Altamira Banda Show was a Dominican merengue band based in New York, created by Wilfrido Vargas at the start of the 1980s. It arrived with a concept that was modern for its moment — in the arrangements and just as much in what happened on stage — and it made an impression from the first night.

The name is a town

Altamira is a town in Puerto Plata, and it is where Wilfrido Vargas was born. Naming a New York band after it is the whole Dominican diaspora argument in two words: the orchestra worked out of upper Manhattan and the Bronx, and it carried the name of a place in the Cibao on the marquee.

One of three

Vargas is the link that follows Johnny Ventura in the evolution of merengue, and he did not only record — he built bands. Three of them carry his signature as creator and producer: Las Chicas del Can, The New York Band and this one.

There was a fourth line to the same school. Los Hijos del Rey, fronted at the start by Fernando Villalona, worked out of Santo Domingo while Altamira Banda Show worked out of New York — the same idea, tried on both shores at once. Los Hijos del Rey got the long life; this band did not.

The line-up

The first line-up included Rafael Vargas, Wilfrido’s brother, and Miosotis Malagón, who later went to The New York Band. The front that people remember came after: Mayi Padrón and Sonia Mena singing alongside Jankarlos Núñez and Luis Alberto, all four known for stage clothes nobody else was wearing.

Musical direction was in the hands of Eduardo Ramos, a musician, arranger and composer. The choreography was as worked-out as the arrangements, which in early-eighties merengue was still an argument rather than a given.

The records

The catalogue runs across five albums: the self-titled debut on Sonográfica in 1986, Banana in 1989, El Detective on Palma Pro in 1990, a second self-titled record for TH-Rodven in 1991, and Arcoíris En Tu Piel on Rodven in 1993.

Banana, Quítame la Mano, Amorcito de mi Alma, El Detective and Paran Pan Pan all travelled, and above them all La Gallinita, sung by Sonia Mena, which people still go looking for.

Ironía

Jankarlos Núñez, the lead singer, was also a writer. He composed Antología de Caricias for the band, and in 1996 Frankie Ruiz opened his album Tranquilo with Ironía — which Núñez wrote.

One of the great romantic salsa records of the nineties, sung by the Puerto Rican who defined the style, came from the pen of a merengue singer out of a Wilfrido Vargas band in New York. Núñez also worked to real effect in Venezuela.

The band ended, and unlike the other names of that era it never came back for the reunion circuit. Its members largely dropped out of public view.