M.M. finds me woefully uninformative about Ricky Martin: >>>OK, so who is that guy? The name sounds vaguely familiar, and since >>>you wrote "a record", he's presumably a musician. I'm not kidding, I >>>honestly don't know who he is. I unhelpfully replied: >>The latest incarnation of Desi Arnaz... > >Oh, I see. Unfortunately, I never heard of Desi Arnaz. Cuban mambo bandleader of the 1940s and '50s. Made a Hollywood film appearance or two... Well known throughout the Americas in the 50s and 60s. >>...without the maracas > >That's a pity, it's a nice instrument. I have a pair at home. Arnaz is probably why. >>or the dizzy redhead. Lucille Ball, US comic actress he married ...thanks to whom his fame lasted past his orchestral hits. She had one of the most successful TV shows ever: I Love Lucy, and variations on that theme. He produced, and negotiated the business side. >>[Martin] Puerto Rican pop/mambo sensation with a monster >>hit: "Livin' la vida Loca." The jury's out on whether he's got another >>one in him. > >I'm trying to imagine the kind of music, but it's tough. Thanks anyway. He waves his arms, wiggles his bum; that sort of thing. The girls, I think ages 11 to 15, love(d?) it. >>If you stretch to this kind of music, > >I hardly ever stretch to music, I am sorry to hear this. I'm currently trying to 'stretch my ear' to Ligeti. Some of it's most compelling, but some may remain past my musical reach. >and, as I said, I have difficulties with imagining what kind this kind >is. If Perez Prado, Xavier Cugat, and the words 'mambo,' 'dengue' and 'huaracha' mean nothing, I'd give up. You might seek out some of it, if you have any interest in latin-american music. >>I'd recommend the more tongue-in-cheek but true-to-the-roots Lou Bega. > >Never heard of, either... I think he's German-born, curiously. Possibly a US Army base brat. >...Unforgivable gaps in my classical music education. Who said anything about classical? I did say "monster hit." More a gap in other kinds of musical exposure. Some might say blessed. I wouldn't. Bendy ears. Bert B