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Tito Puente slowing down? Hardly.
At 75 and arguably the best known and most important figure in Latin music, he maintains a vigorous touring schedule and recently released his 106th album.
This is not to say that the four-time Grammy winner hasn't thought about retiring.
``Sometimes I think `yes' and sometimes `no','' he said during a telephone interview. ``But things are going too easy for me now. I can't. Work is coming to me, ambitious things.''
Puente has a fantasy of being the first man booked to play music on the moon.
``It's 4 1/2 years away,'' he said, tongue slightly in cheek. ``I'll plant timbals instead of a flag.''
Puente will have to settle for the high elevation of Snowbird Resort on Saturday as the Latin jazz percussion legend closes out the eighth annual Utah Jazz & Blues Festival.
``They've had a good reaction to me before in Salt Lake City,'' he said. ``They're very aware of my work.''
Only the musically moribund could be unaware of the original Mambo King who has been creating scintillating Latin jazz and Afro-Cuban dance music since the late 1940s.
The white-haired Puente, who studied at the prestigious Juilliard School of Music...