features in: Album Chart of 1968 ● Album Chart of the Decade: 1960s |
After 12 years, “1968 Esquivel!!” is last in line of his original RCA albums. Groovy bachelors living in space-age London pads would need to pay the import duty on this one – it was either that or pick a copy up whilst enjoying holiday cocktails in Cancun. All tunes were new to the maestro’s LP catalogue thus far, bar “Speak Low”, which gets a reworking from its appearance on 1958’s “Other Worlds” LP. “1968 Esquivel!!” is what I imagine a typical Esquivel LP to be – it has eccentric orchestration with touches galore, basking in the stereophonic, hi-fidelity revolution. Kettle drums and steel guitars get tightened and slackened for added effect. The slinky orchestra-pop set is peppered with latin and jazz grooves, is laced with humour, has occasional wolf whistles, lots of wordless vocals using the timeless “zu-zu-zu-zu” lyric, exclamations of “Wowww”, “Groo-veee” and random phrases like “Baby, you really blow my mind”. Kitsch charm with sonic invention, that’s the Esquivel sound. He makes me happy. :-) See?
The Jukebox Rebel
03–May–2012
Tracklist |
A1 | [01:55] Esquivel - Todavía (Armando Manzanero) Orchestra Dance |
A2 | [03:41] Esquivel - Speak Low (Ogden Nash, Kurt Weill) Jazz |
A3 | [02:35] Esquivel - Guantanamera (Joseíto Fernández) Latin |
A4 | [03:33] Esquivel - Lamento Borincano (Rafael Hernández Marín) Orchestra Dance |
A5 | [03:18] Esquivel - My Melancholy Baby (Ernie Burnett, George A. Norton) Jazz |
A6 | [01:57] Esquivel - Yeyo (Juan Garcia Esquivel) Latin |
B1 | [02:28] Esquivel - Mini Skirt (Juan Garcia Esquivel) Film Score / Incidental |
B2 | [02:27] Esquivel - Esta Tarde Vi Llover (Armando Manzanero) Film Score / Incidental |
B3 | [02:15] Esquivel - El Cable (Mario Carniello) Latin |
B4 | [02:08] Esquivel - Walking Happy (Jimmy Van Heusen) Orchestra Dance |
B5 | [02:30] Esquivel - Guanacoa (Juan Garcia Esquivel) Latin |
B6 | [02:16] Esquivel - Tengo (Armando Manzanero) Orchestra Dance |