Johnny Ventura - Musical Career

Musical Career

In 1959, Juan de Dios decided to take the name Johnny Ventura. He started his career as a singer in several bands that presented themselves at the dances in La Feria. He worked with the orchestra of Rondón Votau and in 1961 with the band of the Dominican percussionist Donald Wild.

In 1962 he sang with Combo Caribe of Luis Pérez, with whom he recorded Cuidado con el cuabero, of which he was the author, and La agarradera, of Luis Pérez. It was with this band that he recorded his first LP consisting of 12 songs.

In 1963 Johnny Ventura was recruited by the famous musical director Papa Molina to join La Super Orquesta San José, which he was the director at that time. He joined as singer and as player of the güira. For two years Ventura was part of La Super Orquesta with stars like Vinicio Franco and Grecia Aquino. Although no records remain of this group, this period was a landmark in his career.

In 1964, the Cuban impresario Angel Guinea insisted on Johnny Ventura to create his own orchestra, the "Combo Show" which is known as an important part of the history of popular Dominican music.

In 1965, with his orchestra, Ventura recorded for the Fonogram label the album La Coquetona, La Resbalosa and El turun tun t'un. In 1967 he travelled to the United States, where he immediately became a star. He is credited with the song La muerte de Martin, with the voice of Luisito Martí, the Combo Show made their first golden record with Ah no, yo no sé no.