Alberto Plata is a Dominican pianist, arranger and producer, billed since he was young as El Rey del Gutol. He founded Café Colao, the first orchestra of children and teenagers in Dominican merengue, and he has spent the rest of his career behind the desk rather than in front of it.

Eleven years old

He joined the orchestra of Guancho Viloria at eleven. Viloria had been a trumpet player with Wilfrido Vargas, so the boy went straight into a working merengue band run by someone out of the most demanding school the music had.

Café Colao

At the start of the eighties he built his own group and put himself at the piano. Café Colao, also billed as Juveniles del Swing, was the first children’s and youth merengue orchestra the country had: a band of boys playing the same circuit as the adults, at a moment when merengue was the biggest thing in Dominican life.

Juan Adames sang and Jackson Fondeur played güira and sang chorus. Niña Linda came out in 1983 and Merengue Apambichao is the one people still put on. The album keeps his name on it — Yo Me Enamoré, Motivos de Problema, Me Dejaste Pum, Nathalie, Yo No Sé Que Haré and Corazón Salvaje round it out.

Every children’s group that came after in Dominican music is working in a lane he opened, which is a larger legacy than his own record sales would suggest.

Behind the desk

He has tried several times to build a solo career since, without matching what Café Colao did, and the Dominican press has said so bluntly. The work that stuck is arranging and production, which is how he bills himself now.