BABALU
A celebration of
The Music of Desi Arnaz and His Orchestra

Lucie Arnaz
hosts a celebration of the birth of the Latin music craze in this country seen through the music of her father, Desi Arnaz and his orchestra, with original big band orchestrations now housed at the Library of Congress

with
Raul Esparza and Valarie Pettiford

featuring
The New Desi Arnaz Orchestra

Musical Director
Ron Abel

Babalu is Lucie Arnaz's tribute to her father's ingenuity and talent and a wildly entertaining retrospective of the role his music played in launching the Latin rhythm explosion in this country.

Lucie has resurrected her father’s original orchestra charts, which have not been heard, live, in over 50 years and are currently housed at the Library of Congress. Desi achieved lasting fame for his groundbreaking work on I Love Lucy, but, earlier in his career, he introduced the conga dance craze to U.S. audiences and was a major player in the big-band era of the 1930s and ‘40's, touring the country and playing top-tier clubs like La Conga, in New York and Ciro’s, in Hollywood.

Images from the sold-out January 2010 engagement at the 92nd St. Y in NYC.
"Smoldering...."
Stephen Holden - NY Times

Lucie Arnaz and the New Desi Arnaz Orchestra

Left to right: Lucie Arnaz; Raul Esparza & Valarie Pettiford; Raul Esparza

Valarie Pettiford, Raul Esparza, Lucie Arnaz

Valarie Pettiford

Ron Abel and Desi Arnaz, Jr.

The cast takes their bows