Who is Juan Luis Guerra? Here is the little info I know.Born on July 7, 1956 within a mid-class family, his father was a pro-baseball player in Dominican Republic. Since his kid's years the musicwas an influence: his home was next to the National Music Gallery.
During his teen years, as he pointed out, he got a lot of influence fromthe music of the famous Liverpool quartet, and the hippie movement in the U.S. Learned the guitar, by himself and with the help of others, andin a contest won an scholarship to get into the National Conservatory.One of his mentors at the conservatory recommended him to the BerkleeCollege, Massachusetts, influenced by the rhythm of jazz. There he learnedthe fundaments of jazz, bebop, swing and other RB rhythms and styles.
Apparently, while in MS, a phenomenon that occurs to many people outsideof his native country: the howling of "la sangre y lo nuestro" jolted.He confessed he felt a "call" to his roots in DR. He left Berklee, went back to DR and tried to form a band. His first experiments were fullyinfluenced by jazz (there has been an impromptu CD with this type of soundout since two years ago) while playing at local clubs. Then the eventualtransformation to a merengue/folklore/jazz mix produced his first album withthe group he called "4.40" : "Soplando". It didn't sell as expected.
Here the influence of the Nueva Trova had some effect: the melodies ofPablo Milanes. He started to try with merengue mixes and other sounds likethe "perico ripiao". This is the real starting point of his successfulcareer: "Mudanza y Acarreo" and "Mientras más lo pienso.. tú". These wereincredible successes in a time when the DR youth was starting to feelfed up with the "repeated" sounds of major bands, like J. Ventura andW. Vargas and the Beduinos, and F. Villalona. Sort of similar situationthat happened to Salsa in NY until Ruben Blades came to the podium with W. Colon.
In the DR there is competition every year for the "Merengue del Año", the Merengue of the Year. Nobody knows who is in until the results comeout. 4.40 with JLG had the privilege of winning four years in a row. Oneof his compositions was selected to represent DR in the InternationalMusic Festival of OTI, the Iberoamerican TV Organization.
In 1988 the style became refined and subtle, the genuine and authenticunique style of JLG came up with the superhit"Ojalá que llueva Café".Here began the conquest of the LatinAmerican and SW/US market. The songswere more the voice of the poor people of DR than his own voice. Untilnow he was not the lead vocalist. His female vocalist was considered to have the voice of a soprano, and was contracted in Italy and France, leaving4.40. For reference, her name is Maridalia Hernández.
JLG took the lead vocal position. With his success he was now ableto bring to the studio leading recording artists to find the best soundfor his new style of "bachata-merengue", which brought back the romancelost with fast-tempo merengues of the past. "Ojalá" became thethird most popular album in Latin-America youth audience.
Then between 1989 and 1990 he started working in the blasting album"Bachata Rosa" in which the "bachata-merengue", a methphoric bolero loadedwith bucolic and insinuant double-sense melodies was the center.First came the concerts (Viña del Mar) then the radio. Two songs filledthe waves of LA: "La Bilirrubina" and "Estrellitas y Duendes".Awards, prizes, concerts and the major interest of the giant US latin marketwere hearing to JLG. So much was the involvement that JLG had to almostretire to go back to create more music. BTW, "Bachata Rosa" became thesecond most popular album with the LA youth audience.
The "500 years" and "Encounter" celebrations were coming faster and faster.JLG felt compeled to speak out against injustice. In the DR things soexcessive were being carried out, like the giant lighthouse memorial to Columbus and the carabels docking in Santo Domingo. Many other musicianswere composing songs of pride and protest for the "500's" such as RubénBlades (who lost his mother while working in "Amor y Control") andWillie Colon. So, more as impromptu than polished creation came"Areíto".Some songs were beautiful renderings of folkloric sounds, as well as lostsounds (like the taino lament at the end). However some songs were receivedwith mixed feelings such as "Rompiendo Fuente" in which he aludes hispregnant wife with the maquila workers in the DR. Some maquila workers saidhow he dare to compare his wife with the working mothers of the maquilassince his family lives in a mansion overlooking Santo Domingo. Other lowmiddle class didn't like the social comment on "El Costo de la Vida".So, "Areíto" became a controversy in the DR and a so so hit in Latin America.It was considered by most as a shy shadow to "Bachata".
In 1992 began the work on his last album while touring the DR interior.He heard the traditional merengue with accordeon, as opposed to the jazzyversion with sax. In particular, the original work of Francisco Ulloawith his button (not piano) accordeon helped back JLG to re-encounter hisfolkloric roots. The cover of Diblo Dibala's "Kimia Eve" on "Areíto" calledback to do some more afro-influenced music like soukous into scene. This ispart of that new african wave that comes to replenish the nearly exhaustedafro-latin rhythms of cuban work. The result is "Fogaraté",a clearexample of a JLG going in the right direction: the creation of new soundsand styles by recuing back the root sound with deep afro and tainoinfluence.
JLG is married to his blonde Nora and has one son - Jean Gabriel. He lives in the neighborhood of Arroyo Hondo most of the year, and co-owns KarenRecords, his studio/music producing establishment, with studios in DR anMiami. He also created the "Fundación 4.40" headed by his formerguitar duo member of early years, Herbert Stern, who is a physician,to help people in poor neighborhoods and towns in the interior of DR, bygiving free medical attention, giving away prescription lenses, and medicine.

my two cents ...