not least an environmentally controlled synthesizer (it reacted to sunlight, if I remember correctly). Jan (also pronounced "Yann" in Japanese) # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Nov 1999 00:33:06 -0500 From: Nat Kone Subject: Re: (exotica) Quadness... At 01:35 PM 11/25/99 +1100, Keith E. Lo Bue wrote: > >Surely there are more enlightened folks than I out there regarding quad >systems, but from what I recall, they required a quad needle on the >turntable, and a quad amplifier to direct the signal to the four speakers. >The needle apparently had four contact points to the groove...anyone else >remember this? If you really want to know, I'll ask my friend "The Quadfather" and get back to you. But I know that he plays his quad records without a quad needle or cartridge. I can't say for sure that no such needle exists but it's certainly not necessary. And as it turns out, you don't need an old quad amp to get quad sound. Quadfather just got a new amp with a number of settings, including "surround sound" and it basically does the same thing as the quad amp except that it also makes stereo and even mono records sound kind of quadlike. Ever since my friend became the Quadfather, we've been looking for quad records. They're not that easy to find. There's some Quadradisc stuff, including Montenegro. There's a bit of Project 3 stuff. And for some reason, folkie Bonnie Koloc is a big quad artist. I know hundreds were made but so far we've only accumulated about thirty. If you want more details, ask... Nat # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Nov 1999 00:36:39 -0500 From: Nat Kone Subject: (exotica) black and very white I saw an LP today "Nina and Frederik with Louis Armstrong"! They only "sing" together on one track but still... it makes me wonder if Heino ever recorded with Ray Charles. (And I don't mean the Ray Charles Singers, which would probably be a comfortable fit for all concerned.) Nat # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Nov 1999 00:40:24 -0500 From: Nat Kone Subject: Re: (exotica) The Doopies At 01:47 PM 11/25/99 +0900, Jan Fornell wrote: >But Yann Tomita is very interesting. I have an amazing "Special Exotica >Issue" of a fashion magazine from 1990 which contains colour photographs >of 106 essential exotica albums selected by him and he definitely knows >his stuff. I still don't know from Doopies but if it wouldn't be too much trouble, I'd be interested in knowing what the 106 essential albums were. We didn't have much luck trying to compile such a list on this mailing list but I'd like to know what someone considers "essential". Nat # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Nov 1999 12:17:14 +0100 From: Ton Rueckert Subject: Re: (exotica) black and very white >I saw an LP today "Nina and Frederik with Louis Armstrong"! They only >"sing" together on one track but still... it makes me wonder if Heino ever >recorded with Ray Charles. Probably not, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if they've shared the stage together on one of these grand German TV shows. I remember Louis Armstrong in a duet with a young German teeny star, wasn't that in a musical with Conny Froboess? If there's one German as wacko as Heino, it must be Helge Schneider, multi-instrumentalist and master of absurd sillyness, saw him on TV yesterday with a damned good version of Elvis's Jailhouse Rock. And there's a link too with Louis Armstrong as you can hear for yourselves: "Louis (Armstrong) und ich waren gute Freunde..." http://www.leo.org/fun/helgeschneider/audio/helge8.au (45 Kb) "Helge's Version of "Wonderful World" http://www.leo.org/fun/helgeschneider/audio/helge9.au (314 Kb) Cheers, Ton PS Cheese & chickens: Eurodisney and the Franco-American cultural war http://www.salon1999.com/comics/boll/1999/11/25/boll/index.html *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** Ton Rueckert Mozartstraat 12 5914 RB Venlo The Netherlands *** *** mojoto@plex.nl http://www.plex.nl/~mojoto Ph 31/0 773545386 *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ Beware! Your bones are going to be disconnected. ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/4264/music/Xbe3975.ram ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Nov 1999 12:39:19 +0100 From: Mo Subject: Re: (exotica) Jaded Sandberg Magnus wrote: > A new choice is "Un chant d'amour", France Arnell. But allthough beautiful it sounds melancolic too, Hmm I am bad at this.... Where are all the happy sounds????? People who can't appreciate sentimental tunes have a heart of stone. Mo # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Nov 1999 11:40:46 GMT From: Peter Hipwell Subject: Re: (exotica) Ketchup Catching Up > From: Peter Risser > > Second topic: > What's the *ugliest* album cover you ever bought? > > I bought a George Benson album, called "H" I think, > simply because it's this BIG HOT DOG on a bun with a > nasty YELLOW stripe of mustard against a BLUE > background. It stretches the length of a gatefold and > has a bite out of it. Totally repulsive, but I had to > have it. > I think the actual ugliest are any of the stack of "Top TV Themes" albums by people like Geoff Love, Jack Parnell, Nick Nicholas, Jack Hawkins, etc. etc. These generally have covers that portray characters/scenes from all the programmes involved, squooshed randomly together somehow on the cover and rendered with a wretched level of drawing ability. They're kind of "mutant": unrecognisable disembodied heads with big furrow lines in the brow and an uber-perm floating above a group of polyester-clad characters shooting each other next to some Wombles on a football pitch, a crippled Starship Enterprise flying into a very big vase containing spinach, the Loch Ness Monster, a small truck on fire driven by a girl in a bikini, and Dr. Crippen as portrayed by Richard Chamberlain's mange-ridden dog Rufus, all lovingly coloured with a specialised technique known as "overlapping". Mmmm. If you're really lucky, all this is framed in a TV set, but sometimes you just get a TV set with the title in it as the cover -- that's pretty ugly too. Or then there's the Richard Gregory one ("Avengers and Other TV Themes") on Wing which has a big green plastic skull with eyes in it and a gun, all on a blue background. Could definitely strip the threads of your retinas. # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Nov 1999 10:01:42 +0000 From: the_curator@eat78rpm.freeserve.co.uk Subject: (exotica) Michel Polnareff >I noticed the release of a tribute-album for Michel Polnareff, starring cool >artists as Saint Etienne, Nick Cave Marc Almond et al >My question is: >Who is Michel Polnareff. What's cool by him and why? I have a couple of albums by him ... one on CD called "Le Bal Des Laze" (no idea what that means) and another on record fropm Japan, which opens out into a book, with photos of Polnareff, Bowie, Bolan! "Le Bal Des Laze" is a really great album from start to finish, with the catchiest melodies you've ever heard ... when i first heard it, i was even sure that i'd heard some of them before, in perhaps an instrumental form, but can't be sure i'm curious to hear this tribute album ... if you like the songs ... get an original album ... it'll be better friendly Sem Sinatra # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Nov 1999 10:16:14 EST From: BasicHip@aol.com Subject: (exotica) Incredibly Strange Score Happy Thanksgiving All - Just scored the legendary THE GAME OF LIFE (Word W-3298-LP), narrated by Jarrell McCracken. It is the thrilling play-by-play description of an imaginary football game between Christianity and The Forces Of Evil. Satan coaches the bad guys, Jesus Christ the good. God is the referee. McCracken calls the game in his Texas drawl as the crowds go wild. AMAZING!!!! This is what record collecting is all about, for me anyway. :) Got it from the guy that did the Hollywood in Hi-Fi book, Reel George. I'll be putting this on a CD soon - it will make a perfect stocking stuffer for those who think they have heard it all... # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Nov 1999 10:38:10 -0500 From: mimim@texas.net (Mimi Mayer) Subject: Re: (exotica) Jaded >People who can't appreciate sentimental tunes have a heart of stone. A famous poet (OK, that's an oxymoron) once said the best poems are sad poems, then read Robert Lowell's wonderful poem, "Skunk Hour." Melancholy is seductive because there's something luscious, comforting, and oh so human about it. We all understand it and it's a way we understand each other. For everyone on holiday, have a happy. Mimi # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Nov 1999 10:14:10 -0700 From: kendoll Subject: (exotica) Re:Jaded >Anyway, does anyone else have a vaguely cheezy songthat sticks in the craw that just makes >you super happy to listen to? i don't know about cheezy, but "peanut vendor" always makes me insanely happy when i hear it, doesn't matter who does it, especially if it's the english language version -- i love the line "if you're looking for a moral to this song, fifty million little monkeys can't be wrong." mike ewanus # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Nov 