LEAF MAN:

All Things Considered did a http://discover.npr.org/rundowns/segment.jhtml?wfId=896757story on this guy, Carlos Garcia, yesterday. He's been playing an ivy leaf--yes, an ivy leaf-- on street corners in Mexico City for 30 years, since losing an arm to a live wire. Somehow, the Kronos Quartet heard about him and used his rendition of Perfidia on an album of Mexican music, Nuevo. It turns out that the company they paid for the rights had pretty much pirated them and has never given Mr. Garcia a cent. I don't know that it's great music, but you really have to hear the guy play to believe what he does.

MORE:
PRESS RELEASE: KRONOS QUARTET'S 'NUEVO' EXPLORES MUSIC FROM MEXICO (Kronos Quartet)
-Mexican Radio: For Kronos Quartet, it's a whole Nuevo world (David Templeton, April 2002, Strings magazine)
-Global Hit (The World)
-Music as Friction: The Kronos Quartet's Mexican road movie (SYLVIA PFEIFFENBERGER, September 18, 2002, Independent Weekly)
Tiempos Modernos (Richard Gehr, May 25th, 2002, Village Voice)
THE MAKING OF NUEVO (Harry Sumrall , 6/15/02, Red Ludwig)