Rough Guide to Merengue & Bachata

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About Rough Guide To Merengue & Bachata

Product Description This Rough Guide presents two essential beats from the Dominican Republic, merengue and bachata. With its driving 2/4 beat, merengue's sexy rhythms, the heart beat of the Dominican Republic's streets, encourages hips to swing in every dance hall in the Latin Caribbean and its popularity has spread to the USA and South America. From the north of the island's countryside comes, the largely undiscovered, bachata. This soulful music of the poor and lovers, with its guitar riffs reminiscent of Central Africa and emotional male vocals, is a Latin secret worth uncovering. This long awaited Rough Guide brings together the greats of merengue and bachata with talented new artists, to supply a pulsating collection introducing a piece of the Dominican Republic to dance floors around the world. Amazon.com Cuba, Puerto Rico, and New York gave us the rumba, bomba, plena, and salsa, but the rhythms of the merengue and bachata from the Dominican Republic are the fastest-growing musical genres from the Caribbean. This CD is a snappy introduction to that island's national beats. The merengue originated in its neighbor country Haiti in the late 19th century, and was developed in the towns of Cibao and Santo Domingo. It's marked by lighting-fast beats, zesty accordion and saxophone riffs, and infectious accents by percussion instruments like the guiro and maracas. This CD includes the "Perico Ripiao" merengue heard on "Que Pena" by Samuelito Almonte y Su Conjunto, some big-city techno-rengue sounds on Antony Santos's saucy "Coheli Ahi," and some New York-style rap-a-rengue on Blas Duran's hip-hop/house track "Crei." The bachata, which grew out of the Spanish bolero genre, is a slower, more syncopated sister to the merengue, with its high-tuned, central African guitar strains. It too comes in many moods and grooves, from the distinctive nasal vocals of Luis Segura's (the legendary Papa de la Bachata) "Los Celos" to the amorous love tones of Nelson Roig's "El Dueño de la Noche." This collection is a good sonic snapshot of this island's musical treasures. --Eugene Holley Jr.