***********ESQUIVEL***************
++++SPACE-AGE BACHELOR PAD MUSIC++++

Release date week of June 16th
Suggested list:$14.98
Bar/None Records

  Here it is...the ultimate music for the new cocktail culture: after
Grunge comes Space Age Bachelor Pad Music...A sound that is
guaranteed to astound your stereo. The sound has it's origins in the
Hi-Fidelity Sound Explosion of the early 60's when all of America was
buying those new-fangled, two-channel stereo systems. Folks needed
specially designed records to test-drive these new players and people
like Martin Denny, Enoch Light and the Light Brigade and Arthur Lyman
delivered the goods, originally known as "Pop Instrumentals". Tinged
with cocktail lounge and ballroom overtones, the music was later
re-christened "Space Age Bachelor Pad Music" by used record
scavengers in the 80's. The music sounded oddly futuristic and
refreshing to the jaded rock crowd. Today, bands like Combustible
Edison and The Cocktails are carrying on the tradition and a nation
of young people thirsty for new musical sounds are plugging in.

  The undisputed king of Space Age Bachelor Pad Music was -- and is
-- a cat from south of the border named Esquivel. One reviewer called
him a "pop avant-gardist". Esquivel's orchestrations were like an
exploding musical pinata with arrangements that were strikingly
futuristic: scattered among the pianos and trombones were slide
guitar, echo, dissonance, beatnik percussion, and weird
juxtapositions of mood and volume. His "kitchen sink" approach
incorporated Chinese bells, organ, jew's harp, gourd, and timbales.

  Esquivel recorded for RCA from 1957 to 1968, this is a collection
of his wildest recordings. His arrangements took full advantage of
the stereo phenomenon. The music made hi-fi's resonate with bongos.
glass-shattering brass, and perky xylophones. He stripped lyrics from
pop standards and replaced them with whistling, humming, and a
disjointed phrase. His smooth vocal choruses would croon "Zu-zu-zu",
or shout "Pow! Pow! Pow!" As one producer put it, "Esquivel is one
arranger who really writes for stereophonic sound."

  Born in Tampico, Tamaulipas, on Jan. 20, 1918, Juan Garcia Esquivel
was appearing as a featured soloist, at the age of 14, on Mexico
City's most popular radio station XEW. Three years later the
ambitious prodigy organized his first orchestra, a 15 piece ensemble.
By the age of 18, he was composing, arranging, and conducting his own
22-piece band, which was augmented by five vocalists. Over 25 years,
he attained immense popularity in his native country on radio and TV,
and in nightclubs and theatres.

  Esquivel came to the United States in 1957 to record for RCA
Victor. From his first U.S.. release, "To Love Again", to his last,
"The Genius of Esquivel", the man created a unique legacy that
deserves more attention than it has received in the intervening
decades. Variety dubbed him the "Mexican Duke Ellington", while
affirming, "Esquivel is to pop music approximately what Aaron
Copeland is to serious music or what John Coltrane is to jazz."

  The liner notes on "To Love Again" (1957) describe Esquivel's
"dashing appearance" and the "tasteful elegance of his clothes". As
for Esquivel's romantic life, "fortune has amply blessed this
good-looking young Latin American -- there has been a long and
uninterrupted succession of names of beautiful and famous women
mentioned in connection with him."

  Esquivel kicked off the 60's with "Infinity In Sound" (1960) and
one of his finest achievements -- "Infinity In Sound Vol. 2" (1961).
Fans of pioneering TV visionary Ernie Kovacs will note that the
tracks "Jalousie" and "Sentimental Journey" (both from the latter
release) were used in Kovac's famous video sketch in which he
synchronized the music to remote-controlled office furniture and
secretarial equipment. (Ernie and Juan, incidentally, were Hollywood
pals.)

  "Latinesque" (1962) -- in the opinion of many, his wildest and most
ambitious effort was released as part of RCA's Stereo Action series
("movement so real your eyes will follow the sound"). This
tour-de-force featured "raindrop" pianos, mariachi trumpets, "steel
guitar zings", cross channel echoes, along with an array of French
Horns, tympani, flutes, and tuned bongos.

  To ensure the purest stereo separation, the album was recorded with
half of the orchestra ensconced in RCA's Hollywood Studio 1 under the
baton of Esquivel, with the other half at Studio 2 -- a block away --
under the direction of guest conductor Stanley Wilson. The album mix
included a then-startling array of stereophonic panning, as pianos
and percussion sailed from speaker to speaker, with generous brush
strokes of "infinite tape reverberation".

  Esquivel continued to work and record into the late 70's. Now
retired, he lives in Mexico, preferring privacy to celebrity.

  Esquivel's world renown earned through his RCA Victor albums
coincided with a period when rock groups eclipsed orchestras as the
popular standard-bearers of pop music. Consequently, Esquivel was the
last great big band leader. Saxophonist/composer John Zorn called him
"a genius arranger (who) created a beautiful pop mutation". Esquivel
certainly deserves credit as the visionary whose fuel-injection
propelled the pop orchestra into the 21st century.

  Producer Irwin Chusid used a panel of Esquivel aficionados to scour
the RCA vaults to find the finest moments of Juan Garcia's long
career. The result is a first time ever cd collection of the best THE
space age bachelor, Esquivel.