The Boys in the Spacey Lounge: Esquivel-Alvino Rey Connection

---

Esquivel's music is like no other space age pop.

While most other orchestral pop arranger/composers of the late 1950s were broadening their classical, big band, and ballroom roots for the age of high fidelity and stereo, Esquivel seemed to spring full formed into the genre. Indeed, his roots were far from the ballroom, having perfected his style writing soundtracks for a popular Mexican radio comedian.

He had more in common with

Carl Stalling

than

Glenn Miller

and his influences ranged from

Alvino Rey

Stan Kenton

Yma Sumac

and

Billy May

Who but Esquivel could bring the entire orchestra to full stop to spotlight a single measure of Alvino Rey's

gwa-gwa slide guitar.

And not just for a final climax
-- that would be just the beginning.

Whole songs are punctuated repeatedly with a variety of

guitar slides
layered brass arpeggios
piano romps
shifting tempos
and
vocal nonsense

If orchestral pop music were painting,

Esquivel was its Van Gogh
(a comparison he made himself).

He was

fearless, he was

shameless

Esquivel

perfected the kitchen sink school of arranging:

why settle for just one sound where ten would do?

In just a few bars a veritable rain of instruments showered down on the listener,

often instruments that had never been heard before on the same song.

Yet unlike the horde of arrangers who rushed to add

ondioline

harpsichord

and

theremin

to the same old big band sound,

Esquivel's arrangements were all of a piece, fresh and never gimmicky.

Esquivel preferred recording and performing arrangements of already-familiar tunes.

"Often I deliberately chose songs that were well-known so the audience could appreciate the arrangements,"

he said recently.

"It's like taking a doll and dressing it any way you want:

or
in

different costumes

or

drawing on her a mustache

,

making her smoke a cigar

or

presenting her in the nude.

It's something familiar, suddenly being presented in a way that's very different and exciting."

In his own compositions, Esquivel proved that he could write a killer hook.

After listening to Esquivel, other composers seem positively timid.

Pianist/composer/arranger Juan Garcia Esquivel was a favorite artist in Mexico City before RCA Victor brought him to the United States in 1958. As is typically the case, the early Mexican sides are his most interesting. (Some are available on the U.S. release To Love Again.) Most of the subsequent U.S. albums were expensive, elaborate experiments in recording technique. While most such albums relied heavily on cheesy, channel-separation gimmickry, Esquivel's maintained a consistently high level of musical intrigue as well as comical wonder. A native of Tampico, Mexico, Esquivel gave up engineering to play the piano on the radio. His first radio performance --fifteen minutes of fame to be-- was at the age of fourteen. Three years later he formed a small group which was heralded for its originality, and by 1940 he was composing for his own orchestra and chorus. By 1954, when he had become a popular recording artist in Mexico, he began to experiment with the "other" sounds that would become his trademark. In addition to "accent" instruments such as the theremin, the Esquivel sound is distinguished mainly by the slide guitar of Alvino Rey. Rey had been a master innovator and orchestra leader (while playing steel guitar!) himself. The other chiefly Esquivellian sound was a "wordless chorus" singing nonsense syllables.

Here's how trade mag Billboard describes the sound:

"...Wild enough to perk up the most jaded set of ears, it's zany big-band music that utilises such unusual components as theremin, ondioline, steel guitar (by Alvino Rey) and even whistling (by Muzzy Marcellino)."

Esquivel-mania has taken the world by storm. So many rock fans have bought these strange records, they are known as "grunge on the rocks".

Esquivel's current home--Mexican "Villa del Descanso"

In 1958, RCA again showcased Esquivel and their still-new technology on 'Exploring New Sounds in Stereo.' Esquivel grinned from the LP's cover with impish appeal, sporting thick-rimmed glasses (in the style of a contemporary, rock 'n' roller Buddy Holly) and leaning on a telescope. His love of gadgetry extended into his instrumentation, which included such pioneering electric and electronic musical devices as the theremin and the ondioline. Additional unexpected and unfamiliar instruments played a part, including the harpsichord, chromatically tuned bongos, and the buzzimba (struck with mallets but sounding like a bull-froggy clarinet). The arranger's abiding love of exotic global tones was audible in his use of Brazilian, Greek, and Chinese percussion on 'Exploring New Sounds.'

