In the midst of the mambo dance craze, some time between 19, Viloria was introduced to Puerto Rican record promoter and Ansonia Records founder Rafael “Ralph” Pérez through Dominican singer Manolita Rojas. His first recording sessions took place that same year in Cuba where he recorded two boleros, “Ballerina” and “Granada,” under the name “Ángel Viloria y su ritmos” for the New York label Margo Records. Viloria also worked as a pianist for Radio Hispana WLIB in 1949. Nicholas Ballroom in the “El Merengue en N.Y.'' festival. The first iteration of his group Conjunto Tipico Cibaeño was called El Conjunto Cibaeño, which debuted on Octoat the St. Shortly after, in 1948, Viloria immigrated to New York City to escape Rafael Trujillo’s dictatorship and seek better opportunities.īy March 1948, Viloria had emerged on the New York music scene playing piano gigs for local cultural and civic Latin American-Spanish Caribbean clubs. In 1946, Viloria was the musical director of the orquesta Tropical led by composer Luis Rivera, performing at the Ariete café located in Santo Domingo (1). In 1938, he played piano with Agustín Ovalle’s orquesta “La Benefactor” in Cuidad Trujillo (Santo Domingo) - both the orchestra and the capital city were named in honor of dictator Rafael Trujillo, who ruled the Dominican Republic from 1930-1961. Viloria was born on Jin Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic to Belisa Perez and Maximiliano Viloria, a musician who played the accordion. He led the most successful merengue group outside of the Dominican Republic and helped popularize merengue in the United States in the early 1950s. Ángel Salvador Viloria, popularly known as Ángel Viloria, was a Dominican accordionist, pianist, composer, and bandleader who established his career in New York City during the late 1940s and 1950s.
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