HELLOOO BEAUTIFUL READERS!!!! Welcome back to my blog! It's time to bid you guys farewell but before I do I'm just going write on one more topic!
Anyways! Today I'll be discussing Versatility in Spanish-speaking countries in The Caribbean.
There are numerous examples of versatility highlighted in the book, Grove Music amongst the Spanish-speaking countries.Versatility can be portrayed in numerous ways including performance, instruction, leading a choir, or playing in a band or an ensemble.
In today's segment, I have decided to highlighted Johnny Ventura, a instrumentalist, vocalist and performer from the Dominican Republic.
Johnny Ventura
Johnny Ventura was born in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic on March 8th, 1940. Along with Luis Perez, Ventura was a band leader that incorporated salsa elements and rock-and-roll
performance style into an exuberant, faster merengue shaping the sound of modern merengue in the 1960s (Davis & Austerlitz, 2001). Ventura was often called “the Elvis of Merengue” and “the Black Horse". Furthermore, Ventura obtained a law degree and later became the mayor of Santo Domingo displaying the theme of versatility in music (Edwards, 2021).
The image below displays a picture of Johnny Ventura:
The video below displays a performance given by Johnny Ventura:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jwk8OB1Jdc
I chose the video because it was lively, funny and makes you want to dance. Not only does Johnny sing in this live performance but he also dances and plays an instrument showing off his versatility in music.
Enrique "Ricky" Martin Morales
The next versatile artist I decided to highlight that represents music in the spanish-speaking Caribbean is known as Ricky Martin.
Ricky Martin is a singer, actor and songwriter born on December 24th, 1971 in Puerto Rico. His music is known to be versatile as it spans from different genres including salsa, latin pop and reggaeton, etc. He is often considered the "King of Latin Pop" or the "King of Latin music" (Ricky Martin, 2021). Additionally, Martin also founded a non-profit organization that educates about human trafficking and helps to prevent the crime.
The image below displays a picture of Johnny Ventura:
https://www.biography.com/musicians/ricky-martin
The video below displays a performance given by Johnny Ventura:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BkYKwHLXiU
I chose this video and song because I absolutely loveeeeeeeee salsa music and this specific video shows Ricky Martin performing this song that he made for Fifa live.
Well that's all I have for versatility in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean so byeeeeeeee!
References
Davis, M. E., & Austerlitz, P. (2001). Grove
Music. doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.44000
Edwards, G. (2021, July 29). New York Times. Retrieved
from Johnny Ventura, Who Created the Sound of Modern Merengue, Dies at 81:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/29/arts/johnny-ventura-dead.html
Ricky Martin. (2021, April 22). Retrieved from Biography:
https://www.biography.com/musicians/ricky-martin
