Benny Sadel was a Dominican merengue singer known as El Cacique. He spent a decade moving through other people’s orchestras before he built one of his own, and the route he took — a village band in the south, the capital, Venezuela, Boston and New York — is a fair map of how a Dominican singer of his generation made a career.

Uvilla

He was born in 1960 in Uvilla, a settlement in Tamayo, in the southwestern province of Bahoruco. He started singing at birthdays and patron-saint festivals, and in 1977 joined Los X-1 del Sabor, the band of his own town. His music teacher there, Arturo Méndez, told him he would have to go to Santo Domingo, and he went.

The orchestras

He was hired by Gerardo Veras for Los Diamantes the day after he arrived in the capital, stayed two years, and moved on to the Santo Domingo All Star Band. When El Equipo was being put together, Dioni Fernández y El Equipo and Sandy Reyes brought him in as a vocalist, and he stayed a year and seven months.

He then went to Venezuela and formed his own group there, Los Jacarandosos de Benny Sadel, with Dominican and Venezuelan players. Wilfrido Vargas offered him a place in his orchestra and he came home for it, but his visa renewal was not processed in time and he was left out of the international tour after only four performances with the band. He went back to Venezuela and picked up his own group again.

In 1983 he joined La Organización Secreta, the orchestra of Aramis Camilo, and it was there that his name travelled: Ven Llévame Contigo and Querida were sung across the continent.

Caciquiando

He formed his own orchestra in 1987, putting it together in Boston, and named the first album Caciquiando, which is where the nickname comes from. Alza Tu Copa, Te He Prometido and Yo Soy Así came out of that first stretch, and the group worked Boston and then New York before going to Santo Domingo to record.

The records kept coming through the nineties: Escucha Escucha in 1988, Morenaza in 1992, Majao Majao in 1993, Seguimos Majando in 1995 and Llegó Papá in 1997. Majao Majao, Dicen, Cada Vez Más, Te Seguiré Queriendo, Algo de Mí, Maldita Sea and Amor Amor are the ones people still ask for. Tanto Amor followed in 1998 and Vuelve in 2005.

Los Toros Band

In 2008 he joined Los Toros Band as its lead figure, which took him back into a large orchestra after two decades of running his own. He died in New York on 5 November 2015, at fifty-five. Sergio Vargas sang at his wake.