Johnny Ventura

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Juan de Dios Ventura Soriano, better known by his stage name, Johnny Ventura, was born in Santo Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic, on the 8th of March in 1940. Son of a modest family, he dreamt in his childhood to become the best Dominican architect, however, on the 2nd of June 1965, his life and dreams took a big turn. On that day, as a result of a juvenile impulse which couldn't be stopped, he presented himself with some friends in a program of devotees which was broadcast by La Voz de la Alegria weekly. The young Soriano, only 16 years of age, obtained first place of the participants. A little after that he started appearing in the programs of devotees which were sponsored by La Voz Dominicana, in those programs scholarships were awarded for the winners to study music at a college allied with the company, the losers left the competition with a gruesome bellringing. When Ventura Soriano appeared for the first time in the televisionshow: La TV busca una estrella, that was broadcast Friday night at seven, they rang the bell. In the following week, like a champion, Juan de Dios returned to be welcomed in the same competition. He practiced, worked and was crowned for the hit. Then he won first price. Thereupon he won a lot of prices in the devotees programs, until he was finally rewarded with the much desired scholarship which the broadcasting company, property of José Arismende Trujillo Molina, gave for young talents. With La Voz Dominicana Juan de Dios studied music, vocal techniques and expression.

In 1959, Juan de Dios decided to take on his surname Johnny Ventura. He started to make his first steps 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 the Combo Cribe 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 12 songs which gained great popularity. In 1963 Johnny Ventura was recruited by the famous Papa Molina to join La Super Orquesta San José, which he directed at that time. He joined as singer and as player of the "güra". For 2 years Ventura was part of La Super Orquesta with stars like Vinicio Franco and Grecia Aquino and, although unfortunately not one record remained of this group, this period was a landmark in the career of the singer. In 1964, the Cuban empresario Angel Guinea insisted on Johnny Ventura to create his own orchestra, which we today still know, as an important part of the history of popular Dominican music, as the Combo Show. In 1965, with his orchestra, Ventura recorded for the Fonogram label the album La coquetona, La resbalosa and El turun tun tun. In 1967 he travelled to the United States, where he immediately became a hit. Puerto Rico, Colombia, Curaçao hailed him since then and with the song La muerte de Martin, with the voice of Luis Marti, the Combo Show made their first golden record with Ah no, yo no sé no.

Over more than forty years Juan de Dios Ventura Soriano, better known as Johnny Ventura, consolidated a work, that is now a part of American music heritage, as the roots of the continent. With all this written, the citizen Ventura, understood that his talents could expand to other domains, a lot further than music, and he participated in his country's politics, where he occupied some important public places.