Ended Thursday and welcomed Friday after walking in the rain with Strings Aflame Volume 2 by Esquivel.

A bit of a chequered release history:

Originally scheduled to be released as Esquivel & His Orchestra “You And The Night And The Music”, RCA Victor LPM/LSP-2085 (K2PB-3994). Recorded with 2 additional tracks, “You And The Night And The Music” (currently unreleased) and “I Only Have Eyes For You” (found on reissues of “Other Worlds Other Sounds” BMG 74321 35747 2 and Wax Time 772229
RCA canceled the original 1959 release in the US, but not in Japan and put it out on its budget Camden label in 1962.

Lovely space-age pop from one of the masters anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eya83jGJkU&list=RD-eya83jGJkU&start_radio=1

#Esquivel #SpaceAgePop #EasyListening #Music #Strings

Latin-esque is a studio album from the Mexican bandleader, pianist, and composer Juan García Esquivel and his orchestra. The album, released in 1962 on the RCA Victor label..

In his book Exotica: Fabricated Soundscapes in a Real World, David Toop wrote: "Unlike most recordings, there is no attempt to cement the right and left loudspeaker channels into a cohesive (if virtual) whole; for Esquivel, the space between loudspeakers was an empty vessel through which normally immovable instruments roamed, sometimes hovering in the air or darting back and forth like hummingbirds. Crude as the sound magic is, the illusionism has parallels both with the Kinetic painting and sculpture of Bridget Riley and Pol Bury or with the surreal imagistic dislocations of Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte." - Wikipedia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFZLgZr-9lo&list=PLdJMb0jVSvc82smFLOioKlE5qzp_OawPZ&index=1

#Esquivel #SpaceAgePop #Exotica #DavidToop #LatinMusic #Music

Ended Wednesday and welcomed Thursday after a swim with Rains In The Tropics by The Gene Rains Group, released on Decca In 1962.

Ambient Exotica wrote:

"Their last album is chock-full of melodies and moods, and even though Gene Rains and his band mates – pianist Bryon L. Peterson, bassist Archie Grant Jr. and drummer Allen Watanabe – strive through different, oftentimes contradictory territories, they somehow altogether manage to present the output in a cohesively apollonian way..."

http://www.ambientexotica.com/exorev102_generains_ritt/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVdGPst3uIc&list=RDrVdGPst3uIc&start_radio=1&t=3s

#GeneRains #Exotica #Jazz #SpaceAgePop #AmbientExotica #Music

Ended Tuesday and welcomed Wednesday with Far Across The Sea by The Gene Rains Group, released on Decca in 1961.

Ambient Exotica wrote:

"...Released in 1961 about one year after the fan favorite Lotus Land, Rains stays true to his formula and delivers a tropical Exotica record that is as near to the eclectic Jazz scene as it is far away from euphonious Easy Listening shores..."

http://www.ambientexotica.com/exorev068_generains_fats/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDRIQforusY

#GeneRains #AmbientExotica #Exotica #SpaceAgePop #Jazz #Music

Ended Monday and welcomed Tuesday after my swim with Lotus Land by Gene Rains And His Group, released on Decca in 1960.

Ambient Exotica wrote:

The Gene Rains Group opens the album with an interpretation of Sammy Fain's Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing...The band captures the Asian flavor with shattering cymbals and Chinese gongs, galloping percussion, distinct piano and vibe notes...

http://www.ambientexotica.com/exorev037_generains_ll/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi1EEddWYKU&list=PLx1wYMItfH_SQs3gDNeieeUKJLLb4mag3&index=8

#GeneRains #SpaceAgePop #Exotica #AmbientExotica #Music

Ended the weekend Music for Lovers Only (or Jackie Gleason Presents Music for Lovers Only) is a studio album of easy-listening music by Jackie Gleason, wherein he conducted an orchestra performing standards. It was released by Capitol Records on October 27, 1952,..

Music for Lovers Only was widely praised upon its release and became an enduring bestseller..

Hackett's solo trumpet performance drew much critical attention. Walter Winchell said that it set the album's "groove on fire" - Wikipedia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTbz0aZVs7s&list=RDGTbz0aZVs7s&start_radio=1

#JackieGleason #EasyListening #Lounge #SpaceAgePop #Music #BobbyHackett #Strings

Ended Tuesday and welcomed Wednesday after a swim with Infinity In Sound Volume 2 by Esquivel And His Orchestra , released on RCa Victor in 1961

Review by Tony Wilds

All but two tracks here (and possibly those by now) have been plundered for CD compilations. Infinity in Sound Vol. 2 builds on the strength of the first volume and earier successes. Two tracks feature whistling, one of which is the beautiful, exotic Latin tune "Baia." Other standouts include "Anna (El Negro Zumbon)," "Who's Sorry Now," and "Limehouse Blues." This may be the Esquivel album that has it all: his signature style and sound, some experimentation (whistling), and an even mix of Latin and non-Latin standard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I62iJKk14U&list=RD5I62iJKk14U&start_radio=1

#Esquivel #SpaceAgePop #Lounge #Exotica #LivingStereo #Music

Golden Melodies From Japan by Paul Mark, His Orchestra And Voices released on Imperial in 1961.

Ambient Exotica wrote:

"Golden Melodies From Japan by Paul Mark is the Honolulu-based pianist and organist’s second album where he carves out his vision of Japanese Exotica in the whopping amount of 14 tracks. Released on Imperial Records in 1961, it is a very important work (though not many people have heard it, let alone of it), as it embodies an interstitial position: it sits right in-between Mark’s much better known East To West (1961) which is a live recording with a septet at Honolulu’s Oasis Night Club and supercharged with galactic organ textures, koto, shamisen and guitar twangs as well as bongo blebs on the one hand, and his quirkily titled edutainment corker 12½ Geishas Must Be Right (1963) on the other hand which features orchestral strings, harps..."

http://www.ambientexotica.com/exorev277_paulmark_goldenmelodiesfromjapan/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d62Xm7yUDkM&list=RDd62Xm7yUDkM&start_radio=1

#PaulMark #Exotica #SpaceAgePop #Lounge #Japan #Music #AmbientExotica

Ended the weekend and welcomed the week after a walk with Warm Wave an album by Latin jazz vibraphonist Cal Tjader fronting an orchestra arranged and conducted by Claus Ogerman recorded in 1964 and released on the Verve label.

The Allmusic review by Stephen Cook stated, "If an album ever betrayed Cal Tjader's affinity for former boss George Shearing's ultra-smooth cocktail style, then Warm Wave would be it ... this is less standard Latin lounge Tjader and more an analog to Jackie Gleason's polished easy-listening sound. Tjader's solos are so smooth, in fact, that they practically disappear into Claus Ogerman's opaque arrangements. If you are in the business of collecting classic lounge records, this rates as a good one". - Wikipedia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7KTqpY5NBA&list=RDR7KTqpY5NBA&start_radio=1

#CalTjader #ClausOgerman #Vibraphone #Jazz #Lounge #Exotica #SpaceAgePop #Music #VerveRecords

Ended the weekend and welcomed the week after a walk with The Subtle Sound Of David Snell by David Snell released on Decca in 1966.

David Snell (born 12 May 1936) is a British harpist, composer and conductor who has worked across a wide range of genres, from jazz, pop and soundtracks through to library music and classical concert works. - Wikipedia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wR5wbJDUsw&list=PLcydzjelTJojUhKHsWL76ZnG4svMOzAcg&index=1

#DavidSnell #Harp #EasyListening #Jazz #Lounge #SpaceAgePop #Exotica #Music