1999 09:42:42 -0800 From: "Ron Grandia" Subject: Re: (exotica) Incredibly Strange Score >I'll be putting this on a CD soon - it will make a perfect stocking stuffer >for those who think they have heard it all... SCOOORE! A great Two-fer would be to combine that bad-boy with "Flight F-I-N-A-L." # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Nov 1999 14:39:15 +0100 From: Johan Dada Vis Subject: (exotica) Re: Experiment in Terror-H. Mancini Al wrote: >Anyone have any opionion about the soundtrack to H. Mancini's "Experiment in >Terror"? >I can get a copy for $6.50 > >Is it worth it?? i would say, definitely, absolutely: yes, for that price. i remeber jack Diamond called it a CLASSIC crime jazz soundtrack. johan # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Nov 1999 19:05:02 +0100 From: Johan Dada Vis Subject: (exotica) FWD> ESQUIVEL'S LOST MASTERPIECE IS FINALLY RELEASED... since no one else has forwarded this press release yet - at least not at the time i did... - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Paul Williams ESQUIVEL - SEE IT IN SOUND HIS LOST MASTERPIECE SURFACES AFTER 40 YEARS!! 11 PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED PERFORMANCES ON CD FOR THE FIRST TIME!! Released this week on 7N Music (distributed by BMG Distribution/Buddha Records) is the first "new" Esquivel album in over 30 years. "See It In Sound" (66748-77002-2) is Esquivel's lost masterpiece. Recorded in May 1960, the album is released for the first time almost four decades later. Originally discovered by Combustible Edison's Br. Cleve, the tapes were long thought to be lost; however, as a result of locating serial numbers in the run-out grooves of producer Neely Plumb's original scratched acetate, the masters were found safe in RCA's Boyers, PA vault. Juan Garcia Esquivel is the undisputed king of space age bachelor pad music. He is a pop avant-gardist who, while embraced by fans of lounge music, is certainly not "easy listening". His music is not just big band supped up with channel-splitting shindiggery. He pushes the outer limits of stereo and is, recalled producer Johnny Camucho "the one arranger who writes for stereophonic sound". Esquivel's rebirth as lounge music star extraordinaire dates back to 1994 and the efforts of Irwin Chusid (now his manager) and pioneering Hoboken, NJ based indie Bar/None Records. Bar/None released the classic compilation "Space Age Bachelor Pad Music" (1994) which went on to sell over 100,000 copies and led to the successful follow-up "Music From A Sparkling Planet". (1995). A brilliant mix of Esquivel's own unique sound and classic Brazilian rhythms, this album was allegedly rejected by RCA because it was considered too ahead of its time. Lounge Music's Sam Wick has termed it the lounge generation's Smile or Black Album. The album features an extensive essay by Wick, full details of the original personnel and was mastered from the original first generation tapes for the best possible sound quality. Track Listing: Title RCA Serial # El Manisero (The Peanut Vendor) L2PB 0408 Amazon Paddle Boat L2PB-0413 Honky Tonky Cha Cha L2PB-0414 Cumana L2PB-0411 Brazil L2PB-0405 Chubasco L2PB-0410 Walk To The Bull Ring L2PB-0407 Aurora L2PB-0412 Similau L2PB-0404 Incas Dream L2PB-0409 Tropica L2PB-0406 *** If you would like to review this album for your web site, please contact Paul Williams at wileyone@warwick.net **** The following are the liner notes taken from the booklet of "See It In Sound" Esquivel Zounds! Lost Sounds! Juan Garcia Esquivel is the undisputed king of space age bachelor pad music. He is a pop avant-gardist, who while embraced by fans of lounge music, is certainly not 'easy listening.' Unlike the composers of his day, Esquivel did not run a troupe of muzak induced zombies through mollycoddled blue-hair standards. His was not just a big band supped up with channel-splitting shin-diggery. He was pushing the outer limits of stereo. This was sonorama, music as mind enthralling as a journey to Mars or a perilous plunge to the depths of the bottom the ocean. Esquivel took the listener to the dizzying heights of musical passion. He was recalled producer Johnny Camancho, "the one arranger who writes for stereophonic sound." Esquivel is the bon vivant of today's revived cocktail nation. A cadre of youngsters who weren't even alive when Esquivel released his last album, Esquivel! 