Music by the Maestro: Esquivel!

Perfect Vision: The Esquivel Sound

Metropole Orkest conducted by Vince Mendoza
Basta Audio-Visuals
Release: June 10, 2013

JUAN GARCIA ESQUIVEL
Basta Music has long had a fondness for pioneering orchestra leaders, composers and arrangers. The label has released music by such legends as Leroy Shield, Raymond Scott, Les Baxter, Roger Roger, André Popp, Ferde Grofé, Gordon Jenkins, and Russ Garcia. But one name was overlooked. Until now.

Basta proudly announces the release of an album featuring newly recorded versions of music arranged and composed by sophisticated Latin-jazz maestro Juan Garcia Esquivel (1918-2002). Often called the King of Space Age Pop, Esquivel was a visionary perfectionist who controlled every aspect of his wide-screen sound in the studio.

In the late 1950s, Esquivel was renowned for his explosive arrangements and dynamic use of stereo effects. His music featured exotic percussion, wordless vocals (such as ‘pow-pow’ and ‘zu-zu’), shimmering keyboard glissandi, and crystalline piano fingering. On a technical level, his orchestrations made his recordings instantly recognizable. His style reflected his personality: brash, confident, mischievous, sexy.

THE ALBUM
Unfortunately, Esquivel’s original sheet music arrangements cannot be located. The Metropole Orchestra (a.k.a. Metropole Orkest), based in the Netherlands, commissioned new arrangements based on Esquivel’s RCA Victor recordings, beautifully done by composer/arranger Stefan Behrisch. While capturing Esquivel’s idiosyncratic colors and textures, the Metropole arrangements take the maestro’s magic in new directions. The Metropole employs a full string section, which Esquivel rarely used. “Mini Skirt,” one of his most popular tunes, had only been recorded by the composer with a small ensemble. The Metropole recording represents the first time this work has been arranged for full orchestra.

The recording is spectacular, featuring the Grammy-winning Metropole Orkest conducted by 6-time Grammy winner Vince Mendoza. Producer Gert-Jan Blom (The Beau Hunks, Raymond Scott, Metropole Orkest) supervised the project, which involved some of the finest audio technicians in Holland. The orchestra is augmented with soloists such as Fay Lovsky (Theremin), Ocobar’s Bart Wijtman (bass accordion) and Cornell van Vuuren (slide guitar), as well as three-time (2004, 2005 and 2008) world champion whistler Geert Chatrou.

One of the project’s challenges was that Esquivel’s original recordings were already available on CDs and as digital downloads. How to make the new recordings exciting and different enough to merit the undertaking? This became clear once recording began. To hear the brilliance of Esquivel’s arrangements in 21st Century sound quality is striking. The Metropole recordings radiate more definition and detail than the original recordings, which were often saturated with reverb, or filtered and compressed at the expense of delicate nuances. While acknowledging that the “Living Stereo” aspect was a large part of the Esquivel charm, the Perfect Vision production team chose to restrain the stereo panning and effects. Rather than conform to the original mixes, they chose to emphasize the orchestral genius of Esquivel’s arrangements.

Mastering was done by Darcy Proper (another Grammy winner) at Wisseloord Studios. To add a touch of early 1960s fidelity while maintaining full-spectrum 2013 dynamics, the recording engineers used large vintage plate reverbs (EMT140s) dating from 1961, which helped bridge the five-decades audio gap.

The package, designed by Piet Schreuders, includes liner notes by Irwin Chusid, who helped launch the first Esquivel revival in 1994 by producing the first CD compilations, and who served as Esquivel’s last business manager. The booklet also features a number of rare photos of the maestro from his private collection.

We hope these new recordings will introduce a new generation of listeners to Esquivel’s sparkling universe, and that the project will be a welcome addition to the Esquivel catalogue for those already familiar with his work.

MEDIA
We had the pleasure of working with KellerFilm, who generously offered to make a video clip for one of the tracks. So here's that clip that they made set to "Mini Skirt":

More updates / sound coming soon!

Mastering Esquivel!

In a few months, Basta Music will release an album with newly recorded music by composer / bandleader / arranger / pianist Juan Garcia Esquivel. In line with some other albums we did in the past, like 'The Beau Hunks Play The Original Laurel & Hardy Music' (Vol. 1 & 2) Gurdjieff's 'Oriental Suite' and Raymond Scott's 'Manhattan Research, Inc.', this is another very large project added to Basta's history.

Some interesting background information on the mastering process: Yesterday, I went to join Darcy Proper at Wisseloord Studios. The 'normal' mastering had been done already, it was just gonna be a few extra hours to create masters to be supplied to iTunes and get the 'Mastered for iTunes' label, as well as to create masters to be able to offer 24-bit audio files. Which are funny enough, close-to-the-same sort of files one needs.

One could argue over the need for this extra form of mastering. That arguing has been done enough already on the internet - and by offering this album on CD, on iTunes conform their mastering guidelines, on all other download sites as mp3s and most likely in a 24-bit audiophile version at a few download locations, we feel we are offering this in a taste for everyone.

