By LORRAINE ALI
SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
Juan Garcia Esquivel has been called everything from the Mexican Duke
Ellington to the King of Quirk, but the 77-year-old composer-pianist is
probably best known as the master of Space-Age Bachelor Pad music.
This bizarre and futuristic style was used
to sell ultra-modern hi-fi systems called “stereos” in the early ‘60s,
systems that RCA described as possessing “movement to real your eyes will
follow the sound.” The music also served as an excellent conversation piece
at swinging cocktail parties.
In this niche, nobody came close to concocting
such fab, yet whacked, orchestral arrangements as Esquivel. He combined
big-band boom with Latin percussion, then dropped in everything from Hawaiin
guitar to accordion to primal grunts and perky whistles.
It’s no wonder his eccentric approach never
enjoyed the Top 10 success of such “stereophonic” pop designers as Martin
Denny and Arthur Lyman. Instead, Esquivel remained a curious character
on the musical fringe.
Now, his uniqueness is proving to be his biggest
asset.
Modern-day lounge acts, such as Combustible
Edison and British trance-pop group Stereolab, consider the composer an
icon, while experimental artists, including Bjork, base their sounds on
a similar mix-and-match ethos.
That’s why two recent Esquivel compilations
on Bar/None Records, “Space-Age Bachelor Pad Music” and “Music From a Sparkling
Planet,” are at the top of many alternative fans lists.
What does Esquivel think of all the recent
attention?
“I’m surprised because those records were
made 35 to 36 years ago,” says the man who is retired and lives an hour
from Mexico City in Morelos. “I’m also happy because I used to wonder
why RCA didn’t promote my recordings. Perhaps the fact is that my
music was too much for the time. The audience wasn’t ready for that
type of music. Now, they are used to the sounds and the technology.
I’m glad the young artists are trying to follow my style of writing.
I love that.”
It’s evident that Esquivel’s popularity is
expanding beyond the tastes of kitsch connoisseurs who initially rediscovered
his music. Aside from the recent college chart success of “Bachelor
Pad,” his work will appear alongside numbers by Bob Thompson and the Three
Suns in RCA’s “History of Space Age Pop,” a three-volume set due in July.
“What I tried to do was not follow the style
that was popular at the time,” Esquivel explains. “when I made those
arrangements, Glenn Miller and the Dorseys were very popular. We
had no synthesiaers at the time, so I tried to get different sounds out
of conventional and non-conventional instruments. I explored a little.”
At 17, the Tamaulipas, Mexico, native began
his career by concocting offbeat pieces as bachground music for a comedy
show on Mexican radio. “A comedian friend hired me to write background
music for his show but he said, ‘There is no script, just go to rehearsal
and improvise right there,’ “ he recalls. “He’d ask things like ‘Can
you play something that sounds like a Russian guy walking through China?’
and somehow, I would do it.”
Between 1957 and 1968, he expanded on his
big-band sound and recorded his wildest material with RCA before moving
to a 12-year stint in Vegas-showrooms.
While he was driven throughout his career
by a thirst for musical adventure, Esquivel admits there was also a bit
of ego involved.
“I have discovered it is very difficult to
keep the attention of someone that is listening to music,” he says.
“After two minutes, people get bored. They move around or talk, and
I don’t like that when I’m playing. I want their undivided attention.
Maybe it’s a bit selfish on my part, but if I play, please, pay attention.”