And slithering through this acoustic garden of earthly and astral delights was the electric guitar of Alvino Rey.

But gimmicks and glitz aside, there was ample evidence of Esquivel's thorough grounding in the elements of the big band arrangements that, over the previous three decades, had evolved in the States and then spread around the world. Esquivel was a particular fan of Stan Kenton and of Kenton arranger Pete Rugolo, and had no problem attracting L.A.'s best big band and session players to his projects, which continued with two LP volumes of 'Infinity in Sound' in 1960. Among Esquivel's many admirers in the music business was Frank Sinatra, whose recorded repertoire to date gave proof that he knew a good arranger and an evocative arrangement when he heard one. Sinatra made his new label, Reprise, available in 1961 for the release of Esquivel's 'More of Other Worlds, Other Sounds,' which clearly echoed American big band influence. In Hollywood, Esquivel worked on such shows as Markham, The Tall Man, and the Bob Cummings Show. He recorded many short music pieces for Universal TV, which were used in the soundtracks of TV Sitcoms.

At times,

The Esquivel Orchestra

had such men as:

Stan Getz: sax
Laurindo Almieda: guitar,
Alvino Rey: steel guitar.
Muzzy Marcelino: often as a whistler.
Pete Condoli in the trumpets.
Frank Rosolino.
George Roberts: bass trombone.
Larry Bunker: drums and also bongos.
Jack Castanzo: bongos
Joe Loco.
Buddy Cole: Organ (later had his own orchestra.)
The Randy Van Horne Singers vocal group.

All the arrangements
all the vocals
and combo arrangements
were always done by
Juan Esquivel.

Among the men whom Esquivel admired and who may have influenced him were Pete Rugolo, the arranger for the Stan Kenton orchestra. Esquivel loved his "Artistry in Rhythm" and often played that record while he was still living in Mexico City. He dreamed of having the ability to write for the trumpets the way that Pete Rugolo did. Among other musicians he admired were Lalo Schifrin, Johnny Williams, and Henry Mancini. Esquivel considered Stan Kenton and Henry Mancini to be true musical geniuses. In 1992, Esquivel visited his brother in Mexico City. Exiting a taxicab, he fell and fractured his hip, aggravating an old spinal injury.

He has been confined to bed ever since.

Rey also became one of the most influential and distinctive session men of the exotica era, lending his guitar to sessions from

Esquivel, George Cates and countless others

also teamed with Jack Constanzo and other session aces in the Martin Denny-inspired group the Surfmen.

In the mid-1960s, Rey joined the ever-expanding King Family group on a television variety show which enjoyed a healthy run of five seasons, concurrently producing a series of LPs featuring the program's cast.

Amazingly, he also continued performing well into his '80s, leading a band that played Disneyland each year from the theme park's opening onward.

The swing and exotica stalwart

passed away

March 2, 2004
at his

Salt Lake City, UT

home.

Alvino Rey's latter-day tenure with the

King Sisters

variety show on ABC television,

his important collaborations with

Juan Garcia Esquivel,

and his incognito adventures as Warner Brothers' recording artist

Ira Ironstrings

~ Wordless Chorus

"Wordless chorus" means a [usually]female voice or voices singing nonsense syllables, humming, or otherwise ululating. This so-called background instrument was popular in the 1960s, when the advertising wisdom "sex sells" applied to everything. What better way to show off the new hi-fi stereo than the sound of an idle young woman's voice bouncing from channel to channel? Later 1960s television commercials used this technique extensively, for instance in some versions of "Music to Watch Girls By." King of the wordless chorus was Esquivel, whose astounding "zu-zu-zu-zu" and "pow!" choruses run throughout most of his work. Second to him is Bob Thompson, "the poor man's Esquivel" and an arranger with advertising in his blood (although adding the chorus in Thompson's case was an RCA producer's idea). There are hundreds of albums with wordless chorus, and many exotic albums use eerie, abstract, female voice as a "sirenish" touch. It's just fun, trivial music for swingin' playboys.

