Jorge Taveras was the perfect companion for Dominican singers of the mid-20th century. With his inseparable piano, he adjusted the notes to the tonalities of dozens of interpreters who rose to artistic glory and who since his death, yesterday Friday, have exalted him as a soul of Dominican music. He was 76 years old.
“Owner of absolute pitch, he used to give us the voices without having to approach the piano,” said Roger Zayas, a member of Juan Luis’s group 4.40, seven years ago when he narrated his experiences with Taveras.
Taveras was a composer, arranger, and conductor of popular singers for several decades, including Johnny Ventura, Wilfrido Vargas, Ángela Carrasco, Omar Franco, Olga Lara, Tati Salas, La Coco Band, Sonia Silvestre, Maridalia Hernández, José Antonio Rodríguez, Víctor Víctor, Miriam Cruz, Milly Quezada, Fernando Villalona and many more.
Likewise, foreign artists, including Paquito de Rivera, José José, Sophy, Danny Rivera and Marco Antonio Muñiz.
For many Dominicans, Taveras was familiar because he represents the music of popular television programs, especially “El show del mediodía”, “De Noche” or “Punto Final” by Freddy Beras Goico, in which he led the orchestra of the plant.
His first television experience began in 1973 when he joined the program “Nosotros a las 8”, as director of the program’s floor orchestra.
He also produced his own television variety space, “Fantástico,” which aired on Sundays and served as a musician, director, performer, and presenter.
Taveras, who was born in the Ciudad Nueva sector of the Dominican capital on April 23, 1945, had just accumulated his first musical experiences after studying at the musical conservatories of Santo Domingo and Puerto Rico.
In 1958 he joined the rock group Happy Boys with Milton Peláez, who was the leader. Although he tried several times to graduate from a formal career, music was his passion.
“I was like in six universities trying to make a career, but the music pulled me,” he expressed in an interview on the television program “De todo un poco”, with the now deceased journalist Mundito Espinal.
After his return to the country he began to visit the recording studios and in 1967 he was called to lead the band Los Caballeros Montecarlo, in Santiago, where he stayed for 11 years.
His talent was recorded in international festivals Oti de la Canción.
In 1977 he received the El Dorado award, from the Bermúdez liquor company, and in 1987 the Association of Art Chroniclers (Acroarte) awarded him El Gran Soberano, the highest award of the then Casandra awards (today Soberano).
Family.Jorge Taveras was the father, in his first marriage with Lourdes López, of Jorge Augusto, Remy, René, Lía and Mía. He was currently married to Jovanna García, with whom he procreated Birm, Rafael, Natasha and Margarita.
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“You were a great human being, a great pianist and a great musical director,” singer Adalgisa Pantaleón posted yesterday, lamenting his death in a hospital in Orlando, Florida. Then he added: “You will continue in me, in each musical note, on the piano, in the nostalgia for your laughter and your gift of people.”
President Luis Abinader also expressed his regret and defined it as “the glory of Dominican popular art.”
Disease. For years he had been battling health problems, caused by a brain disease (aphasia), a condition that degenerated into other complications that worsened after he was infected with Covid-19. His body will be cremated in Florida, where he lived his last days.
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