1968!, are raising a collective martini in his honor. The plum of the lounge revival from Combustible Edison to Pizzicato Five, all name check him relentlessly as a musical inspiration. How did the man known as the Mexican Duke Ellington, whose albums never reached the Billboard Top 200 leave such a lasting impression today? Strereo. Esquivel didn't invent stereo, but stereo might as well have been invented for him. Throughout the '50s and '60s he arranged and recorded a calcavade of records that defined the ping-ponging, hi-fidelity generation. Latin-esque, Infinity in Sound - Volume 1 & 2, Strings Aflame, Exploring New Sounds in Stereo were records that indisputably showcased the power of stereo. Trumpets would blare forth like Judgment Day, buzzimbas and ondiolines bounce from speaker to speaker like jetsetting playboys, while The Randy Van Horne Singers recited his trademark wordless 'zu-zus' with sexy atomic-peppered glee. It's no wonder that Esquivel had a exclamation point after his name. The Esquivel sound was so big, so spectacular, that there was no other way to do it justice. Esquivel's sound was so unique, so different from that of his bachelor-pad contemporaries because his musical lineage was so extreme. He had more in common with musical absurdists Spike Jones and Carl Stalling, than EZ favorites Les Baxter or Hugo Montenegro. Where most composers (i.e. Henry Mancini) were groomed within the context of the big band farm system, Esquivel's early sound took an entirely different path. The earmarks that would become Esquivel's unmistakable sound developed south of the border. Born in Tampico, Tamaulipas in Mexico at the close of World War 1 on January 20, 1918, Esquivel found himself resettled in cosmopolitan Mexico City at the tender age of 10. His stereophonic experiments owe a legacy to his schooling as an engineer. But it was at XEW, the largest radio station in Mexico City, that Esquivel would develop his knack for quirky compositions and exaggerated arrangements. While still in his teens he was arranging and composing for radio. It was while working with Mexican radio comedian Panesco, that he developed 'descriptive sounds' - - music to help listeners visualize oddball cues. He would cook up a musical melange like a Russian muztte for a cue of "a Frenchman walking in Russia." This skill would serve him well, he could take the sound of any nationality (i.e. the boogie-woogie, swing, etc..) and make it his own. Esquivel became known for his uncanny ability to contort any arrangement into a dance number for his Mexican fans. Later he would bring his unique Latin arrangements to the world stage, but for Esquivel it was at XEW when the world's music went Latin. In the late '50s, Tropical and Latin sounds were nothing new to American ears. Oresta Lopez composed the first mambo danzion back in 1938. The rumba was a ballroom fad for much of '30s. Cole Porter popularized the sound of the French Antilles with "Begin the Beguine." The samba was so entrenched in pop culture that even Walt Disney used it as a soundtrack to Donald Duck's adventures in Watercolor of Brazil. Perez Prado, Xavier Cugat, and Carmen Miranda were cherished members of every families record collection. It was party music for a cocktail-swinging nation enjoying the good life. America had gone 'south of the border.' It was time for Esquivel to head north. By 1958, Esquivel was a star. He had won numerous awards as the best piano player in all of Mexico. Juan started asking himself what challenges he had left. The answer came in a new sound - sonorama. It was a deft wordplay on the word 'panorama' - something that goes out past the limits - and it perfectly described Esquivel's new sound. Esquivel was using traditional instruments, yet creating drastically different sounds. When RCA Records and stereo came knocking, he was ready. Stereo was introduced to a skeptical record buying public in 1958. It was viewed as dubious gimmick to increase record sales. This changed with the success of Enoch Light's Persuasive Percussion. The album was an immediate best-seller, and like greedy pan-handlers at a gold rush, the record companies started a stereo stampede. Esquivel was summoned by the RCA brass to christen its Living Stereo moniker with an album of his sonorama arrangements. When he replied that it would take him a year to whip his Mexican musicians into shape, he was quickly relocated to New York. The best musicians in the world were located in the Big Apple. Esquivel's sounds were influenced and executed by them. Among them were Alvino Rey (king of the space guitar), Laurindo Almeida (The hi-fi bossa nova session superstar), Pete Rugolo (Stan Kenton's arranger), and Billy May (Frank Sinatra's trumpeter) They