Jerry Byrd's Guitar Magic

Pop guitar starts and nearly ends with Roy Smeck. Disciples and peers ranged from Arthur Godfrey and Cliff Edwards (Ukulele Ike) to Billy Mure, while Les Paul somehow got credit for several Smeck milestones. Roy Smeck did everything from the serious to the gimmicky, including playing guitars with teeth and behind back, long before anyone else. And he did it with style, class, and humility, night after night on the Vaudeville circuit and all day in practice. He helped make the steel guitar equally at home on Gene Autry records as Hawaiian. Roy Smeck, with the unlikely name and no rock-star looks, remains the original guitar hero. Bandleader and steel-guitar hero Alvino Rey found a second career in playing slide guitar, notably for Esquivel

Chisato Moritaka [森高千里]: 17才 [ベストテンでのミニスカート姿 なつかし アイドル 森高千里 ベストテン 17才]

Chisato Moritaka
[森高千里]
17才

なつかし アイドル 森高千里 ベストテン 17才

! are as attractive author commentaries common composed constitutes destroys dreamy enthusiasm era far feet four from futurity girl girls graduation great hertzsprung hour in instantaneous is it miniums morita not of old part refined righteousness rum says sextet sin singer sins states stops such than that the therefore they this time to underskirt woodsy

You offend of the magnifying glass of Poop flattop the girl. | Understatement of the average of the [1] a) attractive b) from c) girl d) of in the alcohol this better music [2] a) attractive b) states c) stops d) to always here of what she the [3] a) are b) common c) feet d) refined the fog of Copernicus | Celebrity [4] a) as b) era c) | d) | I appreciate who this pretty girl [5] a) is b) singer c) stops d) this the girl of the disguise than [6] a) destroys b) is c) of d) | one of Lil Born Born Dex [7] a) far b) girls c) rum d) | The girl of Disguise than considers [8] a) ! b) is c) that d) | The love goes of origami of [9] a) morita b) righteousness c) the d) | ! Girl of Disgusting of enamels [10] a) are b) common c) girls d) the | June on Pedicuring constant of [11] a) righteousness b) that c) the girl | The lubrication to itch [12] a) is b) states c) the d) | absorbed with the ignited horse repaired [13] a) graduation b) part c) the hour of will demolish inhaler to [14] a) graduation b) part c) the d) | happy COMMANDER of the girl of [15] a) great b) not c) the disastrous of of | memorable terrible [16] a) ! b) from c) miniums d) morita the machete of the great “ [17] a) as b) attractive c) constitutes d) part ” song it comes from the [18] a) commentaries b) sin c) singer d) time than these many demolition of the [19] a) common b) four c) is d) sin ! Thankless the end to divide [20] a) common b) era c) such d) this part of the later one of [21] a) hour b) instantaneous c) righteousness d) the instantaneous one The Underskirt of of [22] a) far b) the aileron of the girl of the [23] a) commentaries b) from c) miniums d) sin of disgruntle of Bahamanian of the [24] a) girls b) of c) sin of the author was later reserved [25] a) not b) of c) the d) | great volatile week and the voice [26] a) composed b) graduation c) i d) than of considered of the Leanings | [27] a) attractive b) girl c) in d) the feet must allow particularly the end [28] a) composed b) great c) not d) to finish the dream ! Its tuna [29] a) graduation b) miniums c) the d) therefore ! I chosen of Korea of [30] a) girl b) of c) old d) the androgen of the week | Therefore [31] a) far b) sextet c) the