And now that we're talking release formats: Yes - vinyl would be cool too. It's an option. We might do that when there's some moderate success with this album. And then there's also the option of 4.0 or 5.1 BluRay Audio.....but that's some expensive thing to do! Anyways - some mastering room impressions:

The mastering process itself is boring - even the mastering engineers admit that. It is, however, of critical importance because it determines the sound of an album. When a mastering engineer gets delivered top-notch mixes that are well balanced (in multiple ways), it comes down to detailed refinements. That's what we needed here. One aspect of the process is worth mentioning: we used the 'EMT140 plate reverb'. An EMT140S - for stereo - to be precise.

From StudioElectronics.biz:

In 1957, EMT introduced the 140 Reverberation Unit. The 140 consisted of a large piece of sheet metal, suspended from a heavy steel frame. An electrical transducer (similar to a miniature speaker) transmitted sound energy to the plate, which along with its drive and pickup amplifiers, was built into a heavy wooden enclosure. The 140 was about 4 feet tall and 8 feet long, and weighed about 600 pounds. A damping plate, controlled by a servo motor, allowed adjustment of the reverb time. Though it was much smaller than an echo chamber it was still sensitive to ambient noise, and had to be kept in an isolated space. Still, the “plate” was a great advance. Instead of building 8 echo chambers, a large facility could put 8 140’s in a small iso room. And it was the first cost effective answer for smaller studios, where actual chambers weren’t feasable. EMT 140’s didn’t sound exactly like a real room but they sounded very good, and remained the most popular studio reverb for many years. The early ones used tube electronics, but in the 70’s EMT began shipping them with transistor circuitry. EMT released a primitive digital reverb in 1972, the rack mount 144, but its capabilities were limited, and few survive. 

The 140S production-start dates from 1961, and this one has serial no. 3281. Just so you know :). We chose the stereo version instead of 2x mono, because using 2 mono chambers would possibly come up with unpredictable results, because one would be sending LEFT and RIGHT through different chambers. With the EMTs being partly mechanical devices: using double mono might disrupt what was carefully created during the mixing stages. Unpredictable results can have its charm, but was not what we were looking for for this album. Using the stereo version keeps the stereo image in balance and the center image stable. Easy choice.

The usage of the EMT added exactly what we wanted for this recording: a tiny touch of vintage, glueing everything nicely together while maintaining high detail and fidelity. I made some pictures of the 'EMT line-up' at Wisseloord:

That last picture serves multiple purposes: it shows the other 4 EMT's, it shows a very happy engineer Darcy ánd it shows Wisseloord provides their people with plenty of fruit!

When one listens to the masters now, there's such a richness in sound and the placement of the instruments is just amazing. Add to that the perfect play of the Metropole Orkest and all soloists, performing the explosive and catchy music of Esquivel - and you've got a winner.

Some more on mastering engineer Darcy Proper at Wisseloord Studios in The Netherlands:

From the Wisseloord pages:

Before becoming involved with Wisseloord, Darcy was senior mastering engineer at Galaxy Studios in Belgium and at Sony Music Studios in New York City. She has worked on a wide variety of music ranging from re-issues of early acoustic mono recordings to current 5.1 high-resolution surround releases for BluRay.

Early in her career, Darcy spent many years as a classical engineer/editor and brings much of what she learned in that arena to her mastering. Thus far, Darcy has been honored with 2 Grammy awards and 7 nominations and has won several TEC awards and Surround awards for her work. She mastered historical reissue projects for such prestigious artists as Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Johnny Cash, and André Hazes.  She has also worked on stereo & 5.1 front-line releases for many talented artists including Steely Dan, The Eagles, R.E.M., Donald Fagen, Porcupine Tree, Peter Maffay, Toots Thielemans, and Söhne Mannheims.

Next post about this album will hold album cover, track listing, soloists, release date and..... audio!

One missing name: Esquivel

After all these years, there's one 'Exotica name' still missing from our catalog: Juan Esquivel: Groove lounge, Latin & Jazz.

Not for much longer tho: Producer Gert Jan Blom (The Beau Hunks, Raymond Scott) is currently in the mixing phase of one of the most spectacular releases in our history.

We're usually very modest when it comes to describing our own releases. However, this release will be the godmother of any Esquivel release that has seen daylight the past years. And we know what we're talking about...we know what is out there - no disrespect intended.

For our release, we're talking the Grammy Award-winning Metropole Orkest, teamed and expanded with world-class soloists and vocals. Painstakingly precise transcribed arrangements. Dutch top sound engineers and studios. Multi Grammy Award-winner Vince Mendoza conducting. No concessions done.

Just like 17 years ago when The Beau Hunks Orchestra set the new standard for the LeRoy Shield and T. Marvin Hatley (Laurel & Hardy / Little Rascals Music) compositions, this album will be also be a landmark album. We expect to be able to share the first promo track with you January '13.