Guitar-playing
singer songwriter Luis Vargas makes his mark in the world of Dominican
Bachata music with a style all his own, “not too agitated, but not
too blue either”, as he puts it. Luis takes us back to his own humble
beginnings in the dusty little town of Santa Maria in the Dominican Republic,
where his father still lives.
Santo Domingo Blues does not use a narrator or “experts”
but instead relies on musical performances, first person accounts, and
character-driven scenes involving Luis and other bachateros, as these
musicians are known.
Bachata is genuinely a music of the people and the denizens of the bars
and bodegas, the street vendors and the car service drivers, all contribute
to the telling of the story. Recalling the American blues, bachata was
infamous as the anthem of the hard-drinking, womanizing, down-on-his-luck
man, vilified as the entertainment of the brothels and the cabarets, and
worshipped by the down-trodden poor as the deepest expression of their
feelings.
In lyrics heavy with sexual innuendo, double entendres and outright bawdiness,
bachateros address themes of the everyman, singing comically exaggerated
tales of ruined romances and unrequited love, of barroom camaraderie and
maudlin drunken escapades.
Bachata was considered vulgar and unsophisticated "ghetto
music" by the Dominican elite who controlled the radio stations,
recording studios and record manufacturing plants. Bachateros played in
back yards and cantinas throughout the countryside, releasing crudely
recorded 45 rpm records sold by street vendors in the slums for the corner
bar jukebox trade.New York has had a profound impact on Bachata and the
Dominican immigrants to whom the music is so important, and Santo Domingo
Blues documents the Bachata scene in the Latino neighborhoods of the city.
The traditional Bachata clientele comes from precisely those segments
of disenfranchised Dominican society that have poured into American cities
in recent decades, and the hard won dollars of these new arrivals have
made the music commercially viable.
Luis Vargas and his contemporaries now come to play in New York and write songs
with a urban edge that reflect the experience of the Dominican diaspora.
Now. Bachata serves as a bridge across a divided culture--the bachateros
arrive in New York for eagerly awaited concerts, bringing literal and
lyrical "news from home," their tragic tales of loves gone wrong
a metaphor for physical abandonment of the beloved home country.
“Santo Domingo Blues” is the story of the triumph of a poor people’s
music over censorship and prejudice, but the loneliness of the immigrant
in the big American City brings new poignancy to the bitter songs of these
troubadours.
Today Bachata is heard on the radio through out the Latin Americas, from
New York to Buenos Aires, and the form now rivals Merengue and Salsa as
the preferred music of the Latin world. Luis Vargas has had resounding
successes in recent years, his crowning achievement the founding of La
Suprema, his recording studio and hotel, in which each room is dedicated
to one of his hits and decorated in “Luis Vargas style.” On
Carnival day in what is now his hometown of Santiago the “Supreme
King of Bitterness” is crowned the King of the Carnival and in
full costume performs for an adoring crowd.
A few years ago Luis’ prosperity almost came to an abrupt end, however,
when he was involved in a serious car accident and presumed dead. The
experience led him to question the value of his material success and he
comes back at the world with a thundering, life-affirming anthem called
“El Accidente”, the performance of which comprises the final
sequence of the film. “Death comes in the blink of an eye,” he sings, “but I
have all I could want in this life: the love of my people ”Santo
Domingo Blues" is the story of Bachata's transformation from a scorned
music into an emblem of national pride and should resonate with all immigrant
communities. Unfortunately industrialized society is still rife with racism
and prejudice against immigrant populations.
The documenting of Bachata, a defining element of Dominican cultural identity,
will help to put a face on Dominican immigration.
Guitar-playing
singer songwriter Luis Vargas makes his mark in the world of Dominican
Bachata music with a style all his own, “not too agitated, but not
too blue either”, as he puts it. Luis takes us back to his own humble
beginnings in the dusty little town of Santa Maria in the Dominican Republic,
where his father still lives.
Bachata was considered vulgar and unsophisticated "ghetto
music" by the Dominican elite who controlled the radio stations,
recording studios and record manufacturing plants. Bachateros played in
back yards and cantinas throughout the countryside, releasing crudely
recorded 45 rpm records sold by street vendors in the slums for the corner
bar jukebox trade.New York has had a profound impact on Bachata and the
Dominican immigrants to whom the music is so important, and Santo Domingo
Blues documents the Bachata scene in the Latino neighborhoods of the city.
The traditional Bachata clientele comes from precisely those segments
of disenfranchised Dominican society that have poured into American cities
in recent decades, and the hard won dollars of these new arrivals have
made the music commercially viable.
A few years ago Luis’ prosperity almost came to an abrupt end, however,
when he was involved in a serious car accident and presumed dead. The
experience led him to question the value of his material success and he
comes back at the world with a thundering, life-affirming anthem called
“El Accidente”, the performance of which comprises the final
sequence of the film. “Death comes in the blink of an eye,” he sings, “but I
have all I could want in this life: the love of my people ”Santo
Domingo Blues" is the story of Bachata's transformation from a scorned
music into an emblem of national pride and should resonate with all immigrant
communities. Unfortunately industrialized society is still rife with racism
and prejudice against immigrant populations.