Frogui

Luis Alberto Taveras, otherwise known as “Frogui”, is a musician, producer and composer born in an artistic fishermen’s town on the Atlantic Coast of the Dominican Republic named Rio San Juan. Luis Alberto Taveras is from a family legacy of musicians being the grandson of a famous composer, poet and founder of the town named Fermin Holguin Bonó. From a very young age he heeded to the call of the arts and theatre and was part of a series of cultural activities, festivals and theatre pieces, in part, directed by his mother, Milagros Holguin. As a young child, his musical mother, a respected composer, teacher and singer herself, encouraged him to explore his adventurous artistic side little by little. He obtained his nickname from fishermen and visiting tourists early on by fearlessly crossing the Gri Gri Lagoon in Rio San Juan.

In 2001, his family moved to the city of Santo Domingo for the career of his beautiful and talented older sister, Marianne Taveras. She already had a Christian music album at just 15 years of age in which one of the songs was the first musical composition of Luis Alberto.

During these formative years in Santo Domingo, Luis Alberto formed his first group named “Lemba” with musician friends from the colonial zone blending reggae and Caribbean fusion music. Lemba played at the Festival, at universities and at different plazas all across the Dominican Republic. In 2005, Luis Alberto had the opportunity to meet Dominican musical legend and composer Luis Dias (El Terror) who became his mentor and close friend. In a small room on Estrelleta Street in Ciudad Nueva, Luis Alberto started to try his hand at music production without any formal training. His first job was sound engineer for Luis Dias on his last album called “Tiempo de Ocio”. At the same time, Luis Alberto recorded his first album called “Olor Tropical” which gave rise to his creativity while exploring rhythms like pop, electronic, reggae and bossanova.

In 2009, Luis Alberto moved back to the North Coast of the Dominican Republic to Cabarete where he becomes better known amongst the locals, expats and foreigners.

He played regularly for 2 years in events, bars and restaurants with excellent musicians from Puerto Plata; Otoniel Vargas, hisdra Alvarez, Abel Gonzales, Daniel Alvarez, Sheldon Sandoval, Kelvin Encarnación, among others. During this time, Luis Alberto recorded his second album called “Luis Taveras & Café con Ron” in his own small home recording studio. In 2011, Luis Alberto and his band were selected as the opening act of Toque Profundo’s anniversary show in the town of Rio San Juan. In 2013, Luis Alberto returned to Santo Domingo permanently to start working on his third album in 2014 and to expand his home recording studio. He also completed online certificates from the Berklee School of Music Production and others.

During the process of the creation of the third album, he gets to know Moises Silfa and they decide to form a band with the main objective of recording live sessions. Through a great friend and fellow musician, Hector David, Luis Alberto becomes acquainted with renowned recording engineer, Allan Leschhorn, and his dream of being able to record his third album with world class professional assistance solidifies. Luis Alberto continued playing live shows in Santo Domingo with his band during this period. In 2016, a series of live sessions were recorded together with Moises Silfa (drums), René Napoleón (bass), Jesus Nuñez (percussion), and Isaac Hernández, (lead guitar) at Terranota Studios. The third album named “Al Ritmo del Sol” was completed professionally in October 2016. This album is a multi-faceted tropical journey of Caribbean fusions where different rhythms like soca, calypso, bachata, cumbia, dancehall, kompa, merengue and others surprise and hypnotize.