Chichi Peralta — Pedro René Peralta Soto, born in Santo Domingo on 9 July 1966 — is a Dominican percussionist, singer, composer, arranger and producer. He spent the 1980s and 1990s as a working percussionist, eight of those years in the band of Juan Luis Guerra 4.40, before launching Chichi Peralta y Son Familia and taking a Latin Grammy in 2001 for ...De vuelta al barrio.

A tambora at four

Peralta dates his start to the age of four, when he built his first instrument, a tambora. Through the eighties and nineties he played percussion professionally: first with Grupo Fragmento, then seven years with Fernando Echavarría and la Familia André, then in Trilogía, the fusion trio Juan Francisco Ordóñez ran with the bassist Héctor Santana, and finally eight years with Juan Luis Guerra. He also wrote music for documentaries — Trujillo: el poder del Jefe III in 1996 and Camino a Higüey in 2016 — and for advertising.

Son Familia

His first album, Trópico adentro, came out in 1995. Pa’ otro la’o was launched internationally on 15 July 1997 with Peralta producing and arranging; "Amor narcótico", "La ciguapa" and "Procura" came off it, and over the following two years the record took gold and platinum certifications in Peru, Chile, Colombia, Bolivia and Central America. Cartagena gave him the keys to the city in June 1998.

...De vuelta al barrio

The third album appeared on 18 April 2000 and won Best Merengue Album at the second Latin Grammy Awards, in 2001. It was recorded in Paris with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Luz África choirs, and set son against jazz, merengue against guaguancó, bachata against Brazilian and Arabic figures. Jandy Feliz had left to work on his own, and two singers came in to replace him: César Olarte, from Aruba, and René Geraldino.

After

Más que suficiente followed on 27 September 2005 and was nominated for Best Merengue/Bachata Album at the Latin Grammys of 2006; it was among the best-selling Latin records in Japan. In 2007 he was named a goodwill ambassador for the Dominican Republic. De aquel la’o del río came in 2009 carrying "Amor samurái", built from Caribbean music and traditional Japanese instruments, and De que viene, viene followed in 2012 and Máscara contra cabellera in 2013.

Legacy

Peralta’s records are usually filed under world music for how much they take in: son with jazz, merengue with pop, African rhythms, hip hop, bachata, guaguancó, Brazilian and Arabic figures, symphonic textures, instruments from India and Japan. "Amor narcótico" was recorded again by the American group CNCO on their covers album Déjà Vu in 2021, twenty-four years after he released it.