JC — Juan Carlos Cabrera, born on 24 November 1976 — is a Dominican bachata singer, songwriter, producer and recording engineer. He was the Dominican member of Marcy Place, the trio Don Omar signed to his label in 2008, and he works today under the billing Jon Clasic.

The man behind the console

He came into the business from the engineering side. He was working as a sound engineer and producer in Lenny Santos’s studio in the Bronx — Santos being the guitarist and producer who built Aventura’s sound — when Don Omar came in to record.

That is a particular kind of career start. The engineer is in the room for everything and credited for almost none of it, and it is one of the few positions from which a musician can watch how records are actually made.

Marcy Place

During those sessions he played Don Omar a couple of recordings by two brothers from New York, Joey and Billy Pabón. Don Omar signed all three, having decided that JC had something as a performer and a writer as well as behind the desk. He named the group after the Bronx street the studio stood on.

Don Omar Presents: B from Marcy Place came out on 16 December 2008 on Orfanato Music Group and Siente Music. Of its twelve tracks, seven were his. He is credited on the album for composition and audio production alongside Lenny Santos, and the guest list runs through Don Omar, Wisin & Yandel, Divino, Jayko and the American singer Rell.

The single Todo Lo Que Soy held a place in the upper reaches of Billboard’s Tropical chart across most of a year, and the album itself reached the Tropical Albums list. The group debuted live in the Dominican Republic in May of that year and toured the United States after the release.

What the record was

Marcy Place was bachata made by New York, and the press of the moment called it bachata urbana. Two Puerto Ricans raised on salsa and merengue, a Dominican engineer, an English-language R&B track in the middle of the album, and a reggaetón label paying for it.

That combination only existed because Aventura had already proved a Bronx bachata group could sell. Marcy Place was one of the records that followed through the door Aventura opened, and it was the only album the trio made.

Jon Clasic

He has kept working since as a singer, songwriter and producer, based in New York and billed as Jon Clasic, releasing his own bachata and Latin pop and performing with a band. Porque La Envidia is among the recent singles.

He has said he wanted to sing from the age of four, with nobody in his family to encourage it — which makes the route he took, in through the back of the studio, look less like an accident than like the only door that was open.