were so precise that it only took 3 hours for Esquivel to record his RCA stereo debut Other Worlds, Other Sounds. It took even less time to record the follow-up Four Corners of the World. A dizzying array of albums soon followed. But it was Latin-esque that would be his sonic statement. Created as a stereo demonstration record for RCA's new 'Stereo Action' series it was designed to push the boundaries of sound. It was an audiophiliac's orgy. Esquivel had become the ringleader of an aural circus. His baton would direct the listener to his acrobats - the all too willing vertigo inducing notes on the staff. Although each Esquivel record was spectacular, his sessions were becoming more and more expensive - culminating with Latin-esque. Esquivel pushed the boundaries of stereo separation by actually hiring two different orchestras to record the album. One orchestra would record the left channel in Studio A, the other, the right channel in Studio B. They all played to a click track while Esquivel conducted over closed-circuit TV system. This method - while technically superior - wasn't exactly cheap. Even more alarming to the RCA boardroom was that the spiraling costs had still failed to produce a hit. In fact, no Esquivel record even made the Billboard charts. By 1961, only three years after his RCA debut, Juan Garcia Esquivel's recording career at RCA was nearing its premature end. Recorded the following year, More of Other Worlds, Other Sounds was reportedly rejected by RCA. Bill Stewart's Albums Inc. Production Company shopped it to other labels eventually finding a home at Frank Sinatra's Reprise Records (Sinatra was a huge fan - and later often book Esquivel at his Vegas casinos). Which brings us to Esquivel' lost masterpiece - See it in Sound. The title is a wordplay on the Stereo Action moniker - 'sound your eyes could follow.' The theory being that the music was so visceral, so vibrant that you could actually watch the sound travel from speaker to speaker. The Stereo Action series was an audiophile's dream. With their die-cut sleeves, and sexy outer space imagery -- they are some of the most sought after (and expensive) easy listening records today. In 1960, Esquivel decided to record a big band FX laden record. It was in the tradition of record collector favorites Zounds! What Sounds!, Shock & La Dolce Hencke. It was heavily influenced by musical visionary Spike Jones. Esquivel for the first time began to incorporate the sounds of the real world into his arrangements. The sounds were not simply added into the arrangements as if they were an afterthought or supped up hi-tech Band-Aids. The new 'real world' sounds were integral to the testure of the piece. It was revolutionary, it was genius - and it was just way too bizarre for the brass of RCA. Cited it as too weird, they rejected the second Esquivel album in a row. And although Esquivel claims, quite truthfully, that he was to busy working on his live show The Sights and Sounds of Esquivel to make another record, it was probably RCA's rejection of See It Sound that was the main reason he didn't record another album for three years. Time though, would prove Esquivel's marriage of music and effects as visionary. Within just a few years, The Mystic Moods Orchestra scored a hit with One Stormy Night, an album which utilized the exact same techniques that Esquivel pioneered on See It In Sound. One Stormy Night uses the rhythm and sounds of a freak Los Angeles thunderstorm to create an electrifying album of musical selections played simultaneously with recorded sound effects. It spawned a whole new genre known as 'beautiful music.' In truth, See It In Sound was not really that radical of a departure from the patented Esquivel sound and process. It was a mix of standards (so the listener could marvel at his arrangements) and his own originals. It was supped up Latin textures viewed through 3-D glasses. Recorded in just a few short weeks in May of 1960 in Hollywood, with producer Neely Plumb, See It In Sound would never see commercial release - that is - until now! See It In Sound is a musical odyssey. It is a gentlemanlike volley between uptown sophistication and tropical adventurism. The journey commences with "The Peanut Vendor (El Manisero)." Starting with Arthur Gleghorn's lone flute wafting over the sounds of an urban sprawl, we travel through a light Latin shuffle. It is also in "The Peanut Vendor" that we get first taste of how different See It Sound will be, as we hear woodpeckers peck, horses clip-clop by, and clocktowers chime. 