Chery Jiménez led la Tercera Brigada, a Dominican merengue orchestra of the 1970s. He is the father of Cherito.

Two records in one year

In 1978 the orchestra released two albums. One carried the band’s own name and came out on Karen Records, the Dominican label that was then building the merengue catalogue the whole country would be dancing to; the other, La Banda Que Manda, came out on TH.

Two albums on two labels inside twelve months says something about how the business worked at the time. A band that could fill a dance hall was worth pressing quickly, and the records were made to keep the orchestra working rather than to build a career.

The Karen album travelled: a Venezuelan pressing of it exists, which put a Santo Domingo merengue band in front of a South American audience.

The songs

Palo Bonito and Señorita Luna anchor the Karen record. La Banda Que Manda holds Doña Josefa, El Pariguayo, En Mi Despedida, Pregunto Al Cielo, Por Culpa Tuya and La Espumita. A Que No Me Adivina and Qué Puedo Hacer came from the same period.

Sergio Hernández and Angelito Rosso Batista sang the leads. That is the shape of a merengue orchestra of the era: the name on the sleeve belongs to the man who runs the band, and the voices belong to whoever is under contract that season.

The name that stayed

El Pariguayo is the title people still recognise, because the word outlived the record. It is the Dominican name for the man who stands at the edge of the party and does not dance, and a merengue about him was always going to survive its own decade.