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Lucie Arnaz is making sure her father's music isn't forgotten.
The 65-year-old daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz began her career as an actress, performing on Broadway and making guest appearances on television shows. But after her father died in 1986, Lucie knew she wanted her work to honor her Cuban father's past as the leader of a Latin music band.
She created a nightclub act and, later, an album and stage musical based on Desi Arnaz's unpublished arrangements and recordings, the Sun Sentinel reports.
"It changed my life," Lucie told the newspaper. "My life is booked up with [concerts], and I'm thrilled about that. When you hit upon something that is your bliss ... that makes you patently happy to do, it often also turns out to be the best thing prosperity-wise. I work well in [a music hall], and I like people. I really like the audience."
Her brother, Desi Arnaz, Jr., played percussion in the musical, "Babalu — A Tribute to the Music of Desi Arnaz," which ran in 2010 in Miami.
Now, Lucie has a new show debuting at the Miramar Cultural Center in Miramar, Florida, on Nov. 19, which will include some of the songs her father was known for, as well as original tracks. Lucie and her son, guitarist Joe Luckinbill, wrote the track "The Music in My Heart" together.
"In the song, he's asking if his grandfather...knows what he's doing," said Lucie. "'Does he know I'm a musician?' The answer is, from my father, his grandfather, that 'I am here all the time. I am the music in you, the lyrics. I'm in your heart. Look up, I'm in the sky. I'm the tune in your head when you lie down to bed.'"
"Singing that every night as a eulogy and a thank you, whatever you want to call it, never gets old," she added.
Lucie describes the new show as a hybrid of her CD, Latin Roots, and the "Babalu" musical. The performance includes a backdrop of home videos from her childhood.
(h/t South Florida)
