Portfolio > More Portfolio

Luis Dias y Lliam Greguez March 2017 La Yola
Luis Background

Born in Bonao, Dominican Republic, Luis Dias is credited with being the creator of Dominican Fusion, which merged rock, jazz and blues with over 40 different ethnic rhythms from the Dominican Republic and Haiti. He was also the instigator who nudged Techno-Amargue into awareness.

His parents were musicians, his mother a singer, and his father a 'tres' player. Starting in his early teens Luis joined several merengue and rock bands and later as a Psychology Major in his college years, founded 'Convite', a band responsible for bringing back from obscurity rhythms from different parts of the island of Hispaniola, as portrayed in the recordings "Ae Candelo!" and "Convite Convida". After briefly headlining another project called "Madora", Luis moves to New York City for the first time and fronts "La Cofradia" in which Dominican folk music remains the main theme, Dias also starts teaching workshops on Traditional Dominican Music at the Museum of Natural History of New York City. Luis returns to Santo Domingo and starts up" Transporte Urbano" and this marks the birth of the authentic "rock dominicano", where the influence of the traditional rhythms meets the style and execution of the "american rock". Then Luis releases his first merengue LP called "Luis 'Terror' Dias" after which he was commissioned with the soundtrack for the movie "Las Pausas Del Silencio" which earned the 1st Place at thePhiladelphia Film Festival for Best Music.

At the same time Luis starts gaining momentum as a composer of merengues, bachatas and ballads on commission. After several years of performing in and around the Caribbean,USA and South America, as well as several dates in France (Paris & Marseilles), Russia (Moscow & Leningrad), Spain (Madrid, Tenerife & Barcelona) and Portugal (Lisbon), Luis relocates back to NYC in the early 90's and, continuing his intense work ethic, begins a partnership with David Byrne in 1995 which results in his song "La Casa" being included in the soundtrack for the film "Blue In The Face" of the same year. Colecciones El Europeo, a cultural institution from Spain chooses Luis' work to release a Compilation called JALEO DOMINICANO + HOMENAJE A LUIS DIAS and it marks the first time this organization selects an artist from the American Continent for such honor. For a year Luis becomes the vice-director of Casa De La Cultura Dominicana, an organization responsible for promoting Dominican Culture in New York City.

He then recorded two CD's, "El Accidente" based on his experiences in NYC, and "La Yola", an acoustic collaboration with Lliam Greguez, and for the first time releases the recording "Vickiana, Las Sesiones", which became very well known in the underground circuit in the mid '80's. His" Suite Folklorica Dominicana" premieres at the Eduardo Brito Hall of the National Theatre Of Santo Domingo to great public acclaim. Later that year he returns to NYC and reactivates his band "Las Maravillas" in order to continue his musical journeys and experimentations. Luis also functions as a music teacher in several schools of the NYC Board of Education and continued to work as a composer whose songs have been recorded by dozens of national and international recording artists.
Luis Returned to the Dominican Republic where he worked with youth until he passed on in December of 2009.