Zippy, zesty fun from Mexican bandleader Juan Garcia Esquivel (1918-2002), at the height of his powers as an ear-bending arranger. All of Esquivel's sonic delights and little quirks are on display across 11 classic tunes: punchy brass and nifty percussion, slide guitar, "zu zu" vocals, cool little breezes of flute (as on Harlem Nocturne and Autumn Leaves, to name but two favourites) and more. All of it pristinely rendered in RCA "Living Stereo", "New Orthophonic High Fidelity Recording" and suchlike marketing terms of the era; it's transferred to CD very well. Esquivel became known as the king of "Space Age Pop" when this stuff came back in vogue in the 90s, but it's just great fun to listen to in any decade.
 |
| For fellow aficionados of obscure formats - an RCA Tape Cartridge release; note sides swapped compared to original sequence. (Pic: discogs.) |
link
pw: sgtg