Presenting New Release: PUERTO PLATA'S "CASITA DE CAMPO"
"World Music this is not - but a magic bullet for the heart and the mind. There's no one quite like Puerto Plata out there. I can't get his music out of my head" - Junot Díaz
"The rhythms are taut and frisky, topped with spiky, stuttering leads from the requinto that sends its countermelodies dancing merrily around Puerto Plata’s memories and advice." - Jon Pareles, New York Times
Read Puerto Plata's lyrics in English and Spanish: Casita de Campo | Mujer de Cabaret
Celebrating his recent 86th birthday, the Dominican Republic’s veteran sonero, Puerto Plata, returns with his new album, “Casita de Campo,” a glorious selection of classic love songs and lilting dance numbers composed during the repressive regime of the dictator Rafael Trujillo (1930-1960). “Casita de Campo” follows his internationally acclaimed 2007 debut album “Mujer de Cabaret.”
Under Trujillo, Dominican musicians were largely blocked from recording and so, like other popular singers of the time, Puerto Plata found eager audiences at the underground cabaret dance halls of Dominican Santiago’s red light districts. The passage of time and Puerto Plata’s resilience have managed to preserve some of the Dominican Republic’s sweetest melodies and romantic lyrics, often with a wry, twinkling sense of cabaret humor. Drawing inspiration from that period when his band was one of the most active in Santiago, Puerto Plata revisits in this new album the romantic serenades and electrifying son and merengue with which he enchanted audiences during his youth.
“Casita de Campo” was recorded live in New York by iASO producer Benjamin de Menil and features the brilliant arrangements of the father of Dominican guitar, Edilio Paredes, and younger master guitarist Pablo Rosario. The musical lineup also includes Joan Soriano on 2nd guitar, Edilio’s son Samuel Paredes on bass, and seasoned percussionists on guira, tambora and bongos.
Born in the Dominican resort town of Puerto Plata in 1923, Puerto Plata, aka José Cobles, combines the wisdom of a charming but tough grandfather with the astounding vigor one would expect of a much younger man. His three uncles were musicians and he recalls Sundays spent at their house in the presence of legendary Dominican composers and singers. His mother died when he was young and at the age of 16 he went to work as a carpenter for the United Fruit Company. His work took him to Manzanillo, to Panama, and finally led him to settle in Santiago (Dominican Republic) at the age of 27. There, because of his hometown, he was christened “Puerto Plata.” While he was living in Manzanillo, he began to save pennies in a shoe box until he was able to buy his first guitar for 20 Dominican pesos. He was 24 years old — leaving him a scant 62 years to bring his musical mastery to its current level! Over the past two years Puerto Plata has performed for packed festival and performing arts center audiences throughout the U.S. and Canada.
The album’s title song, “Casita de Campo,” a poetic masterpiece by Dominican composer Enriquillo Sánchez, wittily personifies a small country home and recalls the passion sweethearts once shared under its roof. The Cuban classic guajira “Guantanamera” takes on a Dominican improvisational twist, as Puerto Plata substitutes new verses that poke fun at race and identity. "Brisa de la tarde” tenderly touches upon a lover’s sighs to the evening breeze, as Edilio Paredes sparks the 50 year old bolero with his bachata-inspired guitar arrangement. “Lobatón” is a classic bolero-son written by Santiago’s most famous composer of the Trujillo era, Bienvenido Troncoso. In lyrics set to a poetic style favored in the 20’s and 30’s a man reminds his coy mistress that his own blood flows through her heart (she is carrying his child.)
“Los Perros,” a popular guaracha during Trujillo’s time, whose original authorship is now lost, enumerates nine puppies who one by one suffer different sad fates, until the singer is left “sin perros.” The traditional carnival song, “Dolores,” with the playful catchiness of a children’s sing along, carries humorous double-entendre – typical of Dominican lyrical prowess - and every element of folk merengue is present, from the rousing call-and-response to the guitarra brio with which Pablo Rosario has made his reputation. In Antonio Machín’s “De qué te vale,” Puerto Plata taunts a rival, asking what use are his riches if he can’t be happy, and his strapping body if he can’t return “un pecosón” (a knock-out blow). Here, guitarist Pablo Rosario brilliantly alternates between traditional son and modern merengue arrangements.
“Casita de Campo” is a tour-de-force in composition, arrangement, superb musicianship and unusually innovative and distinctly Dominican styling – melding the traditional sonero –troubadour’s gentle melodies with more contemporary rhythms – as Puerto Plata yearns and croons through his early songs sung long ago, while refashioning them today in the continuing story and evolution of the Dominican Republic’s popular music.