Juan Luis Guerra
b. 1957, Dominican Republic. The multi-talented Guerra began the '90s as the hottest property in the international Latin market with a brand of solid pop dubbed World Latin Music by former Billboard Latin music columnist Carlos Agudelo. The son of a baseball star, Guerra was raised in the middle-class neighbourhood of Gazcue in the Dominican Republic's capital city, Santo Domingo. Despite listening to many rock artists in his teens such as the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and Humble Pie, he favoured jazz guitar, and in 1980, he began studies at Berklee College Of Music in Boston, USA. ‘My principal goal was to learn to be Pat Metheny’, Guerra told journalist and erstwhile calypsonian, Daisann McLane, in 1990. However, he discovered at a college party that he could attract more attention playing a merengue percussion instrument than his beloved jazz guitar. ‘This was a revelation for me. I realized that jazz and bebop wasn't really my music. It was time to go home.’ His first albums (MUDANZA Y ACARREO, 1985, and MIENTRAS MÁS LO PIENSO …TÚ, 1986) emphasized the close-harmony work of his vocal group 4.40, a tropicalized version of Manhattan Transfer,’ wrote Cuban American journalist Enrique Fernández in December 1989, ‘4.40 became a cult among Dominican sophisticates … The secret of (their) success was not only Guerra's suave vocal arrangements. The tight beat was provided by the crackerjack studio musicians, notably the Dominican Republic's premier tambora (a double headed drum basic to merengue) player, Catarey … his soulful tambora in 4.40's sweet and slow merengues (as well as in the fast and furious ones) turned the group's records into irresistible dance grooves that conquered the merengue world from South America to Washington Heights (New York)’ (quote from his Village Voice article ‘Black Tie at the Beach’). Following the departure of female vocalist Haridalia Hernández and Catarey's lamentable death in a road accident while on tour with 4.40 in Venezuela, Guerra provided the lead vocals to 1989's OJALA QUE LLUEVA CAFÉ. His nasal timbre and cool singing style attracted comparison with James Taylor. The album became ‘ … all the rage among tropical yuppies, who like to move fast without sweating up their Armanis … ’ (Fernández, 1989), and he was criticized for his petit bourgeois approach to merengue. However, this did not deter OJALÁ QUE LLUEVA CAFÉ from becoming a monster hit in the USA, Dominican Republic and various other Latin countries. The record was a pot-pourri of styles; tracks ranged from the socially conscious lyrics of the hit title song, the Catarey memorial Angel Para Una Tambora, to the excruciating soca-orientated mover Woman del Callao, which was partly sung in an appalling stereotypical English Caribbean dialect. Guerra retained the momentum with the smash hits Burbujas de Amor and La Bilirrubina, which were later included on his next chart-topper BACHATA ROSA. He employed the rural Dominican bachata form to carry the bizarrely romantic lyrics of Burbujas de Amor (Bubbles Of Love): ‘I wish I were a fish, so I could poke my nose into your fish tank and blow bubbles of love wherever you want … so I could adorn your waist with seashells, and spend the whole night buried in your wetness’ (translated by McLane). Guerra even managed to make a major breakthrough in Spain, which has neven been a significant market for merengue and salsa. At one point in 1991, he occupied both the number 1 and 2 slots in the Spanish album chart. He also reached number 1 in Holland. In the latter part of 1991, the single Frio, Frio kept Guerra's name riding high in the charts. The song—a leftover from the BACHATA ROSA sessions—was allegedly released by Karen label boss Bienvenido Rodríguez, without Guerra's permission.