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// Puerto Plata

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Puerto Plata
© Benjamin de Menil

Casita de Campo


Casita de Campo

For decades, Jose Cobles played guitar and sang in some of the roughest neighborhoods of Santiago, in the Dominican Republic. Everybody knew him there as Puerto Plata – the name of the town he was born in - and most days, he could be found around the brothels of La Joya, plying his musical trade.

 

Like most of his peers, Puerto Plata grew up poor. He went to work for the United Fruit Company when he was 16, ended up in Panama and finally settled down in Santiago. He always knew he wanted to play guitar and started saving up early to buy one – guitars weren’t cheap, they still aren’t. At age 24, in 1947, he was able to buy his first guitar, and he’s been working as a musician ever since.

 

What Puerto Plata was playing in the late 40s was a mixture of Cuban son and boleros and an occasional merengue – a style that would eventually become bachata. The main difference with this particular variation on Cuban son seems to be the use of the requinto instead of the tres or the guitar, allowing for more melodic ornamentation in ways sometimes reminiscent of the classic Mexican trios. Only better…

 

The Dominican Republic, like a lot of former Spanish colonies, had a strong guitar tradition. However, from 1930 through 1961 the guitar became looked down upon as a result of dictator Trujillo’s personal dislike of an instrument which had strong associations with the working class. Trujillo, one of the worst dictators in a century with fierce competition for that title, was a champion of merengue de orquesta. Under his rule, recording guitar was strongly discouraged and for over thirty years, the guitar was relegated to rural areas and rough neighborhoods – a perfect recipe for creating a powerful new musical genre. Thirty years after Trujillo’s death, guitar-driven bachata became the most popular style of music in the Dominican Republic as well as in much of Latin America.

 

For the past few years, New York’s IASO Records has been exploring the origins of bachata. In 2007, they released Bachata Roja, a compilation of the best bachatas of the 60s and 70s - before the music became popular and, mostly, before guitars became electrified. The songs reveal an early bachata culture still strongly rooted in son and bolero as well as in the nearly extinct Merengue de Guitarra - because before accordions took over as lead instruments, merengue was also guitar music. Every song on the album is a gem.

 


Puerto Plata Merengue Dolorita

 

Around the same time, IASO also released Mujer de Cabaret, Puerto Plata’s debut album (at age 84…). Casita de Campo is his follow-up. As an interpreter and composer of some of the earliest bachatas, Puerto Plata is a living repository of precious musical history and his new album does more to highlight the various origins of the music than any ethnomusicologist could.

 

The deep influence of the Cuban son runs through most of the songs and it is in the subtle differences of interpretations that lie the seeds of what would eventually become modern bachata. The Cuban roots of the music is openly acknowledged throughout the album which ends with Antonio Machin’s classic guaracha De qué te vale and includes an updated interpretation of Guantanamera with improvised lyrics addressing racism in a somewhat humorous way.

 

One of the highlights of the album comes from Elidio Paredes’ requinto playing. Paredes is a virtuoso who did much to codify the way the instrument was played in the 1960s. He is a master of fast runs and fluid tremolos and can forever embellish a melody while never sounding sappy. On Juan Lockward’s Porqué no ha de ser, his playing manages to be at once lyrical and contrapuntal while always serving the melody. The track works like a beautiful duet between him and Puerto Plata.

 

Other highlights include Lobatón – a tragic son which could have been a lost Matamoros classic but was penned by the Dominican Bienvenido Troncoso – one of Santiago’s most famous composers during Trujillo’s rule. When the younger Pablo Rosario takes over requinto duties from Paredes, the songs seem to get a bit closer in style to contemporary bachata – more rhythmic, with more of the trademark fast arpeggios that are now permanently associated with the style. He also applies his more rhythmic style to Dolores, the one merengue on the album.

 

All in all, Casita de Campo is a welcome window onto a musical world that until now had left almost no trace. Listening to contemporary bachata you get strong hints of the sones and boleros that inform the music, but Puerto Plata actually delivers a time-traveling feat which allows us to witness the birth of a musical genre.

 

 

Puerto Plata - Casita de Campo

Puerto Plata - Casita de Campo
is out now on Iaso

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bachata Roja: Acoustic Bachata From The Cabaret Era

Bachata Roja - Acoustic Bachata From The Cabaret Era
is out now on Iaso

 

 

 

 

 



Olivier Conan


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