Conference Call: Jeff Buckley interviews Esquivel
Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, Summer 1996
Take a ride on the mood music elevator as MOJO’s favourite young lion Jeff Buckley enjoys a transcontinental chinwag with space-age septuagenarian Esquivel.
Jeff Buckley: Senor Esquivel, when was the first time you discovered what you could do in a studio — like the xylophone that you put through a echo chamber and swung from side to side in the mix?
Esquivel: Well, you see, all this is the result of many hours of rehearsing with my Mexican band, some forty or fifty years ago. I was approached by a very successful Mexican comedian who came to me and told me, Juan, I want you to write music for my programme. I told him I didn’t have time to write the music for his scripts, and so he said, "That’s good, because I don’t have the time to write my scripts!" What I propose is this, he said: Why don’t we go to the sponsor of the show and we’ll ask him to give you 12 hours of rehearsal, and that way you’ll be able to write and rehearse the music at the same time. I said sure, wonderful.
So as you heard the music in your head you gave it to the band and they wrote it down?
Yes. I gave each one of the musicians a piece of paper and a pencil and an eraser. And I made notations. I ask the trombonist, can you make this shape? And he says, no I can’t, because I would have to go from the seventh position to the second, which is practically impossible -
So he had to change his mouth, play more wildly -
Yes. And then I went to the trumpets and the saxophones and the guitars. At that time in Mexico I had an orchestra of 40 musicians.
Tell me about the steel guitarist you had.
At that time I didn’t have a steel guitarist, I had just a regular guitar. But I had built a kind of Hawaiian-American guitar that had to be played with a metal bar -
Like an acoustic lap-steel –
Yes. And I remember the guy who played this guitar was so nervous. He sweat a lot.
No, because I just wrote the arrangements. But this particular guy, it took him about three months to learn one album.
How long did you live in Hollywood?
Let me see, from 1957 all the way to 1978.
When you got called to Hollywood, who called you?
I got first approached by RCA, and they asked me how long it would take me to write twelve arrangements. I said twelve months, because in Mexico the musicians didn’t have the ability that they have nowadays. Each arrangement I had to rehearse with the voices one by one.
Your attention to detail is considerable, and it keeps the mind guessing.
Well, I have to thank the Mexican orchestra for that, because that was how I learned to arrange. Working with them for twelve hours a day, I learned what effects worked and what effects didn’t work. The result was that finally I was contacted by RCA, and I went to make my first recording in Hollywood. I had five hours and a half to rehearse and record twelve arrangements, but I had the thing so well rehearsed and mastered that I did the first album in just three and a half hours. They were flabbergasted! This was Other Worlds, Other Sounds.
So you had to be very much in control of everything.
I was very lucky that I had the best musicians in Hollywood at my disposal - five trumpets, four trombones, five saxophones. We had some time left over at the session, so I dismissed the whole orchestra and just kept the flute and a guitar and the rhythm section. And in two and a half hours I made the whole arrangement for the album that we called Four Corners Of The World.
It just came out of your head?
Yes, I had the music so... so coming off of myself that I felt I could do anything. That’s the way things go. All my life I had the ability of producing sounds and making music, so it was very easy for me. Nevertheless, I regret very much that I did that second album without the full band, because the first album has this wonderful sound, with the brass waiting all over.
When the music was coming out of you, did you go back into memories of your life and have them come out in the arrangements?
Oh, yes. I can tell you that I separate my life into six parts. I’m afraid now that I am in my sixth part, but I have five wonderful passages of my life that I can remember. Right now, with the revival of my music, I’m writing new arrangements - some wonderful things that I hadn’t thought about and using some of the old effects that I thought were good but eliminating all the things I didn’t like before. The first arrangement I’m writing is an arrangement of Mendelssohn’s 'Wedding March'. I hope I won’t be called irreverent.
Not at all. A man who’s been through marriage cannot be irreverent with that music.
Well, I am putting all my good faith into the arrangement, and I hope it will be well-received. The second arrangement I’m writing is an original of mine. Have you heard 'Whatchamacallit' and 'Mucha Muchacha'?
Well, this arrangement is going to be called Guacamole.
I’m very happy to hear about it!
Yes, because it’s a mixture of my humour and my Latin experience.
Your music is all very Latin, and it’s also very heavy swing. What influenced you in that respect? My first thought was Duke Ellington, but you’ve hardly mentioned him.
Well, I’m using the full orchestra, but I’m using it my way, so you never can predict what’s going to happen next. I’m starting with the tom-toms, and then suddenly comes the whole orchestra yelling "Guacamole, mole, mole, mole, mole" — and the whole arrangement is going to be based on this effect. In between I’m going to use some excerpts: [sings] Ay-yay-yay... Da-dee-da-dee-da-dee...
[Sings along] Ay-yay-yay... Da-dee-da-clee-cla-dee...
I’m having a lot of fun, and I’m using a very unique instrumentation. Just four voices, two girls and two boys, and just two trumpets, doubled with the flugelhorn, and one bass trombone. And then I’m using the boom-bams, the tuned bongos — 24 sets of bongos tuned chromatically –
Oh wow! So they play melodies –
Yes, from an F4 to an F6. It’s a tot of fun, because I surprise myself laughing. I’m laughing at myself.
I’m wasting time asking you about your musical influences, when really it’s laughter and joy I should be asking you about.
Yes, it just comes out of myself. People sometimes ask me where these sounds come from, but I like them and they sound good, and they’re not used by anyone, so I said why not. That’s another number I’m going to write: 'Why Not'. Another one I’m going to write is called 'The Bed'. All kinds of experiences you can have in bed.
Juan!! I like the sound of that one!
I had the doctor come this morning, and he got me out of bed. Because I have been in bed for almost two years and a half.
You’ve done everything in bed — eaten, watched TV, thought, played chess...
You’re right. But the doctor came, and he put me in my wheelchair. And as soon as I’ve finished these four new arrangements, I’m going to jump into my pool! I’ve been watching my pod for two years and a half, and longing to walk among the trees — I have a beautiful garden with trees and flowers.
How long will it be before you can jump in your pool?
Well, when I end these recordings I’m going to sign with BMG or Capitol, and I’ll see which one suits me the best. Another thing I’m going to do is use MIDI for the first time. Instead of using the regular studio musicians, I’m going to use all the young musicians who have been influenced by my music. I’m going to use the Stereolab, Combustible Edison and Tindersticks musicians, and I’m going to record in MIDI. It’s going to be wonderful. It’s a possibility that I will go to London, it’s a matter of budget. Because of the devaluation of the peso, you can get very good prices. If not, I will go to Los Angeles.
How did you have your accident?
It was such a silly accident. I was kind of in a hurry, looking for a phone to tell my brother that my chauffeur was lost in Cuernavaca. I told the chauffeur to stop, and I got out of the car. And I lost my step and broke my hip and my left wrist. But my new doctor is a kind of chiropractor, and he’s giving me all kinds of exercises. And just this morning he got me taking a couple of steps. He told me he would get me up and around, and I was so happy.
Are you going to wake up at night and feel like you’ve gotta take a walk?
I would love to. It all depends on what kind of company I keep, because I have two beautiful nurses - one for the daytime and one for the nighttime.
Keep strong, Juan, keep strong!
Oh yes. I’m in a very good mood today.
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