Old Contemporary Guitar Music: Puerto Plata and "Los Piratas"

Today's random tune is by José Cobles, a Dominican musician who goes by the nickname of Puerto Plata. Puerto Plata's music and singing is reminiscent of guitar music heard in the Dominican Republic in the 1930s and 40s, before it was stigmatized by dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo,who preferred accordion-heavy merengue tipico. By the 1960s, after Trujillo's assassination, Dominican guitar music began to develop into bachata. Plata does not play bachata, however, but a music closer in style to contemporary Cuba, even though it is inspired in the Dominican past. In addition, Plata's band features some of the Dominican Republic's finest musicians, such as guitar legends Edilio Paredes and Frank Mendez. This song, Los Piratas, can be found on Plata's first internationally distributed CD, Mujer de Cabaret, released in 2007.