Napoleon Zayas
Napoleón Zayas (* 1904 in Azua de Compostela ; † 1979 ) was a Dominican merengue musician, composer , saxophonist and orchestra conductor .
Zayas completed his musical training first in Santo Domingo, then until 1930 in New York. In 1932 he went to Spain, where he lived and worked for twenty years. In 1952 he returned to the Dominican Republic and founded a merengue orchestra there, which also consisted of saxophonists, two trumpeters, four percussionists and the singer Ramón Hernández .
The good relations between the dictators Trujillo and Franco enabled the orchestra to emigrate to Spain in 1954, where it made merengue music popular. Zajas had great success with his Foxtrot Ritmos en Casablanca , which was played at a performance by Josephine Baker . He performed in Madrid, San Sebastian, Santander, Granada; Bilbao and Seville, in Florence, Lisbon, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Budapest and Bombay with his orchestra known as the Orquesta de Color Ciudad Trujillo . He did not return to the Dominican Republic until 1971.
In the course of his musical career, Zayas has worked with more than a thousand musicians from different countries and made over 200 recordings, including the Merengues La Amanezca , Tiriri , Fiesta , Los Saxofones , Santo Domingo , Caña Brava , La Maricutana , Juanita Morel , La Enramá , Viva mi Tierra , Sancocho Prieto , El Negrito del Batey , Ay que Merengue , Mentirosa , El Jincao , Loreta , Pun Pun , El Martiniqueño , Pantalón Corto , Guararé , Cara Sucia , Debajo de la Mata de Plátano and Dolorita .
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| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Zayas, Napoleon |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Dominican merengue musician, composer, saxophonist and orchestra leader |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1904 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Azua de Compostela |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1979 |