Juan Luis Guerra and 4.40

Juan Luis Guerra's band, 4.40, takes its name from the universal tuning pattern of the A note, 4.40 hertz. The name was chosen, by Guerra's brother José Gilberto, as a reference to their obsession with staying in perfect tune. This musical fixation led Guerra and 4.40's bandmates, all natives of...

By Ryan Brown

March 23, 2006

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Juan Luis Guerra's band, 4.40, takes its name from the universal tuning pattern of the A note, 4.40 hertz. The name was chosen, by Guerra's brother José Gilberto, as a reference to their obsession with staying in perfect tune. This musical fixation led Guerra and 4.40's bandmates, all natives of the Dominican Republic, to create the third-best-selling album in Latin America in 1988, Ojalá Que Llueva Café, and in 1991, to release Bachata Ros, which became a hit throughout the Americas and won Guerra his first Grammy in the U.S. Fogaraté was another smash; released in 1995, it incorporated more of the increasingly popular sound of African soukous music. Their 1998 release, Ni Es Lo Mismo Ni Es Igual, garnered Guerra three Grammys for Best Merengue Performance, Best Tropical Song for "El Niagara en Bicicleta," and for Best Engineered Album at the first annual Latin Grammy Awards in fall 2000.

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