Charo and Guitar

"Although I play a lot of guitar in my shows," writes Charo in a handwritten letter that accompanies press copies of her album Charo and Guitar, "I am still mostly recognized as the cuchi-cuchi girl." This is true. It is also true, however, that the bubbly stage and TV personality studied classical Spanish guitar with Andrés Segovia and that her 1995 album Guitar Passion won the Female Pop Album of the Year award at the Billboard International Latin Music Conference. It is these aspects of her career, not the wiggling figure in the tight dress familiar from television, that are emphasized on Charo and Guitar, which presents her instrumental versions of well-known flamenco and classical guitar pieces. Co-producer Joe DiBlasi is also credited with guitar on the album, so it's impossible to tell who's playing what, but the playing is undeniably accomplished, enough so that one might be tempted to attend a live performance by Maria Rosario Pilar Martinez Molina Baeza (okay, Charo) to hear what she can do, as well as see.