'Amazon Paddle Boat' is one of Leon Pober's four contributions (along with "Latingo," "Inca's Dream," and "Walk To The Bull Ring") to See It In Sound. Pober's compositions are Esquivel's closest flirtation to the sound of Exotica. Hawaiian Martin Denny had recently topped the pop charts with Exotica, and including these numbers - if intentional - was Esquivel's most calculated commercial move in his career. The departing horn of "Amazon Paddle Boat" bids us welcome to South America. Exotic marimba, sultry saxophone, and chirping birds take us for a journey down the world's longest river - The Amazon. A film begins to run at the start of "Honky Tonky Cha-Cha," Esquivel's lone original composition on the album. One of Esquivel's signatures is his ability to blend different cultures and sounds into a musical gumbo. Here he effortlessly mixes a honky tonk Frontier barroom piano with a cha-cha tempo. Without comprehensive explanation from Esquivel, we are sometimes left to surmise the maestro's intentions. On "Cumana" a ringleader introduces the 'fabulous and elegant Fenando and Lupita" to a cheering crowd. Are they dancing bears at a circus or a stylish couple demonstrating the latest European dance steps? The indisputable centerpiece of See It In Sound is a riveting six minute "Brazil." In this version Esquivel's jetsetter visits a variety of downtown nightclubs - where each band is playing an entirely different version of the samba standard "Brazil." We hear our barhopper hailing taxis, entering illicit speakeasies, dancing with giggling girls, clinking ice-cubes in his Scotch, and finally commencing in a barroom brawl. Each club our tour guide visits is playing "Brazil" - at a different tempo and rhythm. It is perhaps Esquivel's finest moment as an arranger. Mystic Moods' Leo Kulka and Brad Miller must have heard this thrilling rendition of "Chubasco." For the parallels between this Flamenco thunderstorm deluge and Mystic Moods hit album One Stormy Night, are too similar to just be coincidence. Guitarist Laurindo Almeida (a star his own right with The Bossa Nova All-Stars) opens the track with a Flamenco guitar flourish that would make any women weak in the knees. As the storm builds Esquivel whips his orchestra into frenzy complete with castanets. As the storm subsides we are left with a soft exotic vibes, waking parrots, and the lolling surf. Esquivel chose to continue his Spanish journey with "Walk to the Bull Ring." A marching band (and lone yipping dog) herald the arrival of Spain's greatest matador. We follow his path as he enters the bullring where cheering crowds enthusiastically greet a Sunday afternoon bullfight. With "Aurora" we see Esquivel selecting a popular standard to showcase his arrangements. It was standard tactic which Esquivel likened to copying the painting of a master. He loved for his listeners to marvel at his skills. In "Aurora," Esquivel reworks an old chestnut by accentuating playful vibes with drag racing cars. Esquivel's enchantment with supposed Incan Sun God Yma Sumac is apparent on "Similau." Is this a warriors dream? Do we hear ancient murmurs and war chants as we wind like a snake down an imaginary mud-entrenched river towards a hidden temple? "Inca's Dream," possibly the shortest Esquivel track ever at one minute and 27 seconds features the pan flute as we listen to the gunfire of an approaching army from our mountainous hideout in the sacred mountains. Originally titled Tropica - "Latingo" uses some of the same elements found on Pober's earlier compositions - the paddle boat, the birds of South America, the lolling waves... With cascading harps and playful waterfowl it could be a vintage Les Baxter or Martin Denny track. It is as if we have found the lost soundtrack to Disney's Jungle Cruise We can only surmise why See It In Sound has remained buried in a vast RCA library for so many years. It is the lounge generation's Smile or The Black Album. It is his lost masterpiece. We are only left to guess what might have been had RCA released this classic in a timely manner. Would Esquivel have eschewed Vegas for even more daring arrangements? We will never know. Even now, as Esquivel enjoys a sleepy retirement at his brother Sergio's villa outside of Mexico City, we can only dream of the return of the king of space age bachelor pad music. # Need help using (or leaving) this mailing list? # Send the command "info exotica" to majordomo@lists.xmission.com. # To post, email exotica@lists.xmission.com; replies go to original sender. ------------------------------ End of exotica-digest V2 #555 *****************************