Billo Frómeta
Billo Frómeta | |
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Caracas, Venezuela |
Luis María Frómeta Pereyra most known as Billo Frómeta (15 November 1915,
Billo Frómeta with his group, Billo’s Caracas Boys. He was a great entertainer for Dominican musicians who visited Caracas such as Johnny Ventura and Wilfrido Vargas. Besides the merengue, the joropo was his great passion. Likewise, he was considered the most animated interpreter of Colombian cumbia, for which he was honored.
Early career
Luis María Frómeta Pereira was born in Pimentel, Duarte Province, Dominican Republic, on November 15, 1915. He would move with his family to San Francisco de Macorís some years later. The school he attended there had compulsory music lessons, so he learned much of his musical training there.
In 1930, at the age of 15, he founded and was the resident conductor of the Banda del Cuerpo de Bomberos de Ciudad Trujillo (
In 1933, he moved back to Santo Domingo. During these years, he would meet and work with some of his closest friends and associates: Freddy Coronado, Ernesto Chapuseaux and Simó Damirón, whom he already knew from school . The Conjunto Tropical and the Santo Domingo Jazz Band were formed then, as well.
Frómeta then began studying Pre-Medicine in the Universidad de Santo Domingo and had to abandon all musical activity during this time. However, he eventually dropped out on his third year to dedicate himself fully to music. [1]
Career in Venezuela
Frómeta arrived in Venezuela in December 1937 with his orchestra to play regularly at the Roof Garden, a dance club in Caracas. As the Santo Domingo Jazz Band, they did well but the club owners did not like the name, so they convinced Frómeta to change it to something more marketable. Frómeta agreed but he was barred from ever returning to his native Dominican Republic as
Frómeta continued to play in Venezuela until the fall of Marcos Pérez Jiménez in 1958. Accused of being a supporter of the regime, he was barred by the Asociación Musical del D.F y Estado Miranda from ever playing in Venezuela again.
Following this, he moved to Cuba to play with a Cuban band there. In 1960, a special session of the
Last years
On April 27, 1988, he suffered a stroke while rehearsing with the Venezuela Symphony Orchestra for a concert-tribute in his honour that would occur the very next day: just after he finished conducting the practice run for "Un Cubano en Caracas", he collapsed on the ground as the orchestra was applauding his performance. Frómeta died the following week on May 5, 1988.
See also
- Venezuelan music
References
- ^ Duet photo