Antony Santos Bachata

Bachata’s modern era was ushered in by Blas Durán’s incorporation of the electric guitar into the music in 1987. The group of bachateros who followed in Durán’s footsteps—Luis Vargas, Raulín Rodriguez, Antony Santos, Juan Bautista--all had a role in defining what the music has come to sound like today. There is, however, no argument that the single most influential bachatero in establishing the modern style, as well as the most commercially successful within the Dominican Republic is Antony Santos.
Santos comes from the same region on the northern border with Haiti as Luis Vargas and Raulín Rodriguez, and they all worked with one another at various times. Santos began as the güirero in Luis Vargas’ group when Vargas was beginning to make a name for himself with doble sentido merengues that imitated both Blas Duran and Eladio Romero Santos.

He left Vargas’ group in the wake of personal differences between the two, and recorded his first production, La chupadera, in 1991. The cassette (at that time bachata was not yet available on CDs, which at any rate would have been too expensive for the music’s traditional audience) included a number of doble sentido songs like “La parcela”, “La passola” and “El behuco”. The number that helped define the beginning of a new era in bachata, however, was “Voy pa’lla”, a strictly romantic song which became a huge hit among both traditional bachateros and the public at large. “Voy pa’lla” was one of the first significant “electric” bachatas not based on sexual double entendre, and it reached a wider audience than probably any single song ever recorded in the genre up to that time.

Antony Santos was precisely the right musician in the right place at the right time during bachata’s history. While it was the bachata “Voy pa’lla” that originally made him famous, Santos had as much success with the merengues on his recordings as the bachatas. This heavy emphasis on merengue was instrumental in allowing bachata to reach a larger audience, because many Dominicans, still unwilling to let go of the traditional stigma against bachata, didn’t know how to dance it. Santos’ merengues were accessible to the Dominican public at large, and some of his biggest hits have been merengues.

While modern bachata does not begin with Santos, the innovations which he and his group introduced into the genre have been extremely important in defining its current form. Previously, lead guitarists like Edilio Paredes and Augusto Santos played upward with their fingers in a florid, melodic style; even Jesús Martinez, Blas Duran's pioneering lead guitarist, used his fingers to play although in a simpler fashion. Antony Santos, followed the lead of his mentor Luis Vargas and Eladio Romero Santos in playing the strings downward, with a thumb pick. The resulting style was simpler and more rhythmic, and has given bachata an instantly recognizable sound when compared with other kinds of Latin guitar music. Meanwhile, the bachata which Santos was recording began to reflect, more and more, the influence of his merengues. His bongo player played the instrument with two sticks, rather than with his hands, and many of the breaks had a merengue feel. In addition, the group developed a mambo section in which the güira plays a pattern typical of merengue and the bass plays a pattern derived from the cha-cha-cha section of traditional bolero. In the merengues themselves, the traditional tambora rhythm was replaced by a simplified version of “caballito”, the rhythm made popular by merengue orquestas like Los Hermanos Rosarios.

As the decade of the 1990s went on, Santos was consistently successful with both his bachatas and his merengues, and the rhythmic patterns which his group developed for the different sections of the song came to be the standard for the genre. And while other bachateros came and went, Santos continued to thrive, eclipsing his rival and former mentor, Luis Vargas, among others. So many of Santos’ songs have become classics of modern bachata that a list of them would read like a list of virtually everything he recorded during the 1990s. Some of his most significant songs during this period have been his merengues “El perrito”; “Me voy a morir”: “Dejame entrar”; “La batalla”, and “Quililín quililán”. Among the many landmark bachatas which Santos recorded during the 1990s are “Corazón culpable”, “Quien te engañó”, “Consejo de padre”, “Durmiendo solo” and “Pegame tu vicio”.

In 2001’s El balazo, Santos began to experiment again by incorporating an electric keyboard into his merengues, a subtle innovation which did not significantly alter the music. In the following recording, Juego de amor, he included saxophones and turned the keyboard up in the mix. The new sound did not receive ringing endorsements from bachata’s traditional audience; by this time other bachateros had drastically reduced the number of merengues they were recording as bachata itself grew in popularity by leaps and bounds, so fans of merengue de cuerda had only Santos to depend on. His incorporation of saxophones and piano seem to have hurt the popularity of his most recent recordings, although the bachatas on them, including “La jaula de oro” and “Ay, ay, ay” (recorded live), have been well received

At this point Antony Santos is the elder statesman of bachata. To many young bachateros, unfamiliar with Blas Duran, Santos’ music is where modern bachata begins. The fact that he is still active and successful helps to cement his importance in the minds of today’s bachata audience. While Santos was not in fact responsible for the innovations that lead to bachata’s modernization, for which credit is due to Durán and his lead guitarist, Jesús Martinez, he is unquestionably the most important figure in establishing the norms of the modern style. Santos’ popularity, as well, remains as large as his influence. He continues to record hits, and on visits to New York to perform at Madison Square Gardens.

-- David Wayne

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javier liendo January 11, 2011

hola soy javier liendo d venezuela soy fan tengo una pregunta por q no vienes a venezuela a dar un concierto

LUISANA TORRELLAS GONZALES January 11, 2011

hola soi luisana de barquisimeto te digo que soy super fan y estoy en todos los sitios que te presentas besossssssss T.Q.M............

remolacha December 31, 2010

yosoy de paloverde y nomequiera perder niunafieta

yadira vasquez December 19, 2010

pasaron 26 ano que sali de nuestro pais al volver encontre la persona que amo de una vida. duela a quien duela e asi gracias a ti gracias por tu musica gracias, por ti vivi momenti magico besos espero un dias darte la gracias de persona italia te ama..........

M.m December 17, 2010

Papi, estas como quieres con esa musica muchacho. Te doy un diez. Esa musica me trae muchos recuerdos y me ponen triste, pues es parte de mi pasado.

ADALBERTO RODRIGUEZ December 16, 2010

lo sorprendente de este hombre es que, viviendo de una familia extremadamente ,sin una educacion musical,sin depender de algun atractivo fisico, sin depender de los medios incluso prefiere mantenerce alejado de la prensa televisiva y escrita, rehusando presentarse en los espectaculos y, lugares y celebraciones mas importantes del pais ANTONY SANTOS sera un caso para estudiosos ya que nadie ha podido descifrar la fuente al parecer inagotable de exitos de este hombre de campo

roberto December 11, 2010

ola soi roberto de chile.disculpen jamas avia eascuchado bachatas tan hermosas creo que antoni santos es el maestro de esta musica de este ritmo tan cautivante de esa republica dominicana que es la madre del sabor

LE TOPO December 8, 2010

EL MAS MOUSTRO ES ANTONI SANTOS

Juan Alvarez November 20, 2010

Como dices " Nadie a podido contigo " tienes toda la razon.....eres sin duda el mejor Bachatero que la Republica Domonicana tiene y ahora es que keda Antony Santos pa' rato que Dios te siga bendiciendo hoy, mañana y siempre.

cristina November 19, 2010

antony tu ere el mejor bachatere k a parido la republica dominica y como persona lo mejor ere una persona sensilla y melo desmotrate en el cibao adonde pacholo dejando entral gente sin pagar espero k dios te siga dando saluz para k nosiga deleltandonos con tu musica k no encanta a todos mi familia y ami gracias adios por averno da una artistas como tu ere los mejor dela republica dominicana como artitas k dios te vendiga ciempre ati y todas tu familia y soy de gasparhernandez de donde mas sete kiere espero k bueva avenir otravez a españa