Juan Luis Guerra’s Never-Ending Evolution

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2024 was a boon for Dominican singer/songwriter Juan Luis Guerra. The 67-year-old tastemaker revamped his sound with Radio Güira, his second EP together with lifelong band 4.40. The collection’s six songs draw from Guerra’s ongoing exploration of merengue and bachata, adding to the mix a bit of raucous dembow.

At the 2024 Latin GRAMMYs in November, Guerra won both the coveted Album and Record Of The Year awards for Radio Güira and the song "MAMBO 23," respectively. Some on social media thought Guerra’s Latin GRAMMY bounty — which included additional awards in the Best Tropical Song and Best Merengue/Bachata Album categories — was meant as a symbolic gesture, a recognition of his legendary career. But they were wrong.

As it turns out, Guerra is currently enjoying a moment of creative splendor, and the Latin Recording Academy voters were astute enough to recognize it. Guerra has never stopped growing, nor experimenting with novel formats and ideas — evidenced by the 28 Latin GRAMMYs and multiple GRAMMY awards to his name,

In the late 1980s, after studying at Berklee College of Music, Guerra brought the Dominican Republic into the Latin mainstream with a series of classic albums including Ojalá Que Llueva Café (1989) and the million-selling Bachata Rosa (1990). His sound honored the roots of his homeland’s percolating dance music — bachata and merengue — but also reinvented them with the addition of sociopolitically aware lyrics and a wholesome blend of rock, folk, and jazz influences. He was joined by a group of Dominican musicians, a band that he named 4.40 after the standard tuning of A440, also known as Stuttgart pitch.

Radio Güira updated his sound further, adding pristine digital sonics for a slicker mood. On songs like "MAMBO 23," Guerra sounds youthful and self-assured, fascinated by the world around him as well as the hits coming from recording studios throughout the Dominican Republic. At the 2025 GRAMMYs, Radio Güira was nominated for Best Tropical Latin Album (though ultimately lost to Tony Succar and Mimy Succar).

Clearly, Juan Luis Guerra shows no signs of slowing down. The artist spoke with GRAMMY.com about the importance of intuition in his compositional process, his love of big band jazz, and the unrealized projects that keep him going.

The song "Mambo 23" can be interpreted as a summation of the musical styles that you’ve explored throughout your career, with an additional nod to the future. What inspired you to include a dembow beat at the beginning?

I was listening to music made by young artists here in the Dominican Republic. Their style is less rhythmic than ours — less beats per minute, but sticky and infectious. I wanted to attempt my own version of dembow, and see what I could come up with. You can also hear the influence of jazz in the riffs of the brass section — almost like bebop — and that’s my favorite music to listen to.

The bachata lines of "Mambo 23" overflow with poetry and longing. It reminds me a little bit of your 2010 hit "Bachata en Fukuoka." What is it about bachata that evokes this deep lyrical sensibility in you?

I can definitely relate to your description, but more than anything, those bachata lines are the result of inspiration. There’s a moment in my process where I let myself go, I start channeling, and everything flows on its own. More often than not, I’m not striving for anything specific. The ideas arrive spontaneously.

I don’t usually talk about this, but "Bachata en Fukuoka" is one of my favorite songs. The melody was inspired by a trip to Japan.

The bridge on "Bachata en Fukuoka" is so gorgeous. There’s a change in tonality, and the melody that follows is incredibly nostalgic...

In terms of music theory, what happens in the bridge is known as a modal interchange — basically, I’m borrowing chords from a parallel scale. But it’s never done consciously. Unless I’m writing the music for a film, or a specific setting, I just let my inspiration be the guide.

Going back to "Mambo 23," one of the reasons why I think this is such an iconic track is that it switches back and forth between merengue and bachata.

It’s such a privilege to work with those rhythms. They’re so joyful and dance friendly. Bachata is like a Caribbean bolero, its harmonies dictated almost exclusively by the guitar. It’s a very romantic genre.

