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Song of the Week: Johnson Rag

Esquivel!
Johnson Rag

I cannot believe that I have been writing this blog for 2 1/2 years without mentioning Mr Juan Garcia Esquivel, or Esquivel! as he apparently preferred to be known. This was a man who was not put off by silly lyrics, odd instruments or experimentation with weird arrangements. No, he embraced them whole-heartedly – only to create the ultimate in big band ’space age pop’.

File under: the sound of 50s summer
Goes with: a Mai Tai

‘Johnson Rag’, Esquivel, 1960

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 21st, 2010 at 8:40 pm and is filed under Records. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “Song of the Week: Johnson Rag”

  1. Mondo Says:
    June 21st, 2010 at 9:44 pm

    Oh yes, perf’ for slow-sipping on heated evenings. He looks like Gok Wan doing Brains from Thunderbirds.

  2. Cocktails Says:
    June 22nd, 2010 at 12:03 pm

    Ha, ha Mondo. He may look like Gok Wan doing Brains, but he is cutting edge – look at that funky atom mobile!

  3. Five-Centres Says:
    June 22nd, 2010 at 12:56 pm

    I see Glen Miller’s no.4 in the album charts. How did that happen.

  4. Cocktails Says:
    June 22nd, 2010 at 5:28 pm

    Well, there is either a swing revival or the current state of the music industry is even more parlous than we thought.

  5. ishouldbeworking Says:
    June 23rd, 2010 at 1:29 pm

    I thought he was Gok Wan too!

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