Guerra the Grammy machine.
Photo: People en Español

by John Oseid

One hot Coney Island afternoon in the early nineties, I heard some high-pitched, plaintive guitar tunes coming out of a boombox (remember those?). The wonderful sound would have knocked my socks off had I been wearing any. It was called bachata, a group of teenagers explained to me. Shortly after that I bought Bachata Rosa by Juan Luis Guerra, an album that opened up the vast world of Dominican music to me.

This week, the legendary Guerra starts his first big tour in ten years. The La Travesia, or Crossroads, tour supports his new album by the same name. Catch him at major venues like Miami's American Airlines Arena on July 12, Madison Square Garden on July 18, and the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles on August 3.

A graduate of Boston's famed Berklee College of Music, the Santo Domingo native and his band 440 (Cuatro Cuarenta) have built an audience over several decades throughout the Spanish-speaking world. Lately, Guerra has been winning Grammys like fellow Dominican Manny Ramirez has been smacking home runs.

Karl Taro Greenfeld's December 2006 Conde Nast Traveler story, "Merengue Moment," is a good place to start for some background on the rural environment out of which sprang bachata and other Dominican music strains.

Juan Luis Guerra doesn't produce pure bachata, but he often borrows its basic elements. The prolific musician is best known for his romantic boleros and merengue rhythms. Bachata has, however, developed a huge audience in recent years, and new stars have taken it in many directions. More on this soon--stay tuned!