There’s a lot of jazz in this track, and also a touch of reggae. It makes me think of Sting, and the Police. "Mambo" has a multitude of layers. We used a lot of channels when we were building it up.

Now that you mention it, sometimes I hear vague echoes of both the Police and Pat Metheny in your music.

Those are some of my influences. I grew up listening to the Beatles, then I went to Berklee and delved into all the jazz greats. Jazz, salsa, merengue and bachata are my main sources of inspiration.

Your sound has evolved since keyboardist Janina Rosado started co-producing your work.

She’s the musical director of my touring band, and we formed a team together with sound engineer Allan Leschhorn. Not only is Janina an amazing musician and arranger, she’s also really good at working with Logic. Now that I have the backing of these two people, everything flows better.

Let's go back to 2007 and "La Llave de mi Corazón." Am I right in assuming that its fusion of mambo and merengue was the beginning of a new era?

Absolutely, yes. I had never attempted a fusion like that before. "La Llave" is a big band track, and I was a huge fan of the lush arrangements in the music of Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Thad Jones. There was a lot of blues in it, and rock 'n' roll, but in a big band context.

I feel that the music establishment has been somewhat unfair with Dominican music. Puerto Rican salsa has the reputation of being sophisticated; by contrast, merengue and bachata remain underrated. Do you agree?

Perhaps this is due to a lack of knowledge about our culture. Maybe we haven’t found the tools with which to export our music, but here in the Dominican Republic, we are extremely proud of the legends — people like Joseíto Mateo, Johnny Ventura and Wilfrido Vargas.

I think the 21st century is the perfect moment for Dominican music to shine brightly.

I remember when we first toured Spain, there wasn’t a distinction between genres. They thought that everything coming out of Latin America was salsa. In time, they realized that salsa was different from son, merengue and bachata. I may have made my own contribution in that particular area.

You just mentioned Johnny Ventura, who passed away in 2021, and I’m always amazed that his first hit from the early ‘60s — "La Agarradera" — grooves like crazy.

He was amazing. I remember we had the privilege of sharing the stage at a show featuring young artists and the old merengue guard. Johnny was playing before us, and he ended the show with "La Agarradera." I said to myself: that was the best moment of the night; it’s going to be very difficult to jump onstage now.

The arranger on that tune was Luis Pérez. It’s probably the best example of saxophones playing the mambo section in the history of merengue.

I recently delved deeply into Ventura’s discography, and was surprised to find out that his repertoire went beyond merengue, and included some stunning salsa and bolero cuts.

There were so many elements to his art that weren’t necessarily reflected in his hits. Like his amazing charisma, or the way he danced, which was inspired by James Brown. I’m always investigating the influences of my favorite artists, because that’s how I get to know where they came from. Like Ventura — and before him, Joseíto Mateo, known as the king of merengue. He was inspired by the big band sound in the 1950s, and his arrangers were unbelievably good.

Do you listen to young Dominican artists like El Alfa? The aesthetic can be a bit crass, but the talent shines through.

I’ve listened to some of the biggest hits, and artists like Omega. I’m always open to different sounds, even if they’re different from mine. They have a different way of expressing themselves, which is just as valid as mine. People from my generation tend to dislike the faster beats, but I think they’re very interesting. I always try to focus on the most positive aspects of things.

Music is music, right?

I enjoy all kinds of sounds. I like the reggaetoneros just like I love Brazilian singer/songwriters like Chico Buarque or Caetano Veloso. And Jacob Collier. He has the kind of brilliance that can almost make you feel uncomfortable. His playing, and the way he tackles harmony, is out of this world.

Any unrealized projects that you would like to work on next?

I saw Rubén Blades at the Latin GRAMMY’s Person Of The Year gala for Carlos Vives, and he told me that he was doing what he really wanted to do: making music with the artists he loved and admired. This made me think about the possibility of getting together with some of my favorite peers, writing new songs and making a record together. There’s also the matter of a symphonic album that has been in my mind for quite a while, and I’d like to get started on it as soon as possible.