d) underskirt introduction ! It always cleans the [32] a) far b) it c) time d) | as the foot of the week [33] a) of b) rum c) that d) the sextet the beauty the complete esteem [34] a) destroys b) instantaneous c) such d) | Or knowledge the young people aged [35] a) far b) great c) it d) of from gauchi ! When and sins [36] a) miniums b) such c) time d) | system of the Russian would be [37] a) graduation b) the c) to d) underskirt be against nevertheless of what derrube [38] a) are b) in c) it d) singer the angle of the camera beyond [39] a) girl b) girl c) it d) that one they hang that one of [40] a) as b) the c) to d) | feet tuna of what it is [41] a) ! b) attractive c) not d) that considered before Puritanism | The HOSTILE [42] a) girl b) instantaneous c) rum d) the of PELÉ is great DEMORALIZATION of [43] a) common b) instantaneous c) miniums d) rum of which it waits for the [44] a) dreamy b) enthusiasm c) woodsy d) | in the years of rectilinear slattern [45] a) girls b) states c) the d) | The advice ! slattern of of [46] a) author b) i c) the Poop platform | the pretty music [47] a) destroys b) feet c) of d) underskirt this best one that the cable [48] a) hertzsprung b) in c) than d) to or in my alcohol discords always [49] a) constitutes b) graduation c) is d) the slattern of | Who wants that [50] a) are b) author c) it d) of satisfies slattern of is this girl [51] a) graduation b) hertzsprung c) says d) | to east love for the uremic [52] a) futurity b) i c) in d) the to me | Morita enters slattern [53] a) common b) of c) the d) | of TEN of Lil | You [54] a) are b) righteousness c) the d) | thanked for the man ! Slattern [55] a) dreamy b) of c) | d) | of which it is of the [56] a) are b) girl c) old d) woodsy slattern of the Pinocchio RUNS Avon [57] a) is b) the c) they d) underskirt of Deed If it progresses with [58] a) era b) great c) it d) the very happy “ attractive ” slattern [59] a) commentaries b) girl c) of d) sextet of machete NJ of the realistic [60] a) as b) constitutes c) sins d) time of what to inhalant of the [61] a) hour b) old c) sin d) this it happens Misunderstood HELP is Born [62] a) enthusiasm b) futurity c) that d) the Keeled of the comfort of the [63] a) four b) hertzsprung c) than d) to Impressive AR of the memorable singer [64] a) ! b) author c) girls d) miniums ! Thanksgiving the end to divide this [65] a) morita b) part c) sin d) the of the later one of the [66] a) hour b) instantaneous c) rum d) this one ! Commentary taken by slattern [67] a) i b) says c) than d) the gave to Haman of slattern the [68] a) four b) in c) is d) righteousness of of the aileron of the [69] a) author b) that c) the d) the | Wow seen the birds of [70] a) girl b) states c) to d) | and especially the FEET must or [71] a) dreamy b) refined c) righteousness d) the � of é nine Weeks | [72] a) i b) sins c) they d) | attack to him totally! quite idiot [73] a) hertzsprung b) righteousness c) this d) | of a cent The girl of [74] a) dreamy b) era c) of d) the I of the disgusting hung immediately [75] a) miniums b) of c) the that excited are ! Korean weeks [76] a) destroys b) far c) of d) singer hallucinogen | Thus the introduction ! [77] a) graduation b) refined c) states d) time I always requests the esteem of [78] a) destroys b) from c) great d) sextet � of the complete time of [79] a) author b) feet c) in d) of KORE of the beauty Weeks | [80] a) girl b) i c) old d) the Jungfrau of the echo generation those!

