José Manuel Calderón (musician)

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José Manuel Calderón (born August 9, 1941 in San Pedro de Macorís ) is a Dominican Bachata singer, composer and guitarist.

Calderón grew up in Santo Domingo in 1954 and founded the Trío los Juveniles with the guitarists Andrés Rodríguez and Luis Pimentel at the end of the 1950s , with which he recorded his first demo songs at La Voz del Trópico . With the titles Borracho de amor and Condena , he was the first musician in 1962 to make recordings of Bachatas. From 1963 he had a contract with Kubaney Records . He expanded the traditional instruments (three guitars) to include strings, wind instruments and the güira. In the following years he became popular with songs like Quema esas cartas , Te perdono , Serpiente humana , Vana empeno and Llanto a la luna (with the Johnny Venturas Orchestra and Felipe Rodríguez ).

In 1967 he went with his lead guitarist Andres Rodriguez to New York to record at Level BMC, where he stayed until 1972 and was part of the music scene around Felipe Rodriguez, Blanca Iris Villafañe , Tommy Figueroa and Odilio Gonzalez . When he returned to the Dominican Republic in 1972, the bachata had the reputation of a vulgar music of the lower classes of the population, was associated with prostitution, crime and poverty and was only broadcast on one nationwide radio station, Radio Guarachita . During this time he recorded songs like La saqué de la barra and Bebiendo en la barra , which reflected the life of the lower class in the barrios.

Because of the difficult situation he went back to New York and performed there in front of a Dominican audience. With the advent of electric guitars, the style of music of the pioneers of bachata received less and less attention, which only changed in the 1990s. Now Calderón could also appear on stages such as the Teatro Nacional and the Gran Teatro del Cibao .

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personal data
SURNAME Calderón, José Manuel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dominican singer, composer and guitarist
DATE OF BIRTH August 9, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH San Pedro de Macorís