Yasser Tejeda, in search for the Dominican hidden musical treasure
Yasser Tejeda is a Santo Domingo born composer, guitarist, vocalist, producer, and musical educator, residing in New York, USA, since 2013. Him, and his band Palotré, are known for their unique approach to our country’s Afro-Dominican traditional musical genres, like Palo, Salve and Sarandunga, wich they fuse with jazz and rock. Together they are one of the spearheads of the contemporary renaissance of Dominican creators, that aim to embrace all aspects of our musical heritage, beyond the mainstream.
He has released two commercial albums, Kijombo (2019) and Mezclansa (2009), and recently an acoustic EP called Interior (2021). He has collaborated with national musicians, like Toné Vicioso & Vicente García, and international artists, of the likes of Sotomayor (Mexico) and Jeremy Bosch (Puerto Rico), the Grammy award winning musician, composer and producer.
In 2019, Billboard described his music as "a frenzied celebration of ancestral union". His debut album Mezclansa was labeled as one of the “100 essential recordings of Dominican music” by the Dominican Association of Art Chroniclers (Acroarte), and his second album Kijombo received six awards from Dominican Republic's indie awards 'Premios Indie,' including Best Album.
Yasser himself sees his music as “Afro-Dominican”. In an interview with the Chicago Tribune Newspaper, when speaking about Dominican music, he explains that “we are more than Merengue and Bachata”. He continues, “what we are doing is uncovering a hidden treasure… the one that belongs to the ‘other’ Dominican Republic”. His dream is to motivate a new generation of musicians to continue to explore these traditions.
We invite you to discover Yasser Tejeda & Palotré’s music by taking a look at his 2021 NPR Tiny Desk Concert. Disclaimer: it will be hard not to start dancing.