Name :

William Faulkner [Stockholm, December 10, 1950]

William Faulkner’s
Nobel Prize Speech

Stockholm, December 10, 1950

---

William Faulkner officially earned the Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 1949, but he did not receive it until the following year, because the Nobel Prize committee could not reach a consensus in 1949. Hence, two Nobel prizes were awarded in 1950, for the prior year and for the present one. The speech Faulkner delivered was not immediately intelligible to his listeners, both because of Faulkner’s southern dialect and because the microphone was too distant from his mouth, but when it was printed in newspapers the following day, it was immediately hailed as one of the most significant addresses ever delivered at a Nobel ceremony.

The text below is reprinted from Essays, Speeches, and Public Letters, which differs from the speech he actually delivered at the cermony. To hear a studio recording of Faulkner reading the (revised) speech, please visit this page. Also worth visiting is this page on the 1949 literature award from the Nobel Foundation, which features an audio recording of his live presentation of the speech, which unfortunately ends before the conclusion of the speech.. (This is apparently the same audio used for the first video featured below.)

Nobel Prize Videos These videos were posted to YouTube. The first has only the still photo of Faulkner accepting the award, but it does include nearly three minutes of audio of Faulkner delivering the speech at the ceremony. The second video is a documentary featuring scenes from the ceremony, but not the speech itself. (It also happens to be in Swedish.) Click here for more information about the documentary (and another link to the video.)

I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work — a life’s work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before. So this award is only mine in trust. It will not be difficult to find a dedication for the money part of it commensurate with the purpose and significance of its origin. But I would like to do the same with the acclaim too, by using this moment as a pinnacle from which I might be listened to by the young men and women already dedicated to the same anguish and travail, among whom is already that one who will some day stand here where I am standing.

Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only the question: When will I be blown up? Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat.

He must learn them again. He must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid; and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the old universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed - love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice. Until he does so, he labors under a curse. He writes not of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, of victories without hope and, worst of all, without pity or compassion. His griefs grieve on no universal bones, leaving no scars. He writes not of the heart but of the glands.

Until he relearns these things, he will write as though he stood among and watched the end of man. I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal simply because he will endure: that when the last ding-dong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet’s, the writer’s, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.

EVEL KNIEVEL RIP

EVEL KNIEVEL CB VAN

evel knievel TOYS

LARA STONE SMOKING with ZOMBIE [DOLCE & GABBANA: Steven Klein - 'Fiction Noir']

Italian designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana once again tapped Steven Klein to shoot their spring-summer 2009 campaign.
Portraiture in the past has been regarded as a documentation of a person but for me it is a documentation of the encounter between myself and the subject. It is not meant to reveal them, nor is it meant to subject them to an X-ray; it is a departure from that. I am more interested in the alchemical reaction that occurs when elements are brought together in a space.

Not so much a collaboration between photographer and subject, more a scientific experiment - the studio becomes a lab. For me the portrait is not psychological either. It is atomic. Atoms change their electrical charge continuously, and the more challenging the shoot, the greater the chance of this charge. Yes, I do begin with an idea, a series of ideas that link together logically. But logic is often superseded by events beyond my control.

Art starts as a means of control but the atoms that compose us can spin in a different direction. When you see Madonna in a series of these images, she is neither a perfected icon nor is she revealed – instead she remains ambiguous. I feel the obsession with celebrities is for the most part based on a tired need to know oneself through the other, and perhaps the concept of knowing oneself is all deluded.

There is a desire to link photography with painting. My background is painting and I feel there is no connection between the two. It is as if the camera is linked to a sin, producing a bastard art form that we feel we must link to the past in order to give it credentials. I don't want those credentials. I have no need to apologize for photography. My archives exist only for sound business reasons; otherwise my work would be disposable. And there lies the contradiction, for I am a private person not an exhibitionist, I am a person who lives for the future, not the past; I am standing behind a camera in order that I can extend myself in front of it.

Sexy
Model
STEVEN KLEIN
French Vogue SHORT
FILM SMOKING
LARA STONE
ZOMBIE
DOLCE & GABBANA
Fiction Noir
David lynch
2010
Summer
Collection
Fashion
Photographer
B&W
Black and White
noir
fiction
february