Album Notes

A few years back, I had written down several ideas for cabaret evenings that I wanted to create. One of them was called “Finding my Inner Desi.” Let me “splain”: two things I always knew growing up were that I was adopted and that my birth father was Cuban. Living in a largely Italian-American household on suburban Long Island didn’t give me much exposure to my heritage, so that fell to the man I watched on my favorite television show- Ricky Ricardo, played, of course, by Desi Arnaz. Throughout my youth, he was my idea of what it meant to be Cuban and I was deeply influenced by both his character and his performances on “I Love Lucy,” where the Tropicana gave him the perfect opportunity to sing an enormous variety of material. I was singing and playing the piano before I could read and between my affinity for music and my explosive temper I earned the nickname “Ricky Ricardo” among my family and friends.

As I researched Desi’s life and career, I was constantly impressed by what I learned and decided that the world needed to know more about his incredible life- this man was not simply Mr. Ball, or riding the coattails of his brilliant wife. “Finding my Inner Desi” the concept became “Babalu-cy!”the show, presented at Metropolitan Room in 2007. This was the biggest project I had undertaken. My earlier shows had been done with a trio; now there was a band with horns and Latin percussion. When I heard the charts for the first time I was over the moon and knew that this project had to be recorded. Included here from “Babalu-cy!” are songs drawn from Desi’s several careers (bandleader, Hollywood actor, television star) as well as several numbers that were not performed by him- period songs that felt appropriate to various aspects of his life: “You and The Night and The Music” is what I imagine he sang to Lucille Ball on their first date, “The Island” is romance on the beach, “It Never Entered My Mind” a rueful look back at the break-up of Desi and Lucy. It is my honor to pay tribute to one of the greatest Cuban performers of all time. Ladies and Gentlemen, won’t you please join me for a visit to the Tropicana?