Classic Song 29 - Esquivel "Cherokee"

Let's talk about the inventor of 'space age pop' 

or 'loungecore', as it was called in the mid 90s.

His name was Juan Esquivel.

Back in '95, when I was working at Jungle Music,

my producer forwarded me an mp3 of a piece of

music that our ad client liked, as a template or 

'temp track' for the commercial we were to

score music to, by the end of that day.

He said "it's an example of 'loungecore', by a

now-obscure 50s/60s artist named Esquivel",

whose career was enjoying a resurgence with

the youthful dance and club crowd, thanks to

the rerelease of his late 50s and early 60s gems.

I clicked on the mp3 'play' tab and... OH MY GOD!

The sounds that bathed my senses were unlike anything

I'd heard before or since. The orchestration that Esquivel

had devised was highly idiosyncratic, featuring very tightly 

played arrangements for a melange of seemingly unrelated 

instruments, including slide guitar, kettle drums, wordless

vocal hooks or phrases, exotic percussion, as well as

Esquivel's masterful grand piano performances.

To me, the mind blowing aspect was this: in the 50s, 

when the audio standard was definitely mono (monaural),

or single track mixdown and mastering, Esquivel recorded

and released numerous LPs in gloriously, previously unheard

of and unimaginable stereo. His methodology was prescient:

he was known to contract two separate orchestras, and have

them situated in two, completely discrete recording studios,

playing from a score that had been split into two submaster

scores that, when played by the two distinct orchestras

and recorded individually, then subsequently mixed

together into one assembled master, yielded music

that was technically and musically light years

ahead of his 50s/60s contemporaries.

Even now, a half century after most of his classic 

LPs were released on an unprepared world, Juan

Esquivel's musical endeavours continue to

entertain, challenge and inspire.

Check out Esquivel and his unique, multi-orchestral  

take on the Ray Noble chestnut, "Cherokee",

immediately after spying yours truly in my 

most reflective Buck Lake disguise.

Mozz the Elder

www.vapormusic.com