Historia General del Pueblo Dominicano Tomo VI

738 Popular Music and Identity since the Nineteenth Century Alberti’s group remained popular, but a new group, sponsored by the dictator’s brother José Arismendy « Petán» Trujillo and called Super Orquesta San José, soon became the country’s top dance band. Led by Ramón Antonio Molina y Pacheco, better known as PapaMolina, this group featured the vocals of Joseito Mateo, who became known as « the king of merengue». According to Mateo, Orquesta San José playeda faster and livelier style ofmerengue thandid Alberti (interview). It also innovated by omitting the piano accordion, adding the Cuban conga drums, use of syncopated Afro-Cuban rhythms in the bass. 83 As time went on, omission of the paseo section from band arrangements of three-part merengues became more and more common. Other than Alberti’s group and Super Orquesta San José, the most important dance band of the day was a polished ensemble named Antonio Morel y su Orquesta. Alberti’s group performed regularly at the « Patio Español» of the Jaragua Hotel from 1944 to 1954, while Orquesta San José specialized in radio broadcasts and played in the « Night Club» of radio station La Voz Dominicana. The only top band not sponsored directly by the Trujillo family, Antonio Morel y su Orquesta had more freedom to perform and record when and where they wished, playing at society clubs and private parties. 84 Some former members of Orquesta Bohemia, had started their own group in Santiago in 1932, and Orquesta los Hermanos Vásquez became the number-one dance band in the Cibao, remaining popular into the late 1940s and gaining fame for their vibrant use of saxophones. Several members of Santiago’s Orquesta los Hermanos Vásquez moved to the capital to play with Orquesta San José. Tavito Vásquez became Orquesta San José’s lead alto saxophonist and one of the best musicians in the Republic. In addition to playing with Super Orquesta San José, he occasionally led his own dance band and típico group. Steeped in merengue típico cibaeño and well-versed in jazz, Vásquez was in a unique position to take the fusion of Dominican and North American musics to new heights of creativity. His revolutionary application of modern jazz improvisation to merengue renders Vásquez an important innovator of Dominican music. Moreover, his emotive tone, sophisticated harmonic sense, uncanny melodic conception make him a jazz master by any standards. Trumpeter and arranger Hector de León also played an important role in diffusing knowledge about, and enthusiasm for, jazz among Dominican musicians in the 1950s. 85 His brother, alto saxophonist Choco de León, recorded small-group interpretations of the traditional merengue cibaeño repertory that featured extended jazz-influenced solos that continue to serve as models of Dominican jazz today.