Music in Freeport

A little bit of bachata, and a lot of merengue

By Reine Bethany

Louis Cordero made many around him proud after learning he earned an apprenticeship grant from the New York State Council on the Arts.

The arts council uses its apprenticeship program to safeguard and revitalize community folk arts and cultural heritage.

The Freeport-based musician actually formed his first band in Santo Domingo, about 90 miles south from the small Dominican Republic city of Tenares where Cordero grew up. He moved to New York in 1978, and has recorded his own unique music since 1987.

Cordero has written more than 300 songs — many of them humorous, romantic and topical. He has performed in churches, nightclubs and other venues, and has become a popular musician in the local scene.

With this grant, Cordero will mentor his son Edy, daughter Rosa Reyes, and her husband, Felix, in the Dominican traditions of bachata and merengue.

“Since I was very young, I have always loved music,” the older Cordero said. “I would always hear my father singing, and those songs stuck in my head. I would learn them and sing them from the time I was very young.”

When Cordero got a little older, he saved up and bought a guitar, figuring out how to play on his own.

All the apprentices are learning how to compose a song based on their observations of life in the Dominican Republic today. They will explore original bachata and merengue compositions by Luis, all culminating in a final performance somewhere in the greater Freeport community.

In the end, Luis hopes his rather familiar apprentices will pick up the musical stylings from back home in a way similar to his own — by dedicated listening and by creating his own works, based on what he heard.

“I would go to where the great musicians were playing,” he said. “I didn’t go to dance. I only went to watch how they played, and to learn what they did. To ask them questions. And little by little, I learned.”

Courtesy Long Island Traditions Photo: Luis Cordero, right, and apprentices Felix Reyes, Rosa Reyes and Edy Cordero, benefit from a New York State Council for the Arts apprenticeship grant.