Juan Luis Guerra

MUSICAL MESSAGE





Raised in Santo Domingo, the tall, gangly Guerra once aspired to be a jazz musician, and studied at Boston's Berklee College of Music. But instead he devoted himself to the music and themes of his island. The title track of Ojalá que llueva cafe (Let it rain coffee), the 1988 album by Guerra and his group 4.40 (the name refers to a standard measure of musical pitch) evoked the poverty and beauty of the Dominican countryside -- "merengue with a message" and with newly sophisticated harmonies and arrangements.