``There is no anger in my music,'' Lucien said via phone from his home near the beach in Gurabo, Puerto Rico, before his sextet's nearly sold-out shows tonight in the Peco Energy Jazz Festival. ``Sure, I have a lot of reasons to be angry, but it would kill me if I spent a lot of time angry. It's the same as frowning. What good is that going to do? So I smile.''
The deep-voiced Lucien is a favorite among women for his suave Caribbean- and Latin-inspired love songs like ``Rashida'' and ``Dindi.'' And tonight at the Sheraton Society Hill, ``we'll just do what we always aim to do,'' he said, ``and that's satisfy.''
The 55-year-old native of the Virgin Islands had kept a low profile in the '80s and early '90s as he recovered from drug and health problems. (Lucien said the stress of his daughter's death contributed to a recent loss of sight in his right eye.)
He recently signed with Shanachie Records, for which he just finished recording a new CD last month. The as-yet-untitled disc will be his first in more than four years.
The last couple of years, he's done guest spots on recordings by an array of performers, including singer Nnenna Freelon and bassist Charles Fambrough.
And as part of his daily routine, the multi-instrumentalist sits at the piano in his airy home and speaks to Dalila, whose picture is at the heart of a tiny memorial surrounded by water and candles.
``She is music to me,'' Lucien said. ``I look at her, and we talk, and